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Bits: Nottingham Belfry leaves Marriott, The Hoxton hits Edinburgh, BA Marseille lounge woes

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News in brief:

Delta Hotels Nottingham Belfry leaves Marriott

As we have covered in earlier articles, the QHotels group seems to be slowly breaking all of its branding agreements as the contracts come up for renewal.

In late 2024, QHotels rebranded DoubleTree by Hilton Glasgow Westerwood Spa & Golf Resort, DoubleTree by Hilton Oxford Belfry and Delta Hotels Cheltenham Chase.

The group went into 2025 with just two branded properties – DoubleTree by Hilton Stratford Upon Avon and Delta Hotels by Marriott Nottingham Belfry.

In late June, readers with bookings at Nottingham Belfry – which has been with Marriott since 2019 – received emails saying that the hotel would operate independently from 1st July 2025. Stays from that date, they were told, would not earn Bonvoy points or elite night credits, and elite status would not be recognised.

Fair enough …. except, oddly, Delta Hotels Nottingham Belfry is still bookable on the Marriott website. It’s not clear what’s going on there, especially as the hotel now has its own booking website up and running.

It is no longer possible to book redemption nights via marriott.com so it is possible that Marriott has a clause in its contract to allow it to keep selling cash nights for a commission for a while longer.

It always seems short-sighted when hotels change brands and then refuse to recognise your old elite status benefits. Nottingham Belfry appears to have been honoring benefits for a week – until 7th July – but no later.

How can you justify emailing someone who went to the trouble of choosing your hotel to tell them that they can no longer have an upgrade, free breakfast and/or late check-out? A decent percentage of people will simply cancel their booking, purely because the hotel refuses to provide benefits it was happy to fund a few weeks ago ….

Let’s see how long DoubleTree Stratford Upon Avon remains a branded property, given that all other QHotels have now reverted to the parent name.

Nottingham Belfry hotel drops Delta branding

The Hoxton hits Edinburgh

The Hoxton, which is part of Accor’s Ennismore collection of lifestyle brands, has opened its first Scottish hotel in Edinburgh.

The Hoxton has been on a rapid expansion since it merged to create Ennismore in 2020 and is nearing 20 hotels, including four in London (we reviewed The Hoxton Southwark, here). Other recent openings include Vienna, Florence and Copenhagen.

The Hoxton Edinburgh is located in the West End and took over 11 Georgian “inspired” terraced houses which previously housed the Hilton Grosvenor. 214 rooms are split across both sides of Grosvenor Street, with 150 in the main building and the remaining 64 across the street.

As with many Hoxtons, the smallest room types include ‘Snug Singles’ and ‘Bunk’ rooms. It is the second Hoxton to feature its new ‘House’ three bed / three bath suite for up to seven guests.

The Hoxton Edinburgh is part of the Dis-loyalty loyalty scheme. This is a subscription based program with multiple benefits (but no points) including discounted room rates, free coffees and more.

You get 50% off all stays at new Ennismore hotels for the first three months after opening as a Dis-loyalty member, including The Hoxton Edinburgh. By my calculation this would run until 23rd September. The hotel website is here.

The Hoxton hotel hits Edinburgh

Marseille lounge woes for British Airways passengers

Marseille Provence Airport opened a new terminal extension designed by Foster + Partners last year. The extension almost doubled the size of the airport and allowed it to refurbish the existing building, including the non-Schengen departure lounge.

The lounge has been closed since December 2024 but re-opened in early June.

Bizarrely, despite the six month lounge closure, it appears BA and the airport have not agreed a contract to allow access for BA status passengers and those flying in Club Europe. Instead BA is offering €20 vouchers. According to a reader, John, the voucher “can only be redeemed at one outlet after passport control:”

“This miserly voucher doesn’t quite cover one glass of wine plus one sandwich plus one bottle of chilled water. There is no way to escape the noise and bustle of the general departure area.”

Meanwhile the lounge itself (having to turn away unsuspecting BA passengers who have not necessarily been informed of the lack of lounge) has resorted to encouraging passengers to complain to BA, saying:

“We sincerely apologise that your boarding pass does not allow you to access the lounge and benefit from the services offered.

“We understand your frustration and encourage you to contact British Airways customer service via their website or by calling the BA Club with any complaints regarding this ineligibility.”

A big QR code on the laminated sheet then takes you to the appropriate page on the BA website.

British Airways has had six months to agree to a contract with the new lounge, so it seems weak that nothing was in place when it opened. We reached out to BA for an update but have not received a response to date.

Comments (26)

  • Barrel for Scraping says:

    Is the Hoxton Edinburgh the old Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor (hasn’t been a Hilton for a while)? The description of the hotel sounds right as it was split across the street

    As for lounges, it’s certainly not unusual for BA to not offer a lounge even if the airport provides one. Check the oneworld lounge finder before travelling to save disappointment. Of course if there’s a lounge and BA don’t use it then complain to BA as enough pressure and they normally come to an agreement or at least throw a few Avios your way. Some airports have lounges that are not part of Priority Pass or similar schemes. For example Brindisi (BDS) has an airport operated lounge which doesn’t (yet?) accept lounge passes and its only clients are currently ITA and the rest of Lufthansa Group. BA passengers including those with a Priority Pass were denied entry.

  • Stu_N says:

    For those with reasonably long memories,
    The Hoxton is a (hopefully top to bottom) refurb of the Hilton Grosvenor. It’s 2 mins from Haymarket Station but not really that central – that said, Edinburgh isn’t big and you could walk to most places of touristic interest in half an hour from there.

    • TJ says:

      Yes, from the description I thought it was the old Hilton.

    • Judge says:

      Yes it was completely gutted. In fact they are still finishing the rooms off in the Lansdowne Crescent half of the main building. And the bit across the road (which used to be a club) is still at the building works stage, presumably not far away from completion.

  • Erico1875 says:

    Had my wedding night there nearly 40 years ago when it was a Stakis

  • PeteM says:

    Presumably the Marseille issue is down to how much the lounge operator values a passenger at versus what BA would like to pay them, rather than a lack of effort 🤣

    • JDB says:

      €20 seems like a pretty generous alternative and represents a meaningful % of many cash fares, economy or club.

      • PeteM says:

        But “there is no way to escape the noise and bustle of the general departure area”!

      • AJA says:

        It doesn’t sound very generous if it barely buys you a glass of wine, a sandwich and a bottle of water. Also shows you what a rip off airport pricing can be.

        It also makes a mockery of BA’s advertised benefits of paying for Club Europe.

        A voucher is fair enough if there’s no lounge available but that’s not the case here. You have to wonder how much the lounge operator is charging for BA to risk its reputation (such as it is) by not agreeing a deal. It also shows that BA still hasn’t got rid of its cost cutting DNA.

        • Nick says:

          I don’t know in this specific case, but typically when this happens it’s because the lounge operator insists on charging BA far more than other airports do, and the lounge quality doesn’t justify it. Tbf I don’t object to BA standing up for themselves and not just giving in to whatever they demand – after all, everyone complains when BA charges more to captive audiences – and hopefully it will be resolved soon.

          In MRS the voucher can be used at most outlets before passport control (in Schengen, not just landside), and many offer better value than the example given. This is no different from airports where the only lounge is non-Schengen so there isn’t really any reason to put up with bad value.

          • AJA says:

            I have no objection to BA refusing to be gouged on price in the same way as I would refuse to fly on BA if they gouged me on price too. But how can BA decide that a lounge which is being refurbished isn’t worth the price until the refurb is completed? Do you think BA will now negotiate access for its customers? Or is it a voucher for the foreseeable? As for the opportunity to use it in places before passport control that assumes people are given that advice when they receive the voucher and they have sufficient time to use it and still go through passport control into the non-schengen area.

        • JDB says:

          @AJA – if you get a voucher, you can usually spend it on something more useful than a nasty glass of wine like a book. €20 is a big chunk of the net fare.

          As an accountant do you not think it is appropriate for BA to have cost cutting in its DNA at least for the European business?

  • Paul says:

    Good to know that when HfP reaches out to BA they get the same response as the poor Sid’s who fly with them

  • chelseafifi says:

    If flying CE and the airport (Kos) doesn’t have a lounge, does BA offer any vouchers to use at airport?

    • Carole Crookes says:

      You get nothing for being in business at kos airport! I fly through there a lot and every time I write to BA with the suggestion that they give vouchers, been writing a couple of years now as you get no fast track security, no fast track immigration and boy is there a queue, no priority boarding….everyone queues for the bus and no lounge. Last trip they had 4 check in desks for economy and one for business. Economy passengers sailing through so not even that to justify the extortionate price of the ticket. It doesn’t seem fare that they will give vouchers if they have lounge access but it’s closed for refurb but not if there’s no lounge at all. 8.50 euro for a small wine!

      • Dubious says:

        Do you fly through there a lot in economy or business class? Can hardly blame BA for not pushing the airport more if it doesn’t loose them any customers.

        • AJA says:

          Not sure that’s a good justification from BA. It’s the same justification BA has used to push through its BAC changes.

        • Carole Crookes says:

          Fly through there a lot. Always in business in the hope that somethings changed!

      • NorthernLass says:

        They don’t even give vouchers any more to CW pax at GCM who’ve paid £3k for their flight!

  • OnTheRun says:

    Good on the Marseille lounge operator for taking the time to direct people to the correct complaints channel, and for not letting its staff bear the brunt of it all.

  • JD says:

    I think that its likely that the DoubleTree Stratford Upon Avon remians for a while as its the only Hilton property in Stratford. The new Motto that was planned for the center of town was scrapped yesterday…
    https://www.stratford-herald.com/news/pl
    anned-hotel-development-scrapped-for-stratford-debenhams-s-9424827/
    (behind a paywall – but keep hitting refresh until it disappears)

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