25 April 2022
Most people in Nuneaton will now be aware that a hotel is being built on part of the Abbey Street car park in the town centre.
The 145 bedroom hotel that is coming to Nuneaton will be a ‘Hampton by Hilton’ hotel, which we understand is the budget to midscale end of the Hilton chain. The important point is that it will be run by ‘Hampton by Hilton’ but it is being built by the Council (well, to be totally accurate, by BAM Construct Ltd on behalf of the Council.) What does this mean? Basically all the risk is being taken by the Council.
We hope it will be successful BUT we do have serious concerns.
1. The business case was developed before the pandemic. So much has changed since then and yet the business plan was not revised before going ahead.
2. The hotel is one of the first things that is starting construction under the many projects to transform Nuneaton but this means that those staying at the hotel will be staying by a building site so not exactly a selling point.
3. It is far too big which will make it hard to get good occupancy rate.
4. It will have high running costs as they seem to have excluded solar panels and heat pumps from the design.
A similar but slightly smaller hotel was built 4 years ago by Stockton-on-Tees Borough council which had these problems. Read about that story here.
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