easyHotel has its first franchisee in London who will open the second easyHotel in the Capital
posted: May 8, 2006

The Splendid Hotel Group has become the first easyHotel franchisee in London. The group will convert their property at 36-40 Belgrave Road, Victoria, into a seventy eight room easyHotel. Previously the property was the 50 room Easton Hotel hotel and will now undergo refurbishment, opening as an easyHotel towards the end of 2006. The easyHotel in Victoria will be the second easyHotel in London - easyHotel in Lexham Gardens W8, which is owned and operated by the easyGroup, opened in August 2005.

The Splendid Hotel Group are professional hotel franchise operators and already have a variety of branded budget hotels in their portfolio. Any potential easyHotel franchisees are invited to visit the franchise section of www.easyHotel.com.

easyHotel provides a safe, clean, private en-suite room for the night at the best possible price. The concept is designed for urban centres where property prices are high. easyHotel manages to fit more of their custom designed, modular rooms into an available space than can currently be managed by a competitor. In other words, consumers are offered less space for a better price and easyHotel generally costs about half the price of another branded budget hotel in an urban centre. The current easyHotel in London in Lexham Gardens W8, which is owned and operated by the easyGroup, has en-suite rooms which start at £30 a night. These rooms are between 60 and 80 square feet in size and all are air conditioned. Some of the rooms have windows and these rooms tend to sell at a £10 premium over the windowless rooms. The easyHotel in Victoria will remain brand consistent and will follow this kind of format.

easyHotel currently has two hotels in operation - Lexham Gardens in London and Basel, Switzerland which is operated by an easyHotel franchisee. Last week it was announced that easyHotel had signed a master franchise for a chain of 38 hotels in India, the Middle East and North Africa and now easyHotel has its first franchisee in London. All future growth of easyHotel globally, including the UK, will be through franchising.

"The easyHotel brand is immediately understood by all consumers who are paying out of their own pocket," said Stelios the easyGroup chairman and founder of easyHotel. "easyHotel Victoria will have the great combination of the strength of the 'easy' brand combined with the operational expertise of The Splendid Hotel Group."

"We are delighted to be working with Stelios and the easyGroup as their first franchise partner in the UK," explains Shiraz Boghani, managing partner of Splendid Hotel Group. "As a major hotel operator used to working with the leading hotel brands, it is really exciting to be leading the expansion of the well-recognised 'easy' brand. For our own part we already operate over 1200 rooms in 4 different franchised brands and this provides us with even greater coverage."