"Luxury on a budget" is what Bloc Hotels was striving for when it opened its first ever hotel in the city of Birmingham last year. The 73-guestroom establishment offers all the commodities one would expect from, at least, an upper-midscale hotel: powerful drench showers, king-size beds, high-speed Wi-Fi, luxury bed linen, sound insulation, high-definition flat screen televisions,
and Nespresso coffee from self-serve machines. Only one thing is unexpected: rates start from £30 per night.
To achieve this, Bloc sacrifices what it deems to be "unnecessary" space: traditional wardrobes have been replaced with pegs and storage space under the bed, based on studies showing guests rarely unpack their suitcases during short stays, and the number of bedside tables is normally limited to one. Bloc draws inspiration from Japanese capsule hotels: rooms were built off-site then stacked and the hotel exterior wrapped around them, maximising space on the site and reducing by half the time it takes to build a brand new property from scratch.
Now a new 245-room Bloc hotel is being planned in Gatwick's South Terminal. Works will begin in October to transform the four-story Norfolk House office building into the group's second establishment, with inauguration scheduled for August 2013. Bloc is pursuing expansion in the UK, looking to open new sites elsewhere in Birmingham and London.
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