Time for a railway hotel comeback?

[Meerkat]

In the current traffic and environmental climate do you think there is a market for hotels right outside stations again?
The current structure precludes railway ownership/operation (and best left to experts anyway) but I am wondering whether hotels can be built on railway land, maybe over stations or car parks, operated by trusted chains, but with marketing links to railway services, sold as packages.
Either the hotel chain sell rail tickets as discounted add-ons, or hotels get added to the rail ticket buying system as discounted add-ons.
The advantage to the customer (tourist or business) is simplicity and little distance to lug heavy bags The railway gets extra off peak travel (can’t check in until the afternoon), and lease payments to NR.

 

[JonathanH]

In the current traffic and environmental climate do you think there is a market for hotels right outside stations again?

Isn't this something that the market already provides where it is possible. There are plenty of Premier Inns and Travelodges (and other hotels) right next to stations and some have been built quite recently.

As for package trips, is that really where the market lies? A small reduction in price obviously attracts people to a package but that saving either needs to come from the margin of the hotel operation or the railway operation.

In general it would appear that people get the best deal for anything when they go direct to the provider and purchase the best deal available.

Does this idea increase the demand for travel (which would be the objective) over the status quo? I'm not sure it does.

 

[Meerkat]

Fair enough, but what about the concept of encouraging the building of chain hotels on railway land?
If not packages then joint marketing would still work - flogging weekend breaks to the commuters.

 

[JonathanH]

Fair enough, but what about the concept of encouraging the building of chain hotels on railway land?
If not packages then joint marketing would still work - flogging weekend breaks to the commuters.

Depends whether the land is going to make more money for hotels or homes.

https://www.solum.co.uk/development/epsom/ included a Travelodge.

https://www.solum.co.uk/solum-gets-go-ahead-guildford-station-transformation/ doesn't - the regeneration includes homes and offices.

Whether this kind of large scale redevelopment provides a long term attractive station environment is a moot point - perhaps it is good not to have high rise development at stations.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There are hotels right outside many stations or very near to them. Euston Travelodge, MKC Travelodge, Cardiff Sleeperz (I think that's what it's called) to name but three. Not to mention of course the one and only St Pancras!

"Back in the day" the benefit of a railway hotel was probably ease of booking alongside your train ticket, but now it takes 5 minutes on the Internet so ownership isn't really so important.

 

[paddington]

So something like the Intercity hotels in Germany?

Firstly, many British stations are far from the town centres of the places they serve, thus for those stations the hotels would primarily target people with very early or late trains to catch, or people who book based on price and don't mind walking long distances (so they may not even have travelled there by train) rather than all visitors arriving by train.

Then for stations that are located near to city centres, there are already a plethora of hotels and no great need for one right next to the station to be affiliated with the railway.

As mentioned the market has already provided many hotels near stations and these include UK chains such as travelodge, international chains and also independent hotels.

As I don't exclusively travel by train nor exclusively in the UK, I choose international chains. My current chains of choice are Hilton and IHG and these chains serve many stations well. My recent stays at member properties next to Leeds, York, Newcastle, Thornaby, Hull, Man Picc, Man Vic, Moorfields stations

If I need to stay at stations without a preferred hotel nearby, I just look at hotels.com and choose one and get a 15% rebate. For example Derby.

I can't comment on ticketing as my travel is atypical, I am usually using a rover or split tickets or I want to take an unusual route early in the morning.

 

[Bald Rick]

I’m struggling to think of a major station that doesn’t have a hotel either on the premises or within a 2 minute walk. Sheffield is the only one I can think of.

Plenty of hotels on ex railway land, many built recently.

 

[xotGD]

In London many hotels are advertised as the branch for whichever station they are vaguely near. Being a hotel serving or being handy for the station is seen as a positive from a marketing perspective.

The Marylebone Travelodge has received my business precisely because it is right by the station, so no need for a tube journey after arriving.

 

[PartyOperator]

Some are a bit rubbish. Outside the big city centres (and even in some of them) it's probably difficult to justify the cost of refurbishing a Victorian building to modern hotel standards. It's a shame as many of these are beautiful buildings and very close to stations.

 

[adamedwards]

I've seen news that Russian Railways are running a Moscow to Moscow sleeper as a couchette hotel. So could the old MK3 sleepers be used to run a Euston to Wembley sleeper to provide a station hotel? Showers in a portakabin at the depot?

 

[adamedwards]

GWR could do Paddington to Old Oak Common for the night.

 

[adamedwards]

And for the Edinburgh Festival a very slow tour of the suburban line! I'll shut up now!

 

[PeterC]

Isn't this something that the market already provides where it is possible. There are plenty of Premier Inns and Travelodges (and other hotels) right next to stations and some have been built quite recently.

As for package trips, is that really where the market lies? A small reduction in price obviously attracts people to a package but that saving either needs to come from the margin of the hotel operation or the railway operation.

In general it would appear that people get the best deal for anything when they go direct to the provider and purchase the best deal available.

Does this idea increase the demand for travel (which would be the objective) over the status quo? I'm not sure it does.

Even some built on railway land as the OP was suggesting.

Railway owned hotels were the first hotel chains. Before the internet you had to leaf through the adverts in various publications to find somewhere to stay or you just looked in the railway timetable. Now we have Google Maps to show us where all the hotels and restaurants are located and its just a couple of clicks to find the most suitable.