Sleep Inn
| Locations: | 3 services |
| Introduced: | 2000 |
| Removed: | 2007 |
| Successors: | Purple Hotel |
www.sleepinn.com
Sleep Inn is one of a number of brands owned by Choice Hotels International, and can be found mainly in America. It was used across the UK for a while.
As far as major roads go, only three Sleep Inns were opened at service areas: three Extra motorway services, which were all newly-developed. They were ran by CHE Group. As they were specially designed for the service areas, the hotel buildings have no bar or restaurant. Unusually for a service area, they do have a drop-off point, and a lobby.
In December 2007, CHE Group ended its relationship with Choice Hotels. This meant they lost the rights to the Sleep Inn name, and had to create Purple Hotel.
Ownership
In 1990 a Sleep Inn opened in Nottingham, owned by Budgotel, who planned 24 more. The recession meant this was the only one they opened.
In 1996, Friendly Hotels negotiated a licence to operate some of the Choice Hotels brands in the UK, and eventually across Europe. Under the deal, Friendly Hotels would become Comfort Inns, Friendly Stop Inns would become Quality Hotel and new Sleep Inns would be built. The licence required them to open 44 new hotels by 2006, but Friendly said they would "easily" reach three figures.
Friendly Hotels was renamed CHE Group (Choice Hotels Europe). They had been struggling financially, but in 2006 they said they wanted to adopt a more aggressive business strategy. 60 new Sleep Inns were planned.
In October 2007 CHE ended its relationship with Choice Hotels International, and was renamed The Real Hotel Company. The Comfort Inns and Quality Inns in the UK remained the responsibility of Choice Hotels International.
Locations
Sleep Inn used to be found at the following services:
- Baldock (A1(M)/A1)
- Cambridge (A14)
- Peterborough (A1(M)/A1)