Budget chain easyHotel, part of Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyGroup, is to open an 81-bedroom hotel in Belfast, marking its first hotel in Northern Ireland.
The low-cost hotel chain, which has 25 locations across the UK and Europe, is to convert part of the Howard Building in Belfast city centre and will be located above restaurateur Michael Deane's award-winning Eipic, Meat Locker and Love Fish restaurants, reports The Belfast Telegraph.
The planned development will see the conversion of existing, empty office space and the ground floor dry cleaner's into an 81-bedroom hotel with a ground floor cafe. Work is expected to start on the building later this month.
Janice Gault, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation (NIHF), said: "There has been a lot of prospective hotel expansion reported for Belfast over the last 18 months. Noticeably absent from those reported is any increase in the budget sector. The last hotel boom saw the city's budget stock more than double in terms of room numbers. The NIHF has noted the lack of budget projects and understands that there are a number of international brands looking at the city. Some of these are new players like easyHotel while others would see brands on the market expand."
