Southend Airport opens new Holiday Inn
The £10 million hotel next to the Harp House Roundabout will provide high quality and convenient facilities for airport passengers and staff, as well as local business users and restaurant diners. The striking 129-bedroom hotel is just a few minutes’ walk from the London Southend Airport terminal and railway station.
In a first for Holiday Inn in the UK, the five-storey hotel has a magnificent, fully sound-proofed rooftop bar and restaurant, called the 1935 Rooftop Restaurant & Bar; a reference to the year that airport opened as a municipal airport for the public. Guests can enjoy spectacular panoramic views of the airport and surrounding area whilst enjoying their drinks or dinner. The 1935 Rooftop Restaurant & Bar will be able to seat seventy customers, plus an exclusive private dining room for ten. It will be open for breakfast, dinner and Sunday lunch.
Head Chef Kieran Moore brings 30-years of both Michelin and international experience to Southend. As the UK celebrates the 2012 Olympics, Kieran himself has five gold medals and five silver medals from the culinary Olympics – he trained under Marco Pierre White and has worked alongside Raymond Blanc. Kieran describes the 1935 Rooftop Restaurant & Bar as Classic British with a contemporary twist and using as many local, seasonal ingredients as possible.
In order to accommodate all types of guests, Holiday Inn Southend will include a variety of spacious twin, double, family, interconnecting and specifically adapted rooms for wheelchair users. All the bedrooms will be furnished to a high standard featuring 37 inch LCD HD Ready TVs, high speed Wi-Fi, trademark Holidreamer beds, a pillow menu, spacious bathrooms and ample space to both work and relax. For a small supplement, the hotel will have twenty eight Executive rooms and four luxurious King Superior rooms. And for dog owners who are frustrated at the lack of local places where they can stay overnight or enjoy drinks and lunch with their four legged friends, the Holiday Inn Southend is dog friendly.
Holiday Inn Southend Airport is also offering state-of-the-art conference and banqueting facility in the Laker Suite for up to 150 guests – the name selected as a tribute to Sir Freddie Laker, the airline entrepreneur who operated from Southend Airport in the 1950’s. There is also a choice of smaller meeting rooms entitled Ambassador, Britannia and Carvair, in homage to planes that feature prominently in London Southend Airport’s history.
Holiday Inn Managing Director Steve Brazil says “Our aim is to provide a great hotel that guests love, one that offers outstanding customer service and memorable experiences – in short, a hotel that everyone in Southend can be proud of. We are delighted the Holiday Inn is now opening its doors and so everyone can come and experience it for themselves.”
Holiday Inn Southend is owned by the Stobart Group. London Southend Airport Managing Director Alastair Welch says “High quality and convenient hotel facilities are an essential ingredient of successful airports and an important part of our plans to redevelop London Southend Airport. The new hotel will hugely improve facilities for passengers and flight crew using the airport whilst also becoming an exciting new resource for local people and businesses.”
