HOSPITALITY
Hospitality – the addition of Station Suites to the Holiday Inn Express Middlesbrough portfolio has brought six new jobs, bringing the total across both sites to 36.
PICTURE: CHRIS BOOTH
SUITE DREAMS
ARE MADE OF THIS
WORDS: SARAH DALE
Town’ s biggest hotel loves being ambassador for Middlesbrough
It’ s been an incredible year for Holiday Inn Express Middlesbrough. Opened in Centre Square in the town centre in August 2015, the awardwinning hotel, which has 159 bedrooms and two meeting rooms, celebrated its 10th anniversary and a record summer in 2025, welcoming 11,000 guests in two months.
And this year, the hotel owner reaffirmed their commitment to Teesside by investing more than £ 2m to refresh the bedrooms with new mattresses and new décor, carpets and curtains, as well as opening sister aparthotel, Station Suites, next to Middlesbrough Railway Station.
Laura Telford, cluster general manager, said:“ The owners wanted to invest in a second property thanks to the success of Holiday Inn Express Middlesbrough. It is a different concept, an aparthotel, with each suite comprising a bedroom, en suite, living area, kitchenette and workspace.
“ It has all the benefits of being in a hotel, such as 24-hour reception, laundry room and restaurant, but you have your own living space.
“ It’ s something available in Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle, but not something you see in Middlesbrough. It’ s perfect for people wanting a longer stay in the town due to work. It has a great reputation already and the reviews have been fantastic, contributing to a rating of 9.3 on Booking. com.”
The addition of Station Suites to the portfolio has meant six new jobs created and several in-house promotions. The team of 36 works across both sites.
“ Nearly every member of the team is a proud Teessider.” said Laura, who has worked for the company for nine years.
“ We are proud of our community, proud of being the largest hotel in Middlesbrough, proud of the jobs and the local community initiatives we support and proud of Middlesbrough.”
As cultural ambassadors, Holiday Inn Express Middlesbrough supports local equality, diversity and inclusion activities and events such as Diwali, Taste of Africa North East, Middlesbrough Pride and Middlesbrough Art Weekend.
The team also works with several charities, including Zoe’ s Place, Age UK, RNLI, Maxi’ s Mates, Genesis Project and CEO Sleepout, and with young people at Middlesbrough College, Laurence Jackson School and Bydales Outwood Academy to provide work experience and workplace visits.
Laura added that the success of both sites is down to the team and the high level of service provided to all guests.
“ They know that we will take care of them,” she said.“ We are very good at building relationships. Some guests will stay Monday to Thursday every week. They arrive on a Monday and go put their case in their room and we will have their usual drink poured when they come down, as we know their routine. It’ s the little details that make a difference.”
As part of its commitment to the community, Holiday Inn Express Middlesbrough partners with Cleveland Police as part of Operation Makesafe, working to protect children and vulnerable people from sexual exploitation, and is a dementia-friendly hotel, providing dementia and deaf awareness training to employees.
“ We bring 5,000 people into Middlesbrough every month,” she said.“ We’ re a great ambassador for Middlesbrough. We tell guests all about what’ s going on in Middlesbrough and the surrounding area. We want to showcase that Middlesbrough and Teesside have so much to offer.
“ We have our own dining area, but we also have good relationships with local restaurants. For example, guests receive a 20 % discount on meals at Rio Brazilian Steakhouse next door. We want to give our guests as much choice as possible, and we also want to keep them spending money locally rather than going further afield.
“ We’ re supporting the town, supporting local businesses and giving an additional service to our guests as well.
“ Holiday Inn Express is classed as a select service hotel, as we don’ t have a spa or a pool, but the service we provide is awardwinning.
“ We go above and beyond for our guests. That’ s what we pride ourselves on. We look forward to welcoming visitors to Teesside.”
For all accommodation enquiries, contact salesmanager @ hiexmiddlesbrough. co. uk. For extended stay accommodation requests, contact salesmanager @ stationsuites. co. uk.
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