Category: UK

Exclusive Hotels & Venues has opened an £11.5m spa at its South Lodge hotel in Horsham, West Sussex.

The property and gardens were built in the 1800s, now features the new spa has been designed by Sparcstudio in partnership with architects Felce and Guy. The reception overlooks the rhododendron gardens, and facilities include the Ridgeview beauty bar and Grizzly’s grooming bar. The 70-cover Botanica restaurant incorporates a spa lounge and bar.

The spa includes a juniper-infused sauna, a marble-lined salt steam room, an aromatic herbal bath infused with camomile, and 14 treatment rooms. The upper terrace offer relaxation beds, a fire pit and an infinity edge hydropool, while the lower terrace features an 18m long ‘natural’ heated outdoor pool and Champagne pool bar.

A £12m hotel at Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach, the Boulevard hotel, is set to open later this spring with construction work well underway, the hotel boasts 120 bedrooms and is being built on the site of the theme park’s former Star pub next to its existing 157-bedroom Big Blue hotel, which opened in 2003.

The hotel will feature a Beachside restaurant, Ocean bar, Surfside café and Shoreside Conference Centre.

The park was founded in 1896 and has been owned and operated by the Thompson family since its inception.

The Welsh Rugby Union has acquired a building next to the Principality Stadium in Cardiff to transform it into “Cardiff’s most luxurious hotel”.

The former Post Office building on Westgate Street is one of the oldest buildings in the Welsh capital and plans are in place to relaunch it as the Westgate hotel by December 2020.

The property will feature 165 bedrooms, 15 VIP suites, two restaurants, a rooftop spa with outside jacuzzi, as well as meeting facilities and a ballroom for 400 guests. Subject to planning and listed building consent, construction work will begin in the summer.

The Oatlands Park Hotel are currently going through a £10 million refurbishment plan – all 144 bedrooms and hallways are being refurbished, refurbished Mulberry restaurant with new bar, fully enclosed Lawn Terrace (Le Terraza) with retractable roof & bi-folding doors with access to grounds with an ongoing refurbishment to lobby and public areas still proceeding.

– Refurbished meeting rooms – The exclusive York Suite will accommodate 400 Reception and can accommodate and have access for cars launches. It has a separate entrance, reception area, bar & kitchen.

– 12 meeting rooms with facilities for 6 to 400 people. An ideal location for corporate meetings, team building events, marketing opportunities or private dining functions. 

– Book a meeting for up to 100 delegates between 7 January and 31 March and 1 in 10 will go free!

Bliss Hotels has announced plans to launch its first property this year ahead of rolling the brand out nationally.

With the support of a £15m funding package from asset manager ICG, Bliss is refurbishing and rebranding the 133-bedroom Ramada Plaza hotel in Southport, Merseyside, within the city’s Waterfront development. The hotel, which is remaining open during the refurbishment, will be the first in the UK to trade under Wyndham’s Trademark soft brand of independent, upper-midscale hotels.

The refurbishment will see the relaunch of the hotel at the end of the year as the Bliss Hotel Southport, and will see an addition of three new penthouses on the fifth floor, as well as a 3,000 sq ft roof garden, the brand’s concepts including Bliss Kitchen and Blissonik.

Once the first Bliss hotel is established the group intends to target other coastal locations and secondary UK cities, with plans to create a ‘mini chain’ of approximately 10 properties by 2026 both owned and operated.

Jumeirah Group have revealed plans to completely refurbish the Jumeirah Carlton Tower, its flagship hotel in the heart of London’s fashionable Knightsbridge.

The work is expected to begin in September, with a planned completion date of summer 2020. All guestrooms and suites are planned to be completely refurbished to a new level of luxury standards. With the number of keys reducing from 216 to 188 with the introduction of new signature and junior suites which will capitalise on the hotel’s stunning views of the London skyline and the private Cadogan Place Gardens.

When the hotel opened as The Carlton Tower in 1961, the hotel gained an international reputation as a beacon of British style and sophistication and was the first modern five-star property to open in London’s chic Knightsbridge district, and at the time, was the tallest hotel in London.

Jumeirah currently has a global portfolio of 24 luxury hotels, including the iconic Burj Al Arab Jumeirah in Dubai and the Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel and Grosvenor House Suites by Jumeirah Living, in London.