Thorpe Park | Snoozebox hotel

[EnigmaHyena]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

I literally can't get over the glamour of it all, that image knocked me off my chair.

Everyone wants to splash out on a claustrophobic metal tin with one window! Looking at the picture, I can picture the containers...sorry, premium hotel, on the upper level just toppling backwards from chavs throwing themselves against the walls (me and Scarlet are well accustomed to Travelodges 'suicide boards', I hope this hotel has them.)

They can say it's testing how well a hotel would work at the park all they like, but honestly those things will hardly attract many overnight visitors...it's a completely different level of quality so they can't really judge if it'd work well from this as opposed to a fully-fledged visually appealing building. Whatever, this can just be another hole for Merlin to dig themselves deep into. Personally I don't think Thorpe is a two day park since it's so small and easy to do everything unless something breaks down. Saying that I don't think Chessington has "too much for one day!!!" either but then again I get bored there after half an hour. That's just me though, people love Thorpe so it could prove us wrong and be successful.

I can't wait to see how they're going to market this...

 

[Idlewild]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

Looks gash. I still think they should invest in something along the lines of Universal's CityWalk, some restaurants, shops, bars, nightclubs, a cinema, etc. The crowd that Thorpe attracts are young adults, and if they want people to spend a weekend away at Thorpe you're not going to entice them with the 'nightlife' in Staines, and yes London is close but people are quire wary of public transport if they're far away from home. I know it would be a very expensive investment, but I think it's pay off massively and would definitely appeal to the Thorpe crowd.

Apparently something like this has been considered for Thorpe. It would be built on the site of the current car park with a new car park being built on the site of the marina one the other side of the road.

A shuttle bus was also considered between Thorpe and Chessington back in 2003, it was a great idea shame it did not happen.

 

[LG95]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

Again, that is just a lame excuse about testing if there is a need for a hotel. Two completely different levels of quality. I would feel a bit embarrassed to sleep in one of those units if it was at Thorpe. Events I understand, but a Theme Park? Whatever, it is there money they are throwing away.

But yes, the idea is to add a hotel and boardwalk type area over by part of the car park and on currently empty land. Apparently when the hotel comes, a new main entrance will also be on the cars which will be nice.

I imagine that they will also want to try and add a sealife center or whatever to make the resort experience even stronger though I imagine it will not be any time soon.

 

[Robbie]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

I think it could work... but not at £80 a night. But look at something like their Ministry of Sound events - if that could go on all night it would be an attractive option for the party people to just bed down there in a functional room rather than trying to find somewhere else.

But I'm not sure there's much scope for Thorpe to be a 'resort' - there's just not enough family attractions there.

 

[badboi787]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

Just because the pictures make it out to be a ugly looking shipping container doesn't mean it has to look like that. I know it sounds funny but in my eyes Thorpe cares about the presentation of the park (Well, apart from Storm Surge) so if anything, they'll make a deal with Snoozebox to theme the 'hotel'.

But then again, Thorpe Park is owned by Merlin so I'd doubt that would happen.

 

[Ian]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

It's wonderfully tacky. I'd quite happily spend a night in one of them! It's cheap, cost effective way to build a hotel suited for the majority of Thorpe's clientelle.

If you think of the times that you (or others) have stayed in a "quirky" hotel and enjoyed the novelty.

Yes, it's hysterical that Merlin are using shipping containers once again, but it's not vile as some people are suggesting imo.

 

[gavin]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

^ Yeah, it's a cheap, cost effective way to build the thing, but will it be a cheap, cost effective stay for visitors?

I might be jumping the gun since we don't know prices, but I'm willing to bet no.

 

[Nemesis of oblivion]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

To be honest I think Thorpe Park need to focus on fixing the park up before they build these...shipping containers.

 

[furie]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

To be honest I think Thorpe Park need to focus on fixing the park up before they build these...shipping containers.

Cost to Thorpe is actually negligible. The company sorts pretty much everything out for a low cost and then you rake in the profits. It requires very little outlay on the part of Thorpe - so it's not suddenly destroying budgets that could be spent elsewhere or anything.

Here:

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Questions

Q: How is it costed?

A: The process is simple.

Option 1: We give you a fixed price per room for Snoozebox. The cost includes everything for us to deliver and operate the hotel for you, with no hidden extras. The room rate is fixed by you and you receive all the revenue

Option 2: You give us space to site Snoozebox at an event and we will return a guaranteed percentage of the room revenue to you. If we provide food and beverage for guests, there would also be an additional income from those sales.

 

[Nemesis Inferno]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

So Thorpe only get a percentage of income produced from this?

 

[furie]

Re: Thorpe Park Hotel (sort of!)

Not really, it depends on how they run it. Plus... Isn't that always the case.

In scenario 1, they pay upfront for the rooms and install and take all the profit. This is identical to them building their own hotel, only roughly £3,000,000 cheaper.

In scenario 2, they don't pay a penny but get a percentage of the income (probably very small). This also doesn't cost them £3,000,000.

In a "test the waters" kind of way, it's a great way of gauging if the £3,000,000 investment is required. If they did build their own hotel, then it'd be, I dunno? 10 years until that investment was paid off. So they'd be out of pocket for 10 years and then making profits. Which is like scenario 1, but worse

Obviously there's a bigger picture, but why do it properly when you can wedge in some shipping containers and pretend you're a real player?

 

[Ian]

Just checked the planning application for this, the committee date is the 24th October so I'm guessing a decision will be made pretty soon.

 

[Ethan]

I am dreading this project. Eurgh.

 

[Thekingin64]

After last night at Fright Nights, Thorpe could easily use a hotel. Around 9:30-10, there were still plenty of people hanging around in the dome mainly eating.

 

[gavin]

^What's it like in that area in December at 10pm?

 

[SaiyanHajime]

If our major parks behaved like they do in the USA and opened at peak winter times, then it would be busy.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire S A510e using Tapatalk 2

 

[nadroJ]

^But they're stupid. So it won't.

 

[Ian]

This was been granted planning permission last Friday (only bothered to check again now).

It'll open in 2013 and has consent until February 2016.

 

[Ethan]

By the way this thing is called 'THE CRASH PAD'

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid= ... =3&theater

It'll still be awful but if they made it look ok, have a small bar/club and a restaurant (which is a long shot), then it could look alright... Hopefully.

 

[Martyn B]

I'm surprised they've been that subtle, I was expecting something like 'Shag pad'.