Thorpe Park Hotel & Spa
More Awards for Thorpe Park Hotel & Spa
A business park in Leeds is not the location that instantly springs to mind when
talk turns to the Group Hotel of the Year Catey. But the winner of this year's
award, Thorpe Park Hotel & Spa, proves that if you have a fantastic offering
the location can become a secondary consideration. The 123-bedroom hotel on a
Leeds business park, only minutes from the M1 motorway and six miles from the
city centre, is aimed at the business traveller during the week and the leisure
guest at the weekend. It is based loosely on the style of a French château and
was conceived after Ian Harkness, managing director of Shire Hotels to which Thorpe
Park belongs, visited the Mirande hotel in Avignon, France.
It also broke the mould style-wise, going away from the traditional style of
the other hotels in the group to be much more contemporary.
The conference market dominates Thorpe Park's business make-up and there are
14 rooms all with natural light and a bright trendy conference café where delegates
can 'graze'. The main conference room is kitted out with the latest equipment
and for relaxing after the conference there is a 13-metre pool, a whirlpool, sauna,
monsoon shower, and steam room with fibre-optic lights.
