House of Gods hotel brand still targeting five sites by end of 2022

The co-founder of the House of Gods boutique hotel brand has confirmed that it still intends to grow the group to five sites by the end of 2022.

The group announced this week that it has two hotels opening in Manchester and Glasgow, both expected to open in spring 2022. The founders are also exploring conversion opportunities elsewhere of buildings that can accommodate 20-50 bedrooms.

“That’s a number where we can make sure that every guest who walks into the building is incredibly well looked-after,” co-founder Mike Baxter told The Caterer.

The 29-bedroom Manchester site will open on Ducie Street alongside the Rochdale Canal Towpath, while the 31-bedroom Glasgow hotel will open in an early 20th-century merchant building on Glassford street.

The hotels will each have their own unique interiors but still have the “old world luxury meets contemporary, neon fun” brand DNA, said Baxter: “It’s a bit of a juxtaposition but people seem to love it.”

Both venues will also have an F&B offering. The Edinburgh hotel, which has operated at 97% occupancy since reopening, is due to open its own restaurant next month called Casablanca Cocktail Club in the building adjacent to the hotel.

Baxter described it as “over-the-top, decadent dining” and “fine dining meets Studio 54”, with the interiors set to have mirrored ceilings, velvet fabrics and thrones for chairs, with a typical dish being a wagyu burger wrapped in gold leaf served on a Versace plate.

“We’ll most likely take an element of that to both Manchester and Glasgow,” he said. “What we realised was that the hotel does kind of need that food offer as well. In the absence of that in Edinburgh in the beginning we did a lot of things with various pizza brands and local partners – we still made it fun with lots of great room service and in-room provision, but these new places will have food provision as well, which we’re really excited about because it’s kind of like the brand maturing.”

The expansion and new restaurant are being supported by a £4.8m loan from OakNorth Bank and a £5m investment from Imbiba, secured in February.

The brothers still own the Baxter hostel in Edinburgh, which remains closed. They are no longer involved with the Kip hotel in London’s Hackney.