InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has unveiled its latest Holiday Inn – a £9m property that overlooks the pitch at Norwich City Football Club.

The 150-room hotel offers a restaurant and bar, a fitness suite, a meeting room for up to 20 delegates and wi-fi internet access in all public areas, while 72 rooms at the back of the hotel have a view of the pitch.

But customers hoping to sneak their friends in to watch games for free will be sorely disappointed after police laid down a series of stringent rules.

No more than two adults are allowed in guest rooms overlooking the football pitch on match days for a period of one hour before or one hour after a home match.

And for security reasons, no person subjected to a Football Banning Order can be admitted to into the hotel on a day when Norwich City are scheduled to play a home football match.

Neil Sewell, general manager of the Holiday Inn Norwich City, told the Norwich Evening News: “We can issue guests with recommendations on how to behave on match days, and we will expect guests to keep to the regulations laid down by the police. We can also restrict the number of people per bedroom through our booking system.”

A 150-year lease was granted to IHG in return for a payment of £1.1m to the club, which has negotiated a 30% stake in the business.

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By Daniel Thomas

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