Starboard Hotels has entered into a joint agreement with Union Hanover housing association to launch a chain of luxury hotels which will be branded as Hoax.
The first site is to open in Liverpool opposite the Cavern Club in Liverpool in July, and will become the first in a chain of hotels to open in key tourist cities throughout the UK and Europe. It will include a Brooklyn-style restaurant called Hopskotch Street Kitchen and Bar. It will have 282 beds and is being developed in the former Kansas Buildings tea warehouse which was later used as Wade Smith department store. The 23,000sq ft vacant building was bought by Starboard and Union Hanover Securities from Quintain last year.
Once the rollout of sites begins, each hostel will be individually personalised and be located in converted, disused buildings, with a fun and playful theme being a common theme across the sites. They aim to provide a ‘fresh, vibrant and sociable alternative’ to budget hotels.
The agreement is being funded by property investment firm BridgePoint Ventures and IPIN Global at a cost of £100m.
Starboard Hotels is a developer and franchisee of Intercontinental Hotels Group and Wyndham Hotel Group, and operator of the 620-bed Smart City Hostels in Edinburgh