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Marriott’s Residence Inn brand debuts in UK

Published: 13/01/2012 - Filed under: News »

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Marriott has officially opened the first property under its extended-stay Residence Inn brand, a 107-unit property in Edinburgh’s regenerated Quartermile district.

The Residence Inn Edinburgh opened its doors to guests late last year, but this week held a grand opening ceremony, complete with stilt walkers and giant panda costumes (to celebrate the arrival of Tian Tian and Yang Guang at Edinburgh Zoo last month).

Also in attendance was Scotland’s Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism Fergus Ewing, who cut the ribbon to officially open the property.

The Residence Inn offering is well known in the US and Canada, where Marriott has over 600 properties under the brand, but by contrast the new Edinburgh hotel is just the second Residence Inn in Europe, following the opening of the Residence Inn Munich East last year.

General manager Colin Richards described the offering as “somewhere between serviced apartments and a hotel”, with no minimum stay, and in-room facilities including a kitchenette with fridge, dishwasher and microwave appliances.

Rooms range from studio apartments with combined bedroom, living area and kitchenette, up to one-bed apartments, some of which have balconies. Guests benefit from free wifi and cooked buffet breakfast, and other facilities include a ground floor fitness centre and meeting room.

Marriott does already have an extended-stay presence in the UK under the high-end Marriott Executive Apartments offering in London’s West India Quay, but this is the first property under its Residence Inn brand, and indeed it is the first extended-stay hotel in Edinburgh operated by a major international group (Starwood Hotels is scheduled to open a Staybridge Suites property in the city).

The hotel is located in Edinburgh’s Quartermile district, just north of popular public park The Meadows, and around ten minutes’ walk from Princes Street and the city’s mainline Waverley train station. The recently revamped and excellent National Museum of Scotland is also within walking distance.

The Quartermile district was once home to the Royal Infirmary, and a regeneration project has seen listed buildings retained alongside new-builds such as the Residence Inn. The mixed use site is still partially under construction, but is already home to office, retail and residential space, as well as the new hotel.

Business Traveller will be publishing a full review of the Residence Inn Edinburgh in the March 2012 print edition – to subscribe click here.

For more information visit marriott.co.uk, qmile.com.

Report by Mark Caswell

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• Marriott International
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COMMENTS » 

patriciaH49 - 14/01/2012 10:53

This is great news - Scotland is poorly served by chain hotels and visitors are at the mercy of privately operated hotels which are for the most time overpriced. It's about time the UK got more of the US style accommodation which can always be relied upon to give good quality hotels at sensible affordable prices.

macaulay - 19/01/2012 14:56

The rooms are very fine and photogenic. Bed very firm. What is not apparent is the internal heat problem and the seeming lack of bathroom / cooking extraction or air con, but opening window.

Toilet / shower space is poorly designed and small.

Breakfast area small, and urn coffee vile. (Excellent cafe next door.)

Noise revurbs around the nearby buildings and on going building site.Views are poor.

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