ISS Facility Services has launched a dedicated hotel and leisure division in a bid to capture more of the UK hotel services market.

Although the company, part of the hygiene-to-security giant ISS Group, has provided housekeeping in the UK for two decades and currently covers 20,000 hotel rooms a week, the new division is a first.

David Openshaw, chief executive of ISS UK, said he expected the newly formed division to be providing services and housekeeping for up to 50,000 hotel bedrooms within the next three to five years.

"We've grown our business successfully to this point but we've never really marketed ourselves," he told Caterer. "With the London Olympics coming and the hotel market strong, we thought it time to make a bold move and put the structure in place to grow our services business."

For the past two years ISS has provided housekeeping services for 15,000 Travelodge bedrooms in London and has just signed a deal to double the number of rooms covered by the agreement.

It also manages the Sunborn Yacht hotel at London's ExCel exhibition centre and provides housekeeping at the Hesperia hotel at Victoria, London.

The hotel and leisure unit will be headed by Chrissy Hodges, previously operations director ISS facility services, and now divisional director hotel and leisure services.

As well as housekeeping, the division will offer a suite of options including catering, security, pest control and landscaping.

ISS already has some prestigious contracts, including the Sunborn Yacht hotel.

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By Chris Druce

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