Hoteliers circling Sydney airport
Sydney Airport Corporation is finally catching up to its international counterparts in Singapore and Paris, with plans to roll out a string of internationally branded hotels across its Mascot terminals.
American hotel behemoth Starwood and the local listed Mantra Group are already jockeying to operate the airport hotels, which will be owned by the listed Sydney Airport Corporation.
All up, Sydney Airport plans three hotel developments, including a 200 to 300-room hotel at its T1 international terminal and two hotels totalling up to 500 rooms at its domestic T2 and T3 precinct. One of these is expected to be a five-star hotel of up to 430 rooms facing Qantas Drive. Sydney Airports would not divulge the development cost.
Starwood hopes it will win the tender to operate an Aloft-branded hotel at the international terminal, sources say. Mantra chief executive Bob East yesterday confirmed the group was bidding to operate one of the hotels, which would be branded a four-star Mantra.
“Sydney Airport’s Hotel Development Strategy seeks to address strong demand for hotels on and around Sydney Airport, within walking distance to our terminals,” a spokesman for Sydney Airports said yesterday.
“There has been significant interest from hotel operators in hotel opportunities at the airport.”
Amalgamated Holdings is also not expected to bid to operate any of the new hotels on offer because it opened one of Sydney Airport’s first on-site hotels, the 4.5-star, 318-room Rydges at Sydney Airport two years ago.
The only other on-site hotel at the airport is a 199-room budget Ibis, which opened in 2005.
Sydney Airport said there was demand for more on-site hotels because of passenger needs following unanticipated flight cancellations.
Source: The Australian, Lisa Allen, 29th September 2015
Originally published as: Hoteliers circling Sydney airport
