Branson opens first Virgin hotel

Tuesday, 16 Jan, 2015 0

Virgin Hotels has opened its first property, a 250-room hotel in Chicago.

Promising ‘beautiful, comfortable, fun hotels’, Sir Richard Branson also promised its hotels would be ‘gentle’ on customers’ wallets.

A quick search by TravelMole.com found rates for a double room cost around $200 a night.

The hotel brand will offer free Wi-Fi (at unlimited bandwidth) and won’t have early check-in fees, late check-out fees, room service delivery charges, business centre transactions, and other services, which it says have caused frustration for travellers.

Virgin Hotels Chicago is in Chicago’s Loop district in the historic Old Dearborn Bank Building at 203 N. Wabash Ave.

The 26-storey Art Deco building has a ‘1920s oak Cigar Bar that serves as the hotel’s front desk, ornate brass elevator doors, and the original mail slot and chute serving all floors’.

It also has ‘The Commons Club’, a space where guests can ‘dine, drink, work and mingle’, and join the nightly hosted Social Hour.

Virgin Hotels plans to open a second location in Nashville in summer 2016 and a third property in New York City in the autumn of 2017.

The team will announce two additional locations by the end of 2016, as well, with the brand hoping to have 20 locations by 2025.

Bev

Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.

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