In September, BigHospitality reported that the entire Mint Hotel portfolio was acquired by Hilton Worldwide’s owning company Blackstone, using around £230m of equity, £300m debt from Deutsche bank and £75m from Duet Real Estate Finance.
Hilton Worldwide has today announced that the hotels in Westminster, Tower Bridge, Leeds, Manchester and Amsterdam will be DoubleTree by Hiltons, while the sites in Glasgow, Bristol and Birmingham will be a part of the mid-scale Hilton Garden Inn brand. All 1,500 employees across the hotels will retain their positions.
Patrick Fitzgibbon, senior vice president of development for Hilton Worldwide Europe and Africa, said: “Hilton Garden Inn and DoubleTree by Hilton brands have tremendous traction across Europe and further demonstrate the momentum we have behind our great global brands.
“These eight fantastic additions to our company’s portfolio will promptly join our DoubleTree by Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn brands with a fast-track transition programme that aims to see all hotels fully integrated into our Hilton Worldwide systems in the coming weeks.”
Brand expansion
The move brings the total number of hotels managed by Hilton Worldwide to more than 100 properties in the UK and more than 220 hotels and resorts across Europe. The full-service DoubleTree by Hilton now has 25 sites open in 10 countries across Europe, while the new Hilton Garden Inn hotels join another 15 across Europe, including two in the UK.
Rob Palleschi, global head of DoubleTree by Hilton, said: “These five city centre properties in the UK and the Netherlands already have outstanding service and product attributes to represent the DoubleTree by Hilton brand. We look forward to creating rewarding experiences for the world’s travellers in each of these fine locations.”
Other UK hotel additions under Hilton Worldwide in the near future will include Hampton by Hilton London Croydon, DoubleTree by Hilton Newcastle Airport and DoubleTree by Hilton Lincoln.