Bliss to launch own-branded hotel this year

With the support of a £15m funding package from ICG, Biss Hotels is set to launch its first branded hotel this year, with plans to roll out the Bliss brand.

The company acquired the 133-bed Ramada Plaza hotel in Southport, Merseyside, within the city’s Waterfront development, back in 2016, followed by the entire leisure development in 2017 in a reported £15m deal.

The funding package will see Bliss complete a refurbishment and rebranding exercise at the hotel, which is remaining open during the revamp.

Under a franchise agreement, this hotel will be the first in the UK to trade under Wyndham’s Trademark brand of independent, upper-midscale hotels.

The phased refurbishment will see the relaunch of the hotel at the end of the year as the Bliss Hotel Southport, which will include three new penthouses on the fifth floor.

The hotel will feature a 3,000 sq ft roof garden, as well as the brand’s Bliss Kitchen and Blissonik concepts, the latter which will put music, film, fashion and live entertainment at the heart of the brand with DJ sets, its own hotel radio station and movie nights planned.

Consultants Andrea Stewart and Iain Donald are designing the overall food and beverage offering, and consultant Danilo Tersigni is overseeing the bar and drinks concepts.

Once the first Bliss hotel is established, the group plans to target other coastal locations and secondary UK cities, to create a ten-hotel chain by 2026, which will be both owned and operated.