Holiday Inn express clinches Scottish site

Planning permission has been granted for what could be the first UK site for Bass's Holiday Inn budget hotel brand. Construction is to start this summer.

The 80-bedroom lodge hotel will be built at Strathclyde Country Park close to the M74 near Motherwell, alongside a new pub-restaurant which is likely to be operated by sister company Bass Taverns. The lodge will be owned and operated by Holiday Inn.

The news came as Holiday Inn Worldwide announced a 6.7% increase in operating profits to £64m for the half-year to 15 April.

Ian Burke, managing director of Holiday Inn's Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, said the profits growth was due to a pick-up in the economy and the way the business had been driven forward through marketing.

There had been a stronger performance in occupancy in the 26 UK properties than the industry average, added Mr Burke.

UK bedroom occupancy was 6.9 percentage points higher than in the same period a year ago.

The Holiday Inn system added 88 properties and lost 36 worldwide, leaving it with 1,977 hotels and a total of 361,500 bedrooms by the end of the financial period.

Parent company Bass's pre-tax profits were up 8.7% to £263m on a turnover which increased just 0.2% to £2.24b.

Bass Taverns opened 23 new concept outlets and plans to open another 87 by the year-end. Operating profits were 10.6% ahead.