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Welcome to the Website of FirstInn Ventures and Hospitality and Capital Management Ltd:

First Inn Ventures

Mission Statement

"To provide hotels of excellent quality and outstanding cleanliness that still represent value for money in a high pressure competitive environment".

First Inn Ventures and Hospitality & Capital Management Ltd.

FIV/HCM is established within the UK hotel industry as a highly respected and profitable hotel group. The group has achieved this reputation through its management team's dedicated focus and proven ability on matters such as:

  • site selection
  • staff development, training and retention
  • quality control
  • effective monitoring of business profitability
  • effective monitoring and optimisation of individual hotel occupancy levels and revenues
  • active participation in industry forums

HCM's success and quality has been regularly recognised by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), which has awarded the Express by Holiday Inn hotels in Burton-upon-Trent and Wimbledon-South with Newcomer of the Year awards whilst the Express by Holiday Inn hotel in Cardiff Bay has twice won IHG's Quality Excellence award. Most recently, in September 2003, the group's profile was further enhanced when IHG announced that Burton had won the Torchbearer award for Europe, Middle East and Africa. This is the highest accolade available to any hotel under any IHG brand and is won against the most fierce competition. In effect the hotel is judged to be the one by which others should set their standards.

Corporate Social Responsibility

The group operates its own registered charity for underprivileged children, the physically and mentally handicapped and the elderly in the local areas of its hotels. The charity is funded by corporate and private donations and by inviting hotel guests to add £1 to their bill on departure. There are no routine administrative charges from the charity; therefore, all contributions reach charitable causes.

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Development of the business

FIV was established in 1996 after its founders negotiated a franchise agreement with IHG to develop and operate five hotels in the UK under IHG's Express by Holiday Inn brand. This was the first such franchise in the UK following the successful launch of Express by Holiday Inn and subsequent major expansion in the USA in the early 1990s. Such was the success of FIV/HCM, the development agreement was subsequently amended in 2001 to incorporate 15 hotels. The development agreement also sets out the minimum term for each individually franchised hotel to be 20 years from its opening date, after which FIV has the option to either renegotiate a franchise agreement with IHG or rebrand the hotel.

 

The hotels

To date, FIV has developed four hotels, which are operated by HCM, Burton-upon-Trent, Cardiff Bay, Wimbledon-South and Swindon City Centre. The group's hotels in Burton-upon-Trent and Cardiff were located as part of greenfield site developments, whereas the hotel in Wimbledon is a converted office block annex. The hotel in Swindon has been built on a former car park.

The key features of each existing hotel (area, size, rooms, location etc), are detailed on the hotels' websites

Background to Express by Holiday Inn brand

Express by Holiday Inn is a brand of the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) which was launched in the UK in 1996, and there are presently more than 86 in the UK, most of which are franchised to small-to-medium sized hotel investor groups such as FIV/HCM. In America , the brand is called Holiday Inn Express (which differentiates it from its European counterpart because the latter does not have leisure facilities). There are presently more than 1,300 Express hotels worldwide (which ranks it as the tenth largest global hotel brand as measured by the number of rooms). Although over a thousand of these hotels are in the USA , where the budget hotel concept originated, there has been a steady growth of Express by Holiday Inn hotels worldwide.

 

First Inn Ventures

New development

FIV has recently developed an "Express by Holiday Inn" hotel in Swindon city centre. The 134-bedroom hotel opened in January 2004 and is of the very latest design for the Express by Holiday Inn brand.

Unlike the hotels in Burton-upon-Trent, Cardiff Bay and Wimbledon-South, the hotel in Swindon was developed as a mixed-use scheme where a total of 25,000 sq ft on the ground and first floors has been allocated for pub/club/restaurant facilities.

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