Hyatt to open four hotels next year

Hyatt has confirmed four new hotel openings for 2024, including its first UK-based Park Hyatt property in London’s Battersea.

At a media briefing at Hyatt Regency London – the Churchill, general manager and area vice president for Hyatt hotels, UK & Ireland, Arnaud de Saint-Exupéry, said Hyatt will be launching Park Hyatt London River Thames, a Hyatt in London’s Paddington and two hotels in Leeds in the new year.

Plans for the 203-bedroom Park Hyatt London River Thames were first announced in 2020 with an initial opening date set for 2022.

The Chicago-based hotel company currently has 14 hotels in the UK, including the Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars (pictured), which opened in June this year in a former Crowne Plaza site.

Besides nine Hyatt hotels in London, the group also operates properties in Birmingham Manchester, Cambridge and Kelso, Scotland.

The Hyatt collection is composed of 28 brands across 75 countries. Seven of these brands operate in the UK, including the Andaz, Hyatt Place, Regency, House and the Unbound collection, which converts buildings of historical significance into hotels.

De Saint-Exupéry said Hyatt has become attractive for owners looking for hotel conversions because of the company’s World of Hyatt loyalty scheme, which gives the group “more scale”.

Hyatt’s Joie de Vivre (JdV) hotels, which have not yet been introduced to the UK, were also described as “upper midscale” properties that could attract “more portfolio deals” through conversion opportunities.

Assumpta McDonald, general manager at Hyatt Regency & Hyatt House Manchester, added: “We’re not the largest [hotel group], but we’re not the smallest, and we’re growing into different accommodation styles, so we are giving guests that opportunity to travel with a brand of choice in more of the locations they are travelling to.”

For 2024, De Saint-Exupéry predicted a boost in bleisure (business and leisure) led staycations, as well as a surge in revenge travel from Asia.

“The Chinese are starting to come. We had some guests from Malaysia and Hong Kong [this year],” he added.

Hyatt also bought the London-based luxury hotel platform Mr & Mrs Smith for £53m in May this year, which offers a series of boutique hotels that “bring something else to the World of Hyatt guest”.