Marlin Apartments is to open its first apart-hotel, choosing a site in Waterloo for the debut development.
The company, which operates and owns serviced apartments in the capital, has secured a site on Westminster Bridge Road for the 218-room venture, which will be Marlin’s seventh. The property is due to open in 2016 and will feature office units, ground floor shops and a restaurant.
The new build will be five minutes’ walk from Lambeth North Underground station and 10 minutes’ walk from Westminster and the South Bank attractions, including The London Eye.
The property will be to Marlin’s four star equivalent standard but features smaller rooms than in its other locations. Managing director Susan Cully said: “By adopting the apart-hotel business model for the first time, we can offer guests a more compact offering but with the same high level of design, facilities, style, customer service and value as we already offer across Marlin Apartments’ six other sites.”
She added that the location would have great appeal to leisure travellers at weekends. It will feature 24-hour concierge and free wi-fi.
A Marlin spokeswoman added that the company had no plans to operate outside the capital but aimed to be the biggest operator of its type in London. Marlin owns or manages 700 units among six properties.