The Jurys Inn group has struck a franchise deal with Hilton Worldwide to rebrand three of its prime London hotels as members of the Hilton stable.
Jurys Inn, which is part-owned by Ulster Bank and owns 33 hotels, will spend £20 million as part of the deal to upgrade the properties in Islington, Chelsea and at Heathrow Airport, which will all be rebranded next year.
The Islington and Chelsea properties will next summer adopt the DoubleTree by Hilton moniker, the same upscale four-star brand used by Blackstone earlier this year when it relaunched the Burlington hotel in Dublin. The Heathrow property will become a Hilton Garden Inn in about 12 months.
Franchise arrangement
Jurys Inn will continue to own and operate the hotels, paying a percentage of turnover to Hilton as a franchise fee. The remaining 29 hotels in the group
– in Ireland, Britain and the Czech Republic – will continue to operate under the Jurys Inn brand.
The first hotel to be renovated will be the 172-bed property in Chelsea and will open as a DoubleTree in April. The Islington property is scheduled for completion in October. And the 364-bed Heathrow property will have its bedrooms and public areas renovated before opening as a Hilton Garden Inn in December. Chief executive of Jurys Inn John Brennan said the deal will enable it to boost revenues and prices in three of its most valuable properties.
Premium brand
"We asked ourselves how we could leverage these locations further, but we were never going to give up managing them ourselves," said Mr Brennan.
It would have been too expensive for Jurys Inn to create its own premium brand, so it chose Hilton after talking to other candidates, he added.
The hotels will continue to feature on the Jurys Inn website, as well as Hilton’s global network, after the rebrand.
The group, whose shareholders include Avestus Capital, Oman Investment Fund and Mount Kellett Partners, negotiated a £300 million debt write-off earlier this year from Ulster, IBRC and AIB.
It still owes about £290 million to IBRC, which is marketing its loans. Mr Brennan would not comment, but Jurys Inn is believed to be preparing a bid for its own loans.
