InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has opened its first Staybridge Suites properties outside North America.
The brand, which is aimed at travellers staying more than five nghts, opened a 132-suite property in Liverpool, UK.
It also opened a property in Cairo inside the CityStars retail complex.
IHG CEO Andrew Cosslett said there is a growing type of traveller who is away for days or weeks at a time and would prefer their hotel to feel more like home.
"It is this gap between conventional hotels and serviced apartments that Staybridge Suites' homely combination of the domestic environment with traditional hotel services has been designed to bridge.
"From an owner perspective, the brand provides a great investment opportunity thanks to the comparatively low build cost and the stable revenues that one can expect in the extended-stay market, making us confident that the concept will succeed this side of the Atlantic," he said.
IHG has also signed an agreement to build two Staybridge Suites in Russia.
The 176-room Staybridge Suites St Petersburg - Moskovskaya Vorota was signed under a franchise agreement with Light Road LLC. The owners are due to unveil the first Holiday Inn in the city this November and the new Staybridge property, expected to open in Spring 2009, will be built on the same site.
Management contracts for both the 78-suite Staybridge Suites Nizhny Novgorod and the adjoining 202-room Crowne Plaza Nizhny Novgorod were also signed with the Clover Group.
Nizhny Novgorod is the fourth largest and one of the most rapidly developing cities in the Russian Federation.
By Elizabeth Clifford-Marsh
