While staying the night above a petrol station may not be everyone’s idea of the perfect luxury break, forecourt owners Rahila and Danny Ahmed insist their nine-bedroom boutique hotel, built over their Gulf site in Birmingham, UK, has been so popular since opening in January 2024 that they intend to offer the template to other operators.
Hotel Holloway, a conversion of former office space, brands itself as an “oasis of comfort and sophistication” close to the city centre. With a drop in demand for office space as many work from home, Ahmed, together with his late father-in-law, Arshad Iqbal – a former director of Falcon Service Stations – came up with the idea of the vertical expansion into hospitality..
From the outside, the establishment, looks unprepossessing – a one-floor block running the entire width of the forecourt, with an entrance stairwell to the left.
Ahmed said the hotel uses what might have been dead space to create revenue for the business. As well as the hotel and forecourt, the site also includes a large convenience store, hand car wash and Bull Burgers, all of which are owned by the enterprising couple. In addition to this site, the Ahmed’s also run three other petrol stations.
Ahmed, who has owned the busy Birmingham city centre forecourt for 13 years, said it took about a year to get planning and building consent for the project.
Full story Redefining rest-stops: UK petrol station opens forecourt hotel - Convenience & Impulse Retailing
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