Amaris Hospitality to rebrand 21 hotels in £100m investment

Newly created hotel group Amaris Hospitality has announced plans to invest £100m in rebranding 21 hotels from its 89-strong portfolio.

The group - created by American private equity group Lone Star earlier this year - is estimated to be worth around £1.5bn, but Lone Star believes the investment will help the company's value climb to £2bn over the next three to five years.

It's portfolio includes 28 Jury's Inn Hotels acquired by Lone Star for £680m in January this year, 21 Mercure properties, 17 Hotel Collection and 19 Thistle hotel sites.

Plans for the investment include increasing the scale of the successful Jurys Inn chain from 28 to 36 hotels by adding eight properties in key cities and airports sites. 

Eleven sites will be rebranded to the AccorHotels Mercure brand, bringing the total number of Amaris sites trading under the AccorHotels banner to 32.

The Glasgow City Hotel and the Carlton Hotel Edinburgh will also be redeveloped under a ‘leading international upmarket brand’ in 2016.

John Brennan, CEO of Amaris Hospitality, said the investment was part of the group’s plans to become ‘the most significant’ hotel owner in the UK.

“The rebranding and repositioning of these hotels is a key part of our strategy to leverage the size and scale of the unique Amaris Hospitality portfolio of hotel assets, to accelerate its growth and development, and create the UK’s best performing, most exciting hospitality investment and management company,” he said.

Amaris Hospitality expects to complete its investment programme by the end of 2016.

The remaining Hotel Collection properties not subject to rebranding will form a portfolio of UK provincial hotels led by current managing director Peter Manby.