Not enough hotels, says Days Inn general manager

Liverpool requires more hotels due to demand created by conferences and events, according to the general manager of the Days Inn hotel ahead of its opening in the city in April.

The Days Inn hotel, located in former offices in James Street and designed by Falconer Chester Hall, will add a further 154 bedrooms to Liverpool's hotel market and is one of two in the city being worked on by leisure operator Sanguine Hospitality.

Paris D'Allessandro, general manager at the hotel, who has 11 years' experience of working in the industry in the city centre, said: "We have 100% occupancy during the five days when the Royal College of Nursing's Congress runs at the Liverpool Arena & Convention Centre in April, which attracts 4,000 delegates, and we're also full for the Labour Party Conference, arriving to the ACC in September."

Principle contractor Heyford Construction and sub-contractor Denizen will hand over the hotel on 7 March to Sanguine and D'Allessandro and his team will stock £250,000 of deliveries, including bins, food and alcohol, before the hotel opens on 1 April.

Figures released by Liverpool Vision in early February, showed 430 bedrooms in total were added to Liverpool's hotel market last year, with 302 of them located in the city centre.

Based on hotels currently under construction, the report said the capacity will increase to 4,572 bedrooms in the city centre by December 2011.

This included the new Travelodge, currently under construction fronting The Strand, offering 141 bedrooms, and Illiad's five star boutique hotel El Layla in Dale Street offering 83 bedrooms.

D'Allessandro adds: "I'm all for embracing more hotels because when you think of events like the Labour conference attracting between 6,000 and 10,000 delegates, 4,500 bedrooms isn't enough."

Vision's report said the average room rate in hotels across all of Liverpool fell from £64.48 in 2009 to £62.11 in 2010, increasing occupancy levels by 0.4% to 69.8%.

D'Allessandro said: "There are other hotels that do sell rooms at a lower rate to us but our rate strategy involves working with organisations like The Mersey Partnership and looking at the visitor economy. When a conference or event comes to the city it isn't about pushing rates up but about thinking strategically and seeing if they will help bring conferences back to Liverpool.

"We have an offer on at the moment running until the end of March. Anyone booking a room for any day between July and August can get one for £50 which includes breakfast and Wi-Fi.

"If your hotel is doing well and your rate strategy is right then there is no reason why more hotels should not be opened in Liverpool."

Sanguine owns and operates the Days Inn hotel in Liverpool under a franchise agreement with Days Inn Worldwide, a subsidiary of Wyndham Worldwide Corporation.

Sanguine also operates Hotel Indigo in Chapel Street, Liverpool city centre, for the Intercontinental group.

Sanguine announced £300,000 of bookings are already secured at the 151-bedroom hotel prior to its launch in June.