Motel One eyes UK ‘luxury budget’ market

Germany’s Motel One is to enter the fiercely competitive UK budget hotel sector with the launch of its first hotel in Edinburgh later this year.

Motel One

Motel One Edinburgh-Royal will open on Market Street in the city in December. It is the first of several planned for the UK including a second Edinburgh hotel next year and its first London hotel scheduled for 2014.

Billed as a “designer” budget chain, Motel One currently has 39 hotels in Germany and Austria. The brand’s positioning is “great design for little money” with prices at the Edinburgh hotel starting at £69 a night.

The Munich-based chain boasts chairs inspired by the late Danish designer Arne Jacobsen and an ARCO lamp from the design house that carries the name of Italian designer Ahille Castiglionic.

Dieter Muller, chief executive of the Motel One Group, says: “Our product is young and stylish and focuses on three qualities, namely excellent location, affordable prices and high quality design and service.”

The “luxury budget” is a young but growing sub-sector. Motel One will be taking on national brands such as the recently rebranded Accor-owned Ibis Styles and the London-only Z Hotel chain. It will also be competing against Ikea’s mooted stylish but affordable chain when it launches.

Budget hotel chains are enjoying a boon as cash-conscience consumers look to save money during the recession. Whitbread-owned Premier Inn has today (7 September) announced sales increased 13 per cent in the 11 weeks to 16 August.

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