Virgin Hotels will expand to London in August
Luxury lifestyle brand Virgin Hotels is on track to make its London debut later this year.
Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch is slated to open in August in the city's trendy Shoreditch neighborhood. The 120-room hotel will be the eighth for the brand. Some might see the move as a long time coming: London is the birthplace of Sir Richard Branson's broader Virgin Group, which includes subsidiaries like Virgin Hotels and Virgin Atlantic.
"We're all absolutely delighted that Virgin Hotels Collection will be opening a Virgin hotel in London," Branson said in a statement. "Since the inception of Virgin Hotels, we've had our sights set on London; a place that so many of our customers either call home, or name as one of their favourite destinations — and of course where Virgin's story started."
The upcoming hotel is actually a conversion of the existing Mondrian London Shoreditch that is part of Accor's Ennismore lifestyle arm. The Mondrian's Spanish restaurant, BiBo Shoreditch, will continue to operate in the new Virgin Hotels-affiliated property. Further, guests will have access to a rooftop bar, a pool, a private members club, a gym and treatment rooms. The company release notes the August rebrand will mark the start of a "gradual transformation" into a full Virgin Hotels ambience.
The London expansion also gives members of the Virgin Hotels' The Know loyalty program as well as Virgin Red a hotel to earn and redeem points. Further details on the loyalty tie-in are expected later this year.
While the company may have found a coveted London location for Virgin Hotels, the brand already has a presence in the United Kingdom with a hotel in Edinburgh, Scotland. The brand also has a significant presence in the U.S. in cities like Chicago, New York City and New Orleans.
While it might be Virgin Hotels' eighth location, Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch will be the 17th property in the wider Virgin Hotels Collection, which encompasses Virgin Hotels and Virgin Limited Edition — a collection of one-of-a-kind retreats like Necker Island in the Caribbean and Kasbah Tamadot in Morocco.
"This year will mark 10 years of Virgin Hotels and what a way to start the early celebrations as we announce our newest hotel in one of the world's most famous cities," James Bermingham, CEO of Virgin Hotels Collection, said in a statement.
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