Ten months after announcing its partnership with the American hospitality chain Marriott International, the Swedish furniture giant Ikea has named the British location for its first joint venture budget hotel.
Branded as Moxy Hotels, the partnership’s first UK low-cost hotel will be close to Heathrow Airport. Inter Hospitality Holding — part of the IKEA Group — has bought a 3.5 acre site on the Bath Road opposite the airport from the asset management firm Schroders and a private company for an undisclosed price.
Simon Horner is a director of GCW which has been advising Inter Hospitality on site acquisition. “The Heathrow location is a sizeable plot, in a prominent location, and on what is known as ‘hotel alley’,” he said. “The cleared site has planning permission for a 422-bed hotel and we believe that various options for the site are being considered.”
The partners are also understood to have reached an agreement to open a 250-bed hotel next year at Westfield’s Stratford shopping centre in east London. The capital’s third Moxy Hotel, this time aimed at London City Airport users, has already been earmarked for London’s Royal Docks with a fourth planned for Liverpool sometime in 2016. Other UK cities being considered are Edinburgh, York, Inverness and Cardiff.
Inter Hospitality announced last March that it had signed an agreement with Marriott International to jointly roll out Moxy Hotels across Europe with a strong emphasis on the UK market. The first Moxy Hotel — launched as a head on challenge to the Ibis domination of the budget sector — will open close to Milan’s Malpensa airport this year, with rooms priced at between €60 and €80 [£49 and £66] a night.
The group’s master plan involves the opening of 150 Moxy Hotels over the next ten years with locations across Europe all getting developments near airport, transport hubs or key tourist sites. All the hotels will be built with an “IKEA” approach including pre-manufactured rooms complete with flat-pack fittings, manufactured in Italy.
Peter Andrews, managing director of Inter Hospitality, commented: “The agreement with Marriott gives us a great opportunity to use our development expertise to build a high-quality hotel property investment portfolio.”
Arne Sorenson is president and chief executive officer at Marriott International. His vision of a Moxy Hotel visitor is of the “next generation traveler … people with a younger sensibility, for whom contemporary style is paramount”. So far his company has put in more than two years research to deliver what he believes is the right mix of low-cost and comfort.
“Every aspect of the hotel was thoughtfully researched and crafted to reflect and deliver on the changing lifestyles and expectations of this fast-growing customer segment,” explained Sorenson. “We believe Marriott will lead the way in redefining the traditional economy hotel experience throughout Europe and we are thrilled to be able to launch the brand with a dedicated real estate partner and an experienced operator.”
