Is the Liverpool hotel market really becoming saturated?

According to a recent quote attributed to a Director at Sanguine Hospitality Management, the Liverpool hotel market is close to saturation for a city of it’s size.

This is a remarkable statement – not for the fact that is true or otherwise, but more so the fact that if you had stayed in Liverpool only 5 or so years ago (you would have struggled to find a decent hotel in Liverpool) you just couldn’t believe that anybody would be saying such a thing in 2010. It is a stement that goes to show just how much Liverpool has developed as a city over the last few years.

Sanguine are opening Hotel Indigo in Liverpool in the early part of 2011. This is a 151 bedroom Boutique hotel in Liverpool‘s commercial district (situated on Chapel Street next to the iconic Unity Building and just a stones throw from St Nicholas’ church on the Strand. This is undoubtedly a fantastic location for a new hotel in Liverpool city centre and will be popular with business people as well as tourists staying in Liverpool for a city break or holiday in Liverpool.

It is fair to say that a number of new hotels have recently opened in Liverpool – including the Liverpool Hilton and Novotel Liverpool centre, and there are other new Liverpool hotels set to open in 2011 and 2012. 

If you start to add the number of new hotel beds to the growing number of serviced apartments in Liverpool, you can see that the city now has a good selection of accommodation across the city centre (and occupation rates remain at almost the same record levels as was seen during the 2008 Capital of Culture).

But is it a saturated market?

Chris Rose, Managing Direct at Serviced City Pads – a Liverpool based serviced apartment booking company doesn’t think so. He commented “I think the key missing word from the original quote is “current” and that is an important word relating to the size of the city, in terms of leisure and corporate visitors. Liverpool is becoming a popular tourist destination relying less and less on the visiting supporters of Liverpool FC. The city is also becoming an extremely popular destination for comferences, and that’s highlighted by the recent Lib Dem conference and the recently announced Labour party conference to be held in Liverpool. People’s perceptions of Liverpool have changed dramatically over the last 10 years, and that is good news for Liverpool’s hospitality sector.

With a greater choice of Liverpool hotels (as well as more serviced apartments and other self catering accommodation in Liverpool) this can only be good news for the consumer. It will lead to increased standards across the board and only the best will survice. That’s not a bad thing.

Serviced City Pads is company that is based in Liverpool and sees the changing face of the city on a daily basis. However, we are an outward looking company with thousands of serviced apartments listed across the UK. We deal with companies accommodation requirements in a number of UK cities and will be looking to add hotels to our portfolio in the near future.”

If you are interested in listing your hotel with Serviced City Pads or you would like to know more about the way we work click here.