The ‘super-budget’ chain easyHotel has become the latest operator to announce plans to open on a site on the edge of Bristol city centre.
The firm has acquired land in Old Market to build a £12m, 145-bedroom outlet, which it plans to open in 2020 subject to planning consent. 
Despite a raft of openings around the city centre in recent years – including the 149-room Future Inn on Bond Street and the 186-room Hampton by Hilton – demand for hotel accommodation continue to increase from budget to boutique.
The new Redcliff Quarter scheme has signed up an operator for the site’s 239-bedroom hotel which, its developer says, will bring cool European-style ‘upscale lifestyle’ accommodation – equivalent to four-star – to Bristol.
Across the city centre, boutique chain Artist Residence Bristol will open a 36-bedroom hotel next March in Portland Square while a 200-plus bedroom Moxy Hotel on Newfoundland Street close to Cabot Circus is also on the cards.
Easyhotel described its planned Bristol hotel as “opposite the Cabot Circus shopping centre and half a mile from Temple Meads railway station” despite the freehold site being on West Street in Old Market.
The land includes a single storey building currently occupied by Bristol Genuine Seed Bank with a yard behind that includes a car repair workshop. The rectangular site also includes a building facing onto Lawford Street. The hotel will stand alongside the iconic Gin Palace pub, which is now closed.
It will be the largest development project in Old Market for many years and further adds to the regeneration of the previously run-down part of the city, which was recently hailed as one of the UK’s up-and-coming residential areas.
EasyHotel CEO Guy Parsons said: “Our investment in Bristol, the fifth since our fundraising in March, marks the latest addition to our fast-growing portfolio of comfortable, stylish and highly affordable hotels in key tourist and business locations.
“The group continues to review a large number of investment opportunities in both the UK and Europe and we look forward to announcing further developments in due course.”
The group’s portfolio currently includes 10 directly owned hotels comprising 1,130 rooms, and a further 24 franchised outlets with 2,039 rooms.
The chain was launched by easyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou as part of his easyGroup conglomerate which at one time also included cinemas and cruises.
