The Lume, a new 19-storey hotel development boasting a Crowne Plaza® and Staybridge Suites®, both hotel brands of IHG® (InterContinental Hotels Group) will officially open this September in Manchester.
Owned by M&L Hospitality and managed by Cycas Hospitality, the 328-room newly built dual-branded hotel is located in the bustling Oxford Road area, within walking distance of the city centre. Bookings are now open via the Crowne Plaza and Staybridge Suites websites.
Crowne Plaza Manchester – Oxford Road, which occupies the lower 12-storeys, features 212 guest rooms, a 120-seat restaurant, bar, fully equipped 24-hour gym, club lounge and seven state-of-the-art meeting rooms catering for over 200 delegates.
The extended-stay brand Staybridge Suites, which is making its Manchester debut, is located on the upper seven floors. Offering a stylish and social environment along with all the comforts of home, Staybridge Suites – Oxford Road will have a mix of 116 modern studio and one-bedroom suites featuring fully-equipped kitchens and exceptional views of the city.
Staybridge Suites guests also have access to a terrace on the 18th floor with panoramic views of Manchester, access to the 24-hour gym, laundry facilities and complimentary hot and cold buffet breakfast in the “Hub” kitchen. The brand also hosts ‘The Social’ three evenings a week, an informal opportunity for guests to mingle and get to know their on-site team over complimentary drinks and nibbles.
The Lume hotel development is ideally located within the Oxford Road Corridor which boasts a workforce of 60,000 people and is home to The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.
Close to the city centre and with easy access to transport links, as well as Manchester’s major tourism attractions and commercial hubs, the dual-branded complex will provide an ideal base for all visitors to Manchester including short and long-stay business clients, leisure visitors, entrepreneurs, academics and those visiting the universities nearby.
The dual-branded hotel development forms part of the University of Manchester’s Campus Masterplan, which includes the wider redevelopment of Alliance Manchester Business School. It also adjoins its new two-storey Executive Education Centre, which will provide a new home for the business school’s corporate leadership and management programmes.
The hotel’s General Manager, Andrew Fletcher, said: “With the opening date just weeks away, we’re really excited about how combining two hotels under one roof will give business as well as leisure travellers a new way to experience Manchester.”
“As the way people travel evolves, we wanted to give guests the more flexible accommodation options we know they’re looking for, whether they’re staying for a few nights or a few weeks. The Lume will, for the first-time, offer travellers to the north of England the choice of two different hotel styles in one central location. We’re therefore looking forward to combining personalised home-from-home touches with an on-site restaurant, buzzing bar and extensive meeting facilities in a way that visitors to Manchester haven’t had before.”
Owners M&L Hospitality have worked closely with architects and interior designers to ensure The Lume will be ‘one of a kind’ in Manchester city centre. The contemporary architecture, with floor to ceiling glazing, allows natural light throughout the hotel.
The name ‘The Lume’ was chosen to celebrate the light-filled ‘illuminated’ hotel and as a nod to the textile ‘loom’ – an innovation that helped shape Manchester’s past. It also pays tribute to The University of Manchester’s illustrious ‘alumni’ including Alan Turing, Sir Howard Bernstein and Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, after whom the meeting rooms are named.
