Cendant Hotel Group Europe is launching a new hotel chain in Ireland and has plans to bring the chain to the UK.
Cendant, which is the franchisor of Days hotels, has announced a 10-year deal with Irish hotel management company the Prem Group to bring the Wingate hotel brand to Ireland.
US-based Cendant Corporation already has 130 Wingate Inn hotels in North America, but the agreement with Prem Group marks the brand's debut outside the USA.
Over the next five years 12 Wingate properties will open in Ireland, with five expected to open this year. The first to open will be the 40-bedroom Wingate Hibernian hotel in Dublin, which opens in mid-February, followed closely by the 80-bedroom Wingate Tulfarris hotel and golf resort in Blessington Lakes, County Wicklow, and the 67-bedroom Wingate Woodstock hotel in Ennis, County Clare, which opens on 1 March.
The Wingate properties will be four-star hotels with leisure facilities such as golf courses and spas. Meeting and conference facilities will also be essential features. Eighteen Wingate hotels are expected to open during the 10-year deal.
Cendant has also signed a deal with Prem Group to open a further 28 Days hotels in Ireland over the next 10 years, four of which are due to open this year.
In the UK the group has just opened a 78-bedroom Days hotel in South Ruislip, Middlesex, and a 73-bedroom Days Inn in Leicester and has plans to open three further Days Inns across the UK next month.
Two more franchise deals for Days Inns in Haverhill, Sussex, and Nuneaton, Warwickshire, have also recently been signed and the properties are scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2004.
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper 29 January - 4 February 2004