Whitbread to build and manage university hotel

News on 29 August 2000
Whitbread to build and manage university hotel
In the first Private Finance Initiative scheme to involve a UK university, Whitbread is entering a ground-breaking partnership with Nottingham Trent to build and manage a 158-bedroom Travel Inn on its city centre campus. Whitbread Hotel Company is investing £6m to develop the new Travel Inn Metro on the university-owned Goldsmith Street site. A turnover lease will give the University a share of the hotel’s revenue. Work begins on the development in January next year. The hotel will have a ready market in the thousands of post-graduates attending short courses at the University and should also pick up business from families visiting students, business travellers and tourists. Whitbread is also funding a separate health and fitness centre for students. Ged O’Donaghue, director of estates and resources at The Nottingham Trent University said: "This is an exciting and unique partnership with Whitbread and will enable us to offer value for money accommodation for our long-distance students and conference delegates right in the heart of our city campus."