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Hotel bits: Arora buys Bloc at Gatwick, IHG’s Hotel Indigo Leeds opens

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Hotels news in brief:

Arora Group acquires Bloc Hotels

Arora Group, best known for its UK airport hotels (it also owns Fairmont Windsor Park and InterContinental London The O2) has bought Bloc Hotels. The price has not been disclosed.

Bloc Hotels is best known for the 245-room Bloc Gatwick. This is INSIDE the South Terminal, with the entrance literally 10 seconds walk from the fast track security entrance. A reader reviewed Bloc Gatwick for us here back in 2017.

The company seems to have struggled to roll out its concept, with the only other open UK site being Bloc Birmingham.

There are two projects under development – Bloc Grand Central in Birmingham and Bloc Glasgow – and Arora’s deep pockets will no doubt help to get these completed. Demolition of the site for Bloc Grand Central took place in 2019 and the hotel is still not open.

It will be interesting to see if Arora changes the name, since branded hotels are its preferred operating model. Brands such as Hilton’s Spark, Marriott’s Four Points Flex or IHG’s Garner would be suitable.

Arora Group acquires Bloc Hotels

Hotel Indigo Leeds now open

The new Hotel Indigo has finally opened in Leeds on Lower Briggate, after one of the oldest hotels in the city was refurbished and rebranded. See here.

Opened in 1890, the Cosmopolitan has been serving guests for over 130 years although in recent years the rooms were looking a bit dreary based on photos I saw online.

It won’t be dreary now. Hotel Indigo is IHG’s funky four-star brand aimed at creating boutique hotels with character. They can be very good and are often the best hotel in the towns where they operate.

It will compete with the new Hyatt House and Hyatt Place hotels which recently opened by the railway station. We recently reviewed Hyatt House Leeds here, and Hyatt Place shares the restaurant and other communal facilities.

The Hotel Indigo Leeds has 107 rooms, two meeting rooms and The Banksia restaurant and bar.

You can find out more on the IHG website here.

Thanks to Adam for flagging.

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Comments (19)

  • Dubious says:
    16 Jul16 July 04:38

    I vaguly remeber staying at the Gatwick Bloc when it was fairly new…many many years ago. I recall thinking it was quite good.

    I also remember staying at the Arora Hotel near Heathrow (on Bath road) for a business event. I recall thinking it was a bit naff for the price bracket. I think it even had a picture of Cliff Richard in the lobby…

    I hope Arora Group don’t reduce the quality and concept of Bloc.

    Reply
    • Paul says:
      16 Jul16 July 06:27

      It did have that picture. It began life as an exclusively crew hotel for BA crew/staff until T5 opened and BA pulled out of the compass centre across the road. It then became a Hyatt.

      Not a fan of Arora, their behaviour during covid of simply dumping IC O2 guests in favour of an exorbitant tax payer funded contract was shameful as was their ability to dodge planning issues in Windsor.

      Reply
      • Greg says:
        16 Jul16 July 14:49

        My recollection is that a BA Cabin Service Director was good friends and involved managerially with Cliff Richard. Hence the photo in the crew hotel!

        Reply
    • Barrel for Scraping says:
      16 Jul16 July 08:37

      Remember Arora own a ridiculous number of hotels around Heathrow and Gatwick, most not under their own name. Examples include the Sofitel T5 and HGI T2, they also own some of the hotels on Bath Road and I think the IHG hotels at T4.

      Reply
      • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
        16 Jul16 July 12:40

        They do own (and operate) the LHR T4 CP/HIX – there is a massive ‘Arora’ sign on the side of the hotel!

        Reply
  • Tariq says:
    16 Jul16 July 07:03

    Hilton and particularly Marriott are getting left behind in the Midlands and the North.

    Reply
  • Mark says:
    16 Jul16 July 07:13

    Used the Bloc Gatwick a few years ago. For somewhere to literally lay your head before flying early morning you can’t beat it, the entrance is 10 seconds walk from the security lane. Makes the walk from the Sofitel to T5 seem like a hike!

    Reply
  • David says:
    16 Jul16 July 07:36

    Whilst the Cosmo was definately very low rent -let’s hope the Indigo retains its quirky and leftfield nature.

    Reply
  • Nige says:
    16 Jul16 July 07:37

    The new Indigo is on Lower Briggate, not Lower Briggate Street.

    Reply
  • Nige says:
    16 Jul16 July 08:27

    Hotel Indigo is on Lower Briggate. There’s no such place as Lower Briggate Street.

    Reply
  • Ian says:
    16 Jul16 July 08:49

    I sometimes need a hotel near the station in Leeds, so the Indigo looked interesting. The prices shown on the website are (by modern standards) not too bad but the rooms seem absolutely tiny: from 14 sq m. It seems you need to pay much more to get a room the size of one in the Premier Inn, which would be about 22 sq m.

    Reply
    • Novice says:
      16 Jul16 July 09:54

      I recently stayed at Dakota deluxe. The boutique hotel on Russell Street and I thought it was good. Location was great and close to train station as well. I booked through agoda and got 3000 avios which wasn’t bad. So, I would probably like to try this ihg hotel in future. I did find it annoying that it seems every food place expects a 15/20% service charge for the staff bringing your food to you. Even machines expect a tip now. They already charge extortionate prices but add tips as well.

      Reply
    • DarrenS says:
      16 Jul16 July 09:57

      Agree on the size of the rooms. Although not surprising in a Victorian building. An alterative is the Doubletree, which is a great hotel and very easily accessible from the Southern entrance of the station, which is the only vestige of the Leeds HS2 plan.

      Reply
    • Christopher says:
      16 Jul16 July 12:36

      The Doubletree is literally paces away from the station if you take the back exit.
      Go down the escalators/lift and through the automatic doors and you’ll find yourself in a plaza diagonally opposite the hotel entrance.

      Reply

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