The UK capital's bed-stock is set to soar with 20,000 hotel rooms planned by 2012.
London currently boasts in excess of 100,000 bedrooms, as well as an additional 17,000 university beds. Over the next three years, new openings are planned by, amongst others, Hilton, Starwood, Shangri-La Hotel Group and Park Plaza. Refurbishments to existing facilities and events space are also being implemented by properties such as Novotel and Whitbread.
Eagerly anticipated hotel projects include Shangri-La Hotel Group's Shard, scheduled for completion in London Bridge by 2012 and Starwood's W brand, planned for Leicester Square.
The 94,389m², 72-storey Shard tower will be Europe's tallest and provide office, hotel, residential and leisure space. The 194-room five-star W Hotel will form part of a £200m development underway on a half-acre site in the heart of the West End. The 19,509m² building, due to open in Spring 2010 will also include retail, leisure, ten W-branded residences plus health and fitness facilities.
Park Plaza's Westminster Bridge property will open in 2010 and offer 2,500m² of meeting space. Hilton will also open two more London properties in 2010 and spend more than £3m on refurbishments at the London Metropole on Edgware Road towards the end of this year.
A 350-room Hilton Heathrow T5 will compliment Hilton's existing 395-room property located at Terminal 4 and provide nine meeting rooms and 650m² of conference space. A 400-room property is also currently under construction at Wembley and will be operated by Maple Hotels Management Company, a subsidiary of Hilton.
Meanwhile, Novotel London West is refurbishing its ground-floor Chablis Suite so that it can divide into events space for 300 delegates in each divided area. The hotel, situated on the main tube line to London Heathrow airport is also planning to open up its ground floor area and provide an alternative conference check-in point to ensure it meets the needs of delegates and organisers.
And Whitbread has announced plans to add 1,200 rooms to its Premier Inn portfolio. Three existing hotels have been acquired from the Real Hotel Company, while a further three properties are to be developed at Waterloo, Ealing and Old Street for completion in 2011.
