Amaris Hospitality to rebrand 21 UK hotels and invest £100m

Newly established hospitality group Amaris Hospitality has today announced its intention to rebrand 21 hotels from its 89-strong portfolio. The group, which was set up by US-based private equity firm Lone Star and is believed to be worth £2bn, also said that it would invest £100m in the transformation and refurbishment of these hotels. It said that the decision follows a “comprehensive” strategic review of the company’s portfolio by the management team in an effort to maximise its performance and growth opportunities. Currently over 50 of the group’s 89 hotels trade under leading brands including its own brand Jurys Inn, AccorHotels brands such as Mercure and MGallery, and Hilton brands such as DoubleTree and Hilton Garden Inn. The rebranding and investment programme will include: The conversion of 21 hotels which currently form part of The Hotel Collection to Jurys Inn, Mercure and a leading international upmarket brand. Increasing the scale and footprint of the Jurys Inn chain from 28 to 36 hotels by adding eight strategically located hotel properties in key cities and airports to its portfolio. Following the signing of a commercial agreement with AccorHotels, rebranding 11 of these hotels to the AccorHotels Mercure brand, bringing the total number of Amaris Hospitality hotels trading under AccorHotels brands to 32. Rebranding the Glasgow City Hotel, Glasgow, the iconic Carlton Hotel, Edinburgh to a leading international upmarket brand in 2016. Committing an ambitious £100m of capital investment to the transformation, refurbishment and rebranding of these hotels in 2015 and 2016. John Brennan, CEO of Amaris Hospitality, said: “I am delighted to announce the results of our detailed, hotel by hotel, strategic review, which sets out our vision for Amaris Hospitality’s future as one of the UK’s most significant owner of hotel properties and operator of a well invested, modernised portfolio of branded hotels.” “The rebranding and repositioning of these hotels is a key part of our strategy to leverage the size and scale of the unique Amaris Hospitality portfolio of hotel assets to accelerate its growth and development and create the UK’s best performing, most exciting hospitality investment and management company.” Amaris Hospitality said it expects to complete the rebranding and investment programme by the end of 2016.