Overall ranking: 74 (ranked 70 in 2010)
Hotel ranking: 15 (ranked 16 in 2010)
David Orr – Snapshot
David Orr is chief executive of and co-founder of Mint Hotel group, formerly City Inn. The group, which was set up in 1995 by David and his father, Sandy Orr rebranded in November last year prior to the opening of two new key properties in London’s Tower Bridge (December 2010) and Amsterdam (May 2011).
The collection now comprises eight modern and design conscious mid to upper four-star city centre hotels. All the properties are new-builds with owned freeholds or long leases, representing a significant capital investment. Each hotel also has destination restaurants, City Café’s, and more recently rooftop bars dubbed Skylounges.
David Orr - Career guide
David Orr, who was born in 1963, read political science at Birmingham University and completed a master’s degree in land management at the University of Reading before taking his first job as a property consultant.
He became a partner in John AS McGregor chartered surveyors in 1993, where he secured sites for Travel Inn, Brewers Fayre, Costa Coffee, Hogshead and TGI Friday’s brands for Whitbread.
Orr, together with his father Sandy Orr and business partner Donald Macdonald (not the founder of Macdonald hotels) launched City Inn, a joint venture with HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland), with the opening of its first hotel in Bristol in 1999. This was followed by hotels in Glasgow (2000), Birmingham (2001), Westminster (2003), Manchester (2007) and Leeds (2009), Tower Bridge, London (2010) and Amsterdam (2011).
David Orr - What we think
David Orr created this mid-market hotel group after three years of extensive research. His time spent training to be a cricketer in India impressed upon him the importance of natural light and orientation – something Orr admits he pays “obsessive attention” to.
His initial concept for City Inn, while innovative was very much a central midmarket proposition. However this positioning began to jar with the opening of City Inn Westminster in 2003 – which was seen as a significant move forward in the concept’s evolution. The hotel scooped the Group Hotel of the Year award at the 2005 Cateys for its innovation, its high-quality food operation and its trading success.
Further recognition followed. In 2007 City Inn ranked third in the Sunday Times Profit Track 100, making it the highest-ranking hospitality company that year.
As the group continued to evolve there became a growing disconnect between the perception of the group’s name and the physical reality of the product. This came to a head last year with the imminent openings of the 583-room Tower Bridge and 553-room Amsterdam properties, prompting David and his father to have a rethink.
The estate was rebranded Mint Hotel group in November 2010. Orr explained at the time: “Mint hotels reflects our true position as a class leading innovative and stylish city centre hotel brand.”
The opening of Tower Bridge and Amsterdam has almost doubled the group’s portfolio by room size to 2,783 rooms and the projects together cost around £300m.
Funding for Tower Bridge was from the Lloyds Banking Group, while the Amsterdam property was the first hotel developed on the group’s behalf.
In January this year, Orr announced he was in search of a new partner to help grow the business still further. Orr’s plans are known to include a third London hotel as well as establishing properties in other key European cities including Paris, Barcelóna, Madrid, Rome and Milan and – in the longer term - even in the USA.
David became an elected council member of CBI London in 2008, a Visit England board member (in 2009) and is a member of the HCIMA .
David Orr’s ranking in the 2010 Caterersearch.com 100 >>
The Caterer Interview - David Orr >>
City Inn rebrands as Mint Hotel >>
Hotel firm Mint sale possible as it explores 'strategic options' >>
Mint Hotel website >>