Hotels in Aberdeen and Inverness are to undergo their second name change this year after their owner added them to its Jurys Inn business.
The two former Thistle operations – Aberdeen Skyway Hotel, near the Granite City’s airport, and Inverness Hotel, in Millburn Road in the Highland capital – will become part of a 36-strong Jurys Inn chain from Thursday, November 19.
Another north-east hotel, the Caledonian in Aberdeen, is joining the Mercure chain under a management deal recently agreed with French group AccorHotels.
Other sites in a growing portfolio of UK hotels owned by US private-equity firm Lone Star Funds, including the Aberdeen Altens Hotel, which is another former Thistle operation, will continue to operate under the owner’s Hotel Collection brand.
The 147-bedroom Aberdeen Skyway Hotel is also to have a major refurbishment as a local market battle for business intensifies in Europe’s energy capital in the wake of oil and gas industry decline.
Lone Star acquired the Jury’s Inn chain earlier this year from investors including the sovereign wealth fund of Oman and Royal Bank of Scotland.
The US firm has been building its UK regional hotel portfolio in recent years, largely thanks to investments totalling billions of pounds in distressed assets supported by loans from Allied Irish Banks and the liquidators of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation.
Its other recent acquisitions include Puma Hotels and a total of 19 Thistle-branded hotels, all now in The Hotel Collection, and Somerston Hotels.
The Thistle sites were previously owned by a commercial property fund managed by private-equity firm CIT Group.
London-based GLH Hotels Management (UK), a subsidiary of Singapore company GuocoLeisure, gave up the management of the Thistle hotels in April.
A spokeswoman for the Dublin-based Jurys Inn chain said Aberdeen Skyway’s revamp would include free WiFi, a “transformation” of the bedrooms, an overhaul of public areas and a facelift to meeting rooms and banqueting facilities.
Alison Christie, the hotel’s general manager, added: “This is a truly exciting time for us as we join the Jurys Inn portfolio.
“The team and I are only too delighted to enhance our offering under the Jurys Inn brand as we continue to deliver a high-quality service for our guests, and we hope our new and existing corporate and leisure guests enjoy the new facilities.”
The new Jurys Inn for Inverness is also being refurbished as part of a £36million investment in Lone Star’s UK hotels, many of which have been bundled into a Dublin-based subsidiary – Amaris Hospitality – of the Texan company.