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Europe’s largest privately owned hostel chain A&O Hostels has opened a second UK property in Brighton, marking its 39th site across Europe.
A&O Brighton features 50 rooms with a total of 186 beds, a Victorian-style lobby bar and a restaurant overlooking the Brighton Pier.
The Regency-style hostel building, once served as a hotel in 1819 and reportedly welcomed the likes of Charles Dickens among others.
The hostel group is renowned for opening properties in previously occupied buildings as part of their sustainability drive, with the Brighton property most recently used as a youth hostel. The company aims to be Europe’s first net-zero hostel chain in 2025.
A&O Brighton is open for stays, and there are plans to invest a further €1.45m (£1.24m) towards the staged modernisation of the property in the winter months.
The opening marks the latest in a list of new developments, following the opening of A&O Rotterdam in 2022, A&O Edinburgh City in 2021 and A&O Firenze Campo di Marte (Florence) later this year.
Oliver Winter, founder of A&O Hostels, said: “The property is a true gem, and we are extremely excited about this special new addition to our European portfolio.The building carries an incredible history, great architecture, very good accessibility and of course a superb location with plenty to be explored.
“We want sustainable growth with locations and properties that work in the long term and will be attractive destinations for our guests for years to come. We don’t have set criteria for the size of the properties we open, more so the potential to open locations which have heart and soul.”
