Arora Group acquires Bloc Hotels, including the Gatwick in-terminal site

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• 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.

  • 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.

    • 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!

  • 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.

    • 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!

• Tariq says:

  16 Jul16 July 07:03

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

  • James C says:

    16 Jul16 July 07:39

    Are they?

  • Throwawayname says:

    16 Jul16 July 14:24

    Marriott never seemed to make much of an effort in the regions.

• 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!

• 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.

• Nige says:

  16 Jul16 July 07:37

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

• Nige says:

  16 Jul16 July 08:27

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

  • Rob says:

    16 Jul16 July 09:04

    That’s not what the hotel website says!

    • mvcvz says:

      16 Jul16 July 09:12

      Leeds is my home city. Nige is absolutely correct. Lower Briggate. No “Street”.

  • DarrenS says:

    16 Jul16 July 10:00

    ‘Gate’ literally means street, so Lower Bridge Street Street it is!

• 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

    • daveinitalia says:

      16 Jul16 July 16:52

      The Doubletree is really convenient as long as you go through the right exit. The first time I stayed there was just before that exit was completed so I had to go out the main one, it would still have been walkable but because I didn’t know where the hotel was I ordered an Uber and the route the cars take was longer than the shortcuts you could make walking. I laughed when I got to my room and discovered it was right next door to the station

  • John says:

    17 Jul17 July 01:27

    Small rooms seem to almost be a brand standard of Indigo particularly in Europe. Even when being upgraded to suites they are tiny

• qc says:

  18 Jul18 July 10:34

  I remember reading about the guy who started the hotel group – he came from India as a young teenager not speaking English and worked his way through various jobs including one at BA before starting a bed and breakfast at Heathrow in 1993 for airline crew.

  • Rob says:

    18 Jul18 July 12:08

    Yes, Surinder. Has a very funny and interesting conference speech he gives about his background, including a story about John Holland Kaye came to see him to explain that the Sofitel would be demolished for the third runway but Heathrow would generously let him manage one of the five hotels that it planned to build on the green area between the M25 and the terminal.

    Surinder had to explain to Holland Kaye that he actually owned that land, not the airport 🙂

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