Park Plaza Hotels has announced that it is opening London's largest newly built hotel in three decades.
The news comes less than two weeks before City Inns opens what is has been describing as the largest hotel to be built in the capital since the 1970s, the City Inn Westminster.
But the 11-storey, four-star Riverbank Park Plaza, to be sited on the Albert Embankment, opposite the Tate Britain art gallery, is scheduled to open in 2005.
When it does, it will have 475-bedrooms - 15 more than the City Inn Westminster, which is opening on 3 September. Park Plaza Hotels is spending more than £100m developing its property, which will also have conference and banqueting facilities for almost 2,000 people.
City Inns' £50m hotel, its first in London, has been due to open earlier this month but this was delayed after extensive flooding damaged bedrooms, the lounge and the reception area.
Today (22 August), Irish hotel group Jurys Doyle opens Scotland's largest hotel, the 321-bedroom Jurys Inn Glasgow. The €40 (£24.6m) hotel is the 12th Jurys Inn in the UK. It has 10 meeting rooms with space for between five and 80 people.
By Samantha McClary
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 21 - 27 August 2003