Finnish property and development company Sunborn will take management of its London superyacht hotel in-house from March, after 15 years of being operated by the UK hospitality arm of Danish facility services group ISS.
On 4 February, Newham Council’s strategic development committee granted planning approval for the current yacht in Royal Victoria Square, adjoining the Excel Centre, to be replaced with a new yacht.
Sunborn said it hopes for the new 100-bedroom yacht hotel to become “the most environmentally friendly hotel in London”, and has further plans to invest in London and the yacht hotel concept. All Sunborn London employees will be transferred under TUPE.
Marc Skvorc, chief operating officer of Sunborn Yacht Hotels, said: “We believe in our London location and as travel returns we are ready to welcome guests looking for that special weekend getaway or business meeting destination. We’d like to thank ISS for their input and hard work over the last 15 years, as we enter a new era in which the London hotel operations now come into the Sunborn Yacht Hotel family.
“With two market-leading hotels, the future is bright when we can push past the pandemic. We are developing a new property for the London site with nearly 100 more rooms and state of the art ecological technology. In addition, we are developing new yacht hotels for exciting destinations in North America, including New York City and Miami, and other destinations in Europe.”
Sunborn also has a yacht hotel in Gibraltar and spa hotels in Finland.