GuestInvest celebrates new hotel deal at Whitbread’s former brewery

GuestInvest, the buy-to-let hotel company, has revealed its latest development at Whitbread’s former brewery site in central London.

A £55m refurbishment of office space at the Grade II-listed location will see the creation of the Chiswell Street hotel, alongside the existing Brewery conference facility.

The development will add 200 rooms to the company’s portfolio, bringing it to almost 400 bedrooms at its three hotels, which include Nest and Guesthouse West.

Rooms are available to buy at the new development from £240,000 and the hotel is due to open in 2008.

Johnny Sandelson, chief executive of GuestInvest, said: “We are delighted to be expanding the model across a location with such a rich history.”

GuestInvest recently secured £140m of new backing from Bank of Scotland to fund expansion.

Under the GuestInvest model investors purchase their own hotel room, stay there for free for up to 52 nights a year, and receive half of the room’s income achieved from letting it out during the rest of the year.

The Brewery site was bought by EC&O Venues, owners of exhibition spaces Earls Court and Olympia, from Whitbread in September 2005 for £55m.

GuestInvest nets £140m of fresh backing from Bank of Scotland >>

GuestInvest lines up more buy-to-let hotels >>

Shared ownership still a risky business >>

Big expansion for GuestInvest >>

By Chris Druce

E-mail your comments to Chris Druce here.

Get your copy of Caterer and Hotelkeeper every week - click here to subscribe and save 25%.