Graduate Hotels has announced plans for its first UK properties, to be located in the university cities of Cambridge and Oxford.
The brand is described as “a collection of handcrafted hotels that reside in the dynamic university-anchored cities across the US”, with locations including Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Providence and Seattle.
The 148-room Graduate Cambridge is scheduled to open in spring 2021, and will be a rebranding of the former Doubletree by Hilton Cambridge City Centre, following “a complete interior renovation that will include all rooms, common spaces, fitness club and pool – with design inspired by Cambridge’s history, traditions and prestigious alumni”.
A new café and bar concept Poindexter will also be added on the ground floor, and the hotel’s full-service restaurant will be renovated.
Graduate Oxford is also set to open next spring, and will be housed within the former Macdonald Randolph Hotel on Beaumont Street opposite the city’s Ashmolean Museum.
The 151-room hotel will undergo comprehensive interior and exterior renovations of its guest rooms, lobby and common spaces, with interior design details including “bold hues, textural elements inspired by the region’s natural resources and locally inspired art which will tell the narratives of Oxford’s past”.
Graduate Hotels is owned by AJ Capital Group, which also own the Marine and Lawn Collection, a forthcoming portfolio of three Scottish golf resorts:
- The 89-room Marine North Berwick (previously the Macdonald Marine Hotel and Spa), which overlooks the 16th hole of the historic West Links course at North Berwick Golf Club
- The 89-room Marine Troon (previously The Marine Hotel) which has “unobstructed views of the 1st and 18th fairways of Royal Troon’s Old Course”
- The 114-room Rusacks St Andrews, overlooking the 18th hole and the famous Swilcan Bridge of the Old Course at St Andrews
Marine North Berwick is scheduled to open in spring 2021, followed by Marine Troon and Rusacks St Andrews next summer.
