Sterling consortium signs up 55 hotels
Sterling Hotels & Resorts, the consortium run by reservations company RezSolutions, has added 55 hotels to the group.
The bulk of the newcomers were formerly members of the Prima consortium, which RezSolutions bought in May. Hotels include the Halkin in London, the Morrison Hotel in Dublin and the Kalimera in Crete.
Sterling managing director Michael Ball said he wanted to expand the consortium from 143 hotels in 28 countries to about 250. Ball said he also wanted to increase awareness of the company's mid-market chain, Golden Tulip. The consortium has 390 hotels under the name, 80% of them in Europe. All hotels are called either Golden Tulip Hotel or Golden Tulip Inn, with the exception of properties in the UK: here the 72-strong Jarvis chain is a member of the consortium but keeps its own name.
"We have had a partnership with Jarvis for many years and I see no feasible change to that relationship," said Ball.
Jarvis confirmed that it had no intention of adopting the Golden Tulip name.
• Reed Elsevier, the owner of Caterer & Hotelkeeper, owns two-thirds of RezSolutions.