Room of her own Grange Hotels is continuing to profit by targeting women business travellers, and plans to open another London hotel ahead of the 2012 Olympics. Bridget O’Connell reports
The exterior of the Grange Hotels’ latest venture on Godliman Street in the shadow of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral belies its opulent and elegant interior.
A Portland stone façade – to match Sir Christopher Wren’s neighbouring landmark – gives way to a sleek lobby, punctuated by an 80ft atrium and an internal courtyard, which allow natural light to filter through much of the 433-bedroom hotel.
Owned by the private Matharu brothers (see panel), Grange St Paul’s is London’s latest five-star hotel, and is the second in the Grange stable to include a “female-friendly” wing. This follows the opening of a similarly specialised area in its five-star Grange City near Tower Hill in 2005.
Five years ago, Grange was catapulted into the spotlight when it made the move to offer the service after research showed half its business customers, who make up the lion’s share of the hotel’s guests, were women.
The success of the rooms in Grange City, which include features such as illuminated wardrobes, a backlit make-up mirror and an extra-powerful hairdryer, spurred Grange Hotels to repeat the idea.
According to Barry Wishart, a director at Grange Hotels, Grange is the first hotel group in the UK to offer this service to women. He says that it is an idea inspired by examples such as train carriages in Japan; hotels in the Middle East; and gyms and health clubs in various countries, all of which cater exclusively to women.
The wing is female-friendly but not female-only – which means that women staying in the wing “can bring a friend,” says Wishart. However, the front desk “wouldn’t allocate a room [in the wing] to a man”.
It has been almost three months since the opening of the last set of rooms in the Buchanan Associates-designed building, which was built on the site of a former BT telephone exchange and bounded by Carter Lane, Addle Hill and Knightrider Street.
A phased launch began last May, with the opening of the first 150 rooms. These were filled in the first week, according to Wishart.
The same thing happened when the next 150 rooms opened in September and, again, when the 130-strong female-friendly wing was launched officially in December.
Wishart is coy about occupancy figures since each opening, although he adds that business in January, which is typically quiet in the industry, “held up well”.
Healthy growth
February was a good month, according to the latest figures from PKF Hotel Consultancy Services, which show that London hoteliers achieved healthy growth in the second month of the year.
In London, average room rates were up 2.7% on the same period last year, from £104 to £107. Occupancy increased by 6.4% over the 12 months to February, from 73.8% to 78.6%. This combination means that room yield increased by 9.2%, from 76.9% to 84.1%.
The Matharu brothers could well be described as the first triumvirate of the London hotel world.
The trio have spent the past 25 years building one of the most respected – and the largest privately owned – hotel groups in the capital and have no intention of resting on their laurels.
The brothers – Harpal, Raj and Tony – own 14 four- and five-star hotels, located throughout the City and the West End. The opening of the St Paul’s flagship gives Grange Hotels a total of 2,000 rooms.
Locations include Strathmore Grange in Queen’s Gate Gardens, SW7, once the London residence of the late Queen Mother’s family; Sentinel House, a former MOD office in Holborn, WC1; and the former Honeywell Bull offices in Bracknell. Grange manages everything directly, including the spas and bars.
Wishart dismisses the idea that the recession caused doubts about the planned opening of the St Paul’s hotel. “We knew the area well and were familiar with the local and corporate business coming into this part of London, and presales and marketing for the hotel began two years prior to opening and were going well,” he says.
Not all of the hotel’s facilities are open yet. A signature restaurant and a private members’ club and nightclub are scheduled to open later this year. This will add to conference and banqueting facilities for 600 people and an open-air rooftop bar overlooking St Paul’s Cathedral, which will open in the summer.
Wishart says that, as a whole, the company has not been hit badly by the recession, pointing out that the weakening of sterling has made the hotels “20% more affordable for those spending US dollars and euros”.
He is reticent about discussing the group’s development pipeline, although makes reference to the next hotel in the stable – the 400-room Grange Tower Hill, which is under construction and set to open before the 2012 Olympic Games.
But it appears that the empire is set to expand further. One high-level industry source said that Grange Hotels was behind the purchase of the 1.2-acre Central St Martins College development site on Southampton Row – directly opposite the Grange Holborn.
The group had originally teamed up with developer Terrace Hill to bid on the 230,000 sq ft site, which came on the market in April 2007 with a £60m asking price, with the aim of building a mixed-use scheme.
But, as the downturn set in and values changed, the inclusion of offices on the site made less and less financial sense until, finally, Terrace Hill bowed out, leaving a clean slate for Grange.
Current thinking, according to industry sources, is that the group will build a room-heavy hotel on the site, with access to conference facilities at the neighbouring hotel.
Sources also say it is worth considering that the purchase was a land play by Grange Hotels to protect its hotel on Southampton Row from rival hoteliers encroaching on its turf.
Grange Hotels: key facts
Harpal, Raj and Tony, the founders of Grange Hotels, are collectively known as The Matharu Brothers.
The private, and media-shy, trio have worked together for the past 25 years, quietly building up one of London’s largest privately-owned collection of luxury hotels.
The Grange Hotels stable includes 15 hotels located in the heart of London, as well as one in Bracknell.
Tony Matharu is the managing director of Grange Hotels and Raj serves as the chairman.
Harpal Matharu and his family ranked 309 in the 2009 Sunday Times Rich List, with a £180m fortune. This was up from 366th in 2008, despite £40m being wiped off their fortune.
