Economic trouble in the U.K. has convinced Vancouver’s Sandman Hotels Inns Suites that it makes good business sense to expand there while real estate prices are soft.
The 40-hotel chain plans to open its first overseas location in Newcastle this summer, vice-president of marketing Salim Kassam told Business in Vancouver February 18.
“We’ve always wanted to have international exposure in the U.K. and now is a great time,” Kassam said. “London’s prices haven’t come off too much, but we’re still looking there. It’s like if there were a crash in Vancouver. Prices would fall in the Fraser Valley before they fall in places like Kerrisdale.”
Sandman’s future Newcastle hotel will be in a refurbished office building that Kassam described as having a “good bone structure.”
Sandman has been on a bit of a tear of late.
It recently opened signature hotels in Prince George, Edmonton and Calgary. According to Kassam, it is also slated to open a new hotel in Langley “imminently.”