Jurys Inn was a hotel group founded and headquartered in Ireland with operations across Ireland, the UK and the Czech Republic. It was founded in 1993 and grew to operate 31 hotels in the Great Britain, six in Ireland and one in the Czech Republic, with some 7,500 rooms between them, served by 4,000 employees.

Jurys Inn Group Limited
Company typePrivate
IndustryHotel
Founded1881 (1881)
FounderWilliam Jury
Defunct2023
FateRebranded as Leonardo Hotels
Headquarters,
Number of locations
38
Area served
Ireland, United Kingdom, Czech Republic
Key people
Jason Carruthers (Managing Director)
Number of employees
4,000
Websitejurysinns.com

Jurys Inn became a member of the Leonardo Hotels Group, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fattal Hotels, which operates more than 160 hotels in 16 countries. Fattal ran the operating platform for all the Jurys Inn hotels, as well as having the leaseholds for 15 of these. In 2022, it was announced that all Jurys Inn hotels in the UK and Ireland were to be rebranded as Leonardo hotels.[1]

Jurys Inn was also part-owned by the Swedish company Pandox AB, a European hotel property investor with 122 hotels in 11 countries, including the freehold of 20 Jurys Inn hotels.

History edit

The heritage of the Jurys Group can be traced back to 1881, when William Jury opened his first boarding house in Dublin. The first Doyle Hotel, The Montrose, was built in Stillorgan, Dublin, in 1964 by PV Doyle.

1993 saw the introduction of the Jurys Inns brand with the opening of the Galway and Christchurch (Dublin) Inns in April and May, respectively.

The chain opened its first hotel in Northern Ireland, in Belfast, in April 1997. It expanded into Great Britain with a hotel in London in May 1998.

The Jurys Hotel Group acquired the Doyle portfolio of Dublin, London, and Washington, DC0, in 1999, and the newly enlarged organisation became known as Jurys Doyle Hotel Group Ltd.[2]

Further expansion came in 2001 with the acquisition of two properties owned by Chamberlain Hotels Limited.

The group was then acquired by Quinlan Private in a €1.165 billion takeover in 2008, while the Oman Investment Fund invested €200 million in a 50% stake.[3]

In August 2009, the group opened its first hotel on the European mainland—in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.[4] In 2014, three of the company's London hotels (Islington, Chelsea, and Heathrow Airport) were brought under the Hilton Worldwide chain through a franchise agreement and rebranded accordingly—the former two becoming DoubleTree by Hilton hotels and the latter a Hilton Garden Inn.[5][6]

Throughout 2015, Jurys Inn added 9 hotels that previously operated under the Thistle Hotels and The Hotel Collection brands:[7][8] Jurys Inn Cheltenham, Jurys Inn Cardiff, Jurys Inn East Midlands Airport, Jurys Inn Oxford, Jurys Inn Middlesbrough, Jurys Inn Brighton Waterfront, Jurys Inn Hinckley Island, Jurys Inn Aberdeen Airport, and Jurys Inn Inverness.

Swedish hotel company Pandox and Israeli group Fattal acquired Fattal Hotels from US private equity firm Lone Star in December 2017 for £800 million (€908 million). This portfolio of 37 hotels includes the entire Jurys Inn portfolio of 36 hotels, along with one hotel at London's Heathrow airport, currently trading as a Hilton Garden Inn.[9][10][11]

In April 2022, the Fattal Hotel Group announced that the Jurys Inn branding would be retired. The group already operates 145 Leonardo-branded hotels worldwide.[12]

Locations edit

Under the Jurys Inn hotel brand, the company operated 38 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Czech Republic.

Location Hotels Operating Since
Aberdeen, Scotland Jurys Inn Aberdeen September 2009
Jurys Inn Aberdeen Airport October 2015
Belfast, Northern Ireland Jurys Inn Belfast April 1997
Birmingham, England Jurys Inn Birmingham March 2001
Bradford, England Jurys Inn Bradford July 2011
Brighton, England Jurys Inn Brighton December 2007
Jurys Inn Brighton Waterfront December 2015
Cardiff, Wales Jurys Inn Cardiff October 2015
Cheltenham, England Jurys Inn Cheltenham October 2015
Cork, Ireland Jurys Inn Cork August 1994
Derby, England Jurys Inn Derby June 2009
Dublin, Ireland Jurys Inn Dublin Christchurch May 1993
Jurys Inn Dublin Parnell Street August 2004
Edinburgh, Scotland Jurys Inn Edinburgh July 1998
Exeter, England Jurys Inn Exeter 2009
Galway, Ireland Jurys Inn Galway April 1993
Glasgow, Scotland Jurys Inn Glasgow August 2003
Greater London, England Jurys Inn London Croydon March 2002
Jurys Inn London Watford March 2009
Leicestershire, England Jurys Inn East Midlands, East Midlands Airport, Leices October 2015
Jurys Inn Hinckley Island, Hinckley October 2015
Inverness, Scotland Jurys Inn Inverness October 2015
Leeds, England Jurys Inn Leeds February 2004
Liverpool, England Jurys Inn Liverpool April 2008
Manchester, England Jurys Inn Manchester April 1999
Middlesbrough, England Jurys Inn Middlesbrough October 2015
Milton Keynes, England Jurys Inn Milton Keynes August 2006
Newcastle/Gateshead, England Jurys Inn Newcastle February 2003
Jurys Inn Newcastle Quayside August 2011
Nottingham, England Jurys Inn Nottingham September 2005
Oxford, England Jurys Inn Oxford October 2015
Plymouth, England Jurys Inn Plymouth June 2007
Prague, Czech Republic Jurys Inn Prague August 2009
Sheffield, England Jurys Inn Sheffield January 2009
Southampton, England Jurys Inn Southampton May 2005
Swindon, England Jurys Inn Swindon June 2009
Watford, England Jurys Inn Watford March 2009

Awards edit

The chain received the following accolades:

  • Business Travel Awards: Best Small Hotel Group 2017,[13] 2018[14]
  • British Travel Awards: Best International Mid-Scale Hotel brand 2015,[15] 2016[16]
  • Business Travel Awards: Best Hotel Brand 2010, 2012, 2015[17]
  • Irish Travel Industry Awards: Best Irish Hotel Chain 2012, 2013 and 2014[18]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ "Iconic Irish hotel chain Jurys Inn to be rebranded as 'Leonardo'". 17 April 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  2. ^ "After the acquisition". hotelowner. 22 December 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  3. ^ "Oil-rich Oman invests €200m in Jurys Inns". Irish Times. 8 August 2008. Retrieved 21 April 2009.
  4. ^ "Prague Hotel Opening". Jurys Inn. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 24 February 2009.
  5. ^ Jurys Inn Islington transformed into a Doubletree by Hilton
  6. ^ Jurys Inn rebranded as Hilton Garden Inn
  7. ^ "Amaris Hospitality to complete £100m investment programme with Brighton's Waterfront Hotel re-brand". Big Hospitality. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  8. ^ "After the acquisition". hotelowner. 22 December 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  9. ^ "jurys-inn-chain-acquired-by-swedish-and-israeli-groups". IrishTimes. 13 December 2017. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  10. ^ "Swedens Pandox to buy Jurys Inn hotels in Lone Star deal". Reuters. 13 December 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  11. ^ https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/lhrepgi-hilton-garden-inn-london-heathrow-airport/ Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow Airport
  12. ^ "Last Supper for Jurys Inn – owners rebrand chain as Leonardo".
  13. ^ "Business Travel Awards 2017". Business Travel Awards. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  14. ^ "Business Travel Awards 2018". Business Travel Awards. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  15. ^ "British Travel Awards 2015 Winners". Mirror. 25 November 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  16. ^ "British Travel Awards 2016". British Travel Awards. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  17. ^ "Business Travel Awards – Previous Winners" (PDF). Business Travel Awards. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  18. ^ "Irish Travel Industry Awards – Previous Winners". Irish Travel Industry Awards. Retrieved 2 May 2018.

External links edit