THE owners of a new budget hotel brand which chose Glasgow for its inaugural opening has revealed it is homing in on sites in Edinburgh for its next launch in Scotland.
The first Point A Hotel, at the corner of Bath Street and Hope Street, has just opened its doors following a £10 million, 10-month refurbishment of the former Polaroid office block.
The family-owned commercial property firm Queensway Group, which owns the brand, said the Glasgow venture was quickly followed by a portfolio of six hotels in London, the last of which opened in Shoreditch last night. It means the company has built up a chain with more than 1,000 rooms under the Point A brand.
And London-based Queensway signalled its plans to open in the Scottish capital, having secured a £6.7m finance package from Allied Irish Bank, alongside partnerships with the Wellcome Trust and Fifty Seven 7. Allied Irish funded around half of the £10m investment in the Glasgow site.
Chief executive Naushad Jivraj, whose company runs a hotel under the Tune brand in Edinburgh, said: “We’d like to have a Point A brand in Edinburgh, so we are looking at opportunities there. Glasgow and Edinburgh are the target cities for the time being. We’ll see how things go from there.”
Mr Jivraj noted it was difficult to find sites in Edinburgh but added: “We’re very opportunistic. When opportunities come along we will look at them.”
Queensway has recruited 25 staff from the local area to work in the 122-bedroom Glasgow hotel, which will target the corporate and leisure market.
The hotel’s design was devised to reflect its home city. Features include a £30,000 installation by Timorous Beasties, the Glasgow textiles and wallpaper designer, which covers an entire wall behind the reception area.
Mr Jivraj, who said the company had targeted the city because of its growing reputation for major conferences and events, noted that the role of the hotel is primarily as a “facilitator”.
He explained travellers will largely come to the hotel not because it is a destination in its own right but to “help them what they do next – that’s why we are called Point A.”
He added: “We help them move to ‘point B’, whether they are attending a gig or a presentation with work.”
Prices for the hotel start at £39 per night, though travellers who join its “A list” qualify for a five per cent discount.
Mr Jivraj, who is aiming to open Point A hotels in other major English cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, added: “Point A Glasgow is a launchpad for significant investment across the UK in the coming years.
“Point A Glasgow is an exciting development that gave us the opportunity to design the hotel concept and the rooms in line with the modern travellers’ needs and expectations.
“Our Bath Street location is perfect for visitors to Glasgow, and we’re sure our investment in this part of the city centre will complement the mix of leisure, retail and professional services business in our neighbourhood. This part of the city is on the rise and we are really pleased to be part of its renaissance.”
The backing provided to Queensway by Allied Irish is part of a £50m pipeline of funding the bank has directed into the Scottish leisure market in the last year.
Craig Gebbie, its senior relationship manager in Scotland, said: “Within three months of meeting the Point A Hotels team, we had finance in place and a construction team was appointed to convert the Bath Street office block. As a bank, we enjoy investing in new brands and concepts and we’re looking forward to helping the Point A Hotels team grow the brand in Scotland.”
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