Sol Melià brings new ME city hotel brand to London

Spanish hotel chain Sol Melià is to bring its latest hotel brand, ME, to London, as it announces plans to open a site in Holborn in 2012.​

The 173-room ME London hotel will be located on a triangular piece of land that was previously the site of the Casa Marconi hotel and the City Bank building. 

BigHospitality understands that Sol Melià purchased the site for €133 million (£115m), and is currently in the process of carrying out a €52 million (£45m) reconstruction from scratch.

The new hotel will open in time for the 2012 Olympics, and will become the second hotel for the chain in the London, joining the Melià White House in Regent’s Park, which opened ten years ago.

Strategic​

Sol Melià said today that it regards ME London as a strategic move to build the ME brand internationally.

Chief executive of Sol Melià, Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, said: “This deal brings the addition of a strategic asset in a key destination and also position the brand in one of the most important feeder markets in the world travel industry.”

The ME London hotel has been will feature two “destination restaurants” and bars at ground level, as well as 173 rooms in four different categories and a 730 square metre convention centre.

The ME hotel brand, which Sol Melià describes as “integrated within the fabric of city life” is already in operation in Barcelona and Madrid, as well as Cancun and Cabo in Mexico. In addition to the London site, another ME hotel is planned in Vienna, to occupy 22 floors of the tallest building in the Austrian capital.