The Rezidor Hotel Group has opened its 90th Park Inn hotel and the 26th Park Inn in the UK – the 137-room Park Inn Palace, Southend-on-Sea.Located on the Western Esplanade on the seafront of Southend-on-Sea in Essex, the hotel is housed within a conversion of the ‘Palace’ building.
The hotel is in the tourist area overlooking the Thames Estuary and the world’s longest pier.
Whilst much of the hotel reflects the Park Inn brand, the £25m conversion also incorporates many of the features of the original Palace Hotel, which closed over forty years ago.
The hotel was built in 1901 and opened as the five star Metropole, before several years later changing its name to the Palace Hotel.
During the First and Second World Wars the hotel was used as a military hospital and a Naval Headquarters. In 1952, Laurel and Hardy stayed at the hotel whilst touring Essex and the comedy duo are acknowledged in the new hotel with two adjoining meeting rooms named in their honour.
The six storey hotel has 137 fresh and contemporary guest rooms, including accessible rooms for disabled guests and interconnecting rooms for families.
The rooms are designed to be functional and easy to use and all offer laptop-size safes, air conditioning and flat-screen TV’s showing multiple channels.
Bathrooms have walk-in showers. The room décor reflects both the Park Inn brand with vibrant touches of colour, and the location, with pictures highlighting some of Southend’s well known attractions.
Many of the guest rooms offer sea views and the second and third floor sea-facing rooms have private balconies. The hotel also boasts six west-facing rooms with over-size balconies.
The majority of hotel public areas and meeting spaces are found on the first floor. For business guests, there are six meeting rooms, all with natural daylight.
The large ballroom is divisible and will accommodate up to 280 delegates theatre style and 200 guests for a banquet. In addition, a private dining room offers views over the sea, with a mirrored wall allowing diners seated on both sides to enjoy the scenery.
Also on the first floor is RBG Bar and Grill. RBG, the new restaurant concept recently launched for the Park Inn brand and already open in Park Inn hotels including Manchester, Belfast, Cardiff City Centre and Peterborough, serves gourmet burgers, light bites and a choice of signature dishes from the grill.
Further new Park Inn hotels are currently under development in the UK, with Park Inn Aberdeen due to open in the Summer.
