Holiday Inn swaps sites, new Comfort Inn opens in Arlington Heights
A longtime hotel in Arlington Heights moved just across Arlington Heights Road, while another hotel took over its vacancy. They both will host their grand openings Tuesday.
The 111-room Holiday Inn Express left 2120 S. Arlington Heights Road in May and a new 125-room Comfort Inn took over its vacant property.
The new Holiday Inn Express is now in the former Jameson Hotel at 2111 S. Arlington Heights Road.
"The new Holiday Inn Express hopes to attract new and old clients to the hotel and provide more options for business in the area," said Jason Hayes, general manager of the Holiday Inn Express. "With all the updates, it is expected to see an increase in occupancy as well as average daily rate."
The Holiday Inn is owned by Agrani Heights LLC, while the Comfort Inn is owned by the Agrani Heights 2120 Management LLC.
Each of the hotels has separate ownership, but share some of the same investors. They also will combine celebrations Tuesday with open houses and tours for their grand openings, said the general managers of each hotel.
New owners bought the former Jameson Hotel property in 2012 and converted it to the new Holiday Inn Express. A $5 million renovation started in March and finished in June. The Holiday Inn moved in and remained open during the renovations, Hayes said.
Both hotels updated their guest rooms, corridors and other areas. The hotels boast that they are near major business hubs in Arlington Heights, Rolling Meadows, Mount Prospect, Elk Grove Village and Schaumburg, and are close to O'Hare International Airport. That makes them convenient for both business and leisure travelers, both managers said.
The Comfort Inn owners felt the brand would be a "good fit for the area," said Michael Cotten, general manager of the Comfort Inn. Cotten declined to say how much the renovations cost.
"We are hoping the Comfort brand will bring a steady flow of both business and leisure travelers," Cotten said.
They are among 10 hotels and motels in Arlington Heights with a total of 1,273 rooms. When Four Points by Sheraton near Arlington Park is finished, that number will increase. Four Points is on the site of the former Sheraton Chicago Northwest Hotel, which once had 400 rooms.
The Northwest suburban region, which extends to Elgin, has 108 hotels with about 13,000 rooms, all vying for business and leisure travelers, said Ric Mandingo, senior consultant with T.R. Mandigo & Co., a hotel consultancy based in Elmhurst.
Switching flags, or brand names, of the hotels in Arlington Heights allows one to avoid extra expenses to upgrade the property, while "allowing the other, which likely needed to spend anyway, to meet the new requirements of its brand," Mandigo said.