Starboard Hotels acquires Smart City Hostels in Edinburgh:
http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/item/3056/23/5/3 (23-Mar-09)
Starboard Hotels, operator of a number of branded budget hotels across the UK, has expanded its portfolio with the acquisition of a five-star hostel in Edinburgh.
The purchase of the £10m, 132-bedroom Smart City Hostel in Edinburgh’s Old Town is a first for the company that saw an ‘exciting opportunity to add budget accommodation’ to its portfolio.
...plans are also afoot to expand the Smart City Hostel brand further afield.
15 years
I dont know what Smart hostels are like, but I hope that a hotel company doesnt apply too many hotel principles to it.
Are they taking over Smart? If not, why should Smart be selling one hostel only? I would have thought they would be working to build up a chain.
15 years
I think Smart City Hostels only has one hostel so far, but it looks like they're planning on expanding.
More info can be found in an old press release from 2005:
http://www.visitscotland.org/print/news_item.htm?newsID=32974
15 years
smart city has been planning on expanding for a while - i met the GM in the summer of 2007 and they were planning sites in dublin and london. given that the edinburgh one isnt quite as popular as theyd planned and the way the economy is going, id wager they wont be opening up another house any time soon. i dont know much about this starboard group but i doubt they can add much in the way of hotel feel to the place, because it feels like something between a hotel, ikea and a hospital.
£10 million went into the edinburgh site - as far as ive heard, all private investors money - so if its not making an awful lot (£10 million investment, 85% rating and 1/2 the building is rented out as student accomm for a large part of the year) then it wouldnt surprise me if the original owners simply took the cash rather than stick with it.
speculation of course, but thats my 2 cents.
15 years
...it wouldnt surprise me if the original owners simply took the cash rather than stick with it.
I think I would have taken the money and run too -- sell the 620-bed hostel and open up a 40-bed hostel in a quiet village somewhere while living on a small sailboat parked nearby at the local marina :)
15 years
So are all the Smart hostels in London a different company? There are 3 modest-sized hostels, and also a big new one in Russell Square. I had assumed that at least the big one was the same company as the Edinburgh one.
I notice that all the London ones have pretty poor ratings relative to the Edinburgh one.
15 years
So are all the Smart hostels in London a different company? There are 3 modest-sized hostels, and also a big new one in Russell Square. I had assumed that at least the big one was the same company as the Edinburgh one.
I notice that all the London ones have pretty poor ratings relative to the Edinburgh one.
yeah, different companies. smart hostels in london has been around for a while, whereas smart city is the new big boy on the scene... now swallowed up by an even bigger fish.
15 years
I just came across this PDF about Smart City Hostels from 2007 -- it has some data on UK tourism in it also:
http://polfest.org/s3/committees/eet/inquiries/tourism/TI57.pdf
15 years
in case anyones still interested in this older thread here's the actual facts. in end december the administrators went in and took over the place. smartcity hostels ltd officially went broke and couldn't pay the rent and were booted by the owner of the building and the bank. they dont own the building at all and never have. they never made a penny. its a complicated web of companies involved but smartcity were just renters. the owner of the building then went and found starboard who he has an interest in i believe. they didnt pay anything to walk in but they think they can pay the rent. will be interesting to see what happens now. they have a great pr company though. if your an ed hostel i wouldn't go worrying too much.
15 years
in case anyones still interested in this older thread here's the actual facts. in end december the administrators went in and took over the place. smartcity hostels ltd officially went broke and couldn't pay the rent and were booted by the owner of the building and the bank. they dont own the building at all and never have. they never made a penny. its a complicated web of companies involved but smartcity were just renters. the owner of the building then went and found starboard who he has an interest in i believe. they didnt pay anything to walk in but they think they can pay the rent. will be interesting to see what happens now. they have a great pr company though. if your an ed hostel i wouldn't go worrying too much.
im not worried at all; in fact i think it might be a good thing. despite both being hostels, we're not really in competition with them and having hotel owners now probably means theyre going to shift more towards 'budget accommodation' rather than 'backpacker hostel'.
scothost - you seem fairly well connected, any idea whats happening to the globetrotter inn? the london one is about to close and they basically kept the edinburgh one afloat, id be surprised if the edinburgh hostel stays open for much longer. you heard anything?
15 years
any idea whats happening to the globetrotter inn? the london one is about to close and they basically kept the edinburgh one afloat, id be surprised if the edinburgh hostel stays open for much longer. you heard anything?
Interesting. I didn't think that Globetrotter London had got it fully right, I saw one or two very bad reviews about it. Their 'buying tokens' policy seemed to have been a bit of a scam, in that they didn't refund you what you had not spent. Should I take it off my listing on UKTrail?
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