Low-cost hotel chain marks London launch with £35 rooms
A Malaysian hospitality group is aiming to revolutionise the European hotel market by applying Ryanair-style pricing to rooms, including charging for everything from towels to room cleaning.
Tune Hotels is set to open its first UK hotel in Central London at then end of this month. It will offer standard rooms with ensuite at £35 a night. It plans to generate the bulk of its revenue from ancillary charges. Towels will cost £1 a throw, room cleaning £7.50 (or you can do it yourself), luggage storage £2 and using a hair dryer £2.
Following the opening of the Westminster Bridge Road hotel on August 30, there are plans to roll out a further 15 hotels across the capital by 2017. This will create an additional 1,500 rooms and represent a £150million investment in the London’s hospitality sector.
The company’s chief executive Mark Lankester said: “It’s all about choice. We say consumers should assemble the experience as they see fit.
“We aim to provide whatever suits the customer in terms of timing, price and the comfort people require.
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“If you want to stay in a five-star hotel there are plenty of them in London. But if you are worried about price then we are going to be relevant.”
The hotel chain’s founder Tony Fernandes is also behind budget, long-haul airline AirAsia as well as a string of budget hotels in Malaysia and Indonesia, which offer rooms for as little as £2 a night.
Lankester added: “While London’s global reputation as a leisure and business destination will be enhanced by the Olympic Games in 2012, sterling’s current weakness works in London’s favour in attracting overseas visitors and spend.”
“And in times of continuing economic uncertainty, superior value for money remains key.”
“Our limited service concept encourages guests to spend less within the hotel itself, driving more spend outside the hotel, within the local business community.”
Lankester expects half his London hotel’s visitors will be British, with the remainder being European and Malaysian.