A firm of developers that is offering investment opportunities in hotels says it is being swamped with interest. Andy Woodcock, founder of Owner Hotel, said: “This is going to be bigger than buy-tolet.

“We offer a guaranteed 10% return for two years and it is a very simple investment: the hotel staff collect all the money and pay it into the owners’ accounts. All the rooms are furnished and maintained by staff, and the investors literally don’t have to do anything.

“They even get up to 52 nights free accommodation a year in their room as part of the deal.

“Investors are realising this is a licence to make money while they sleep. Although we expected a good response because we know the project is a winner, we have been staggered by the response. We’ve been inundated with calls and requests from investors who have heard about the project and want to get in at the start.”

As well as likely capital appreciation, investors also get 50% of the room rate revenue. Chancellor Gordon Brown has also

Woodcock’s firm currently has two hotels in Hull and one in York, where rooms have been sold off-plan to investors while the hotels were closed during refurbishment. The company is now planning to buy nine more hotels in the next 18 months, all of which will be available for investors wanting to buy rooms. Likely locations include Liverpool and Birmingham. All the hotels will be named Investor Hotel.

Pricing

Prices currently start at £49,950 for a single ‘pod’ in one of the Hull hotels. These are rooms measuring two by four metres, including shower area. They have no outside windows, but a television screen lights up to become a virtual window. Just two pod rooms were available when we went to press. The other hotel in Hull is a four-star, fullservice affair, as is the 18th century hotel, formerly the Jorvik Hotel, in York which is currently undergoing a £2 million facelift.

In York, prices are £104,000 for a single room to £154,000 for a deluxe suite. However, virtually all the 22 rooms have gone, and did so within days.

The Owner Hotel idea is based on a concept created by US tycoon Donald Trump and there are investment hotels in New York, Toronto and Las Vegas. In London, GuestInvest has also made a huge success out of investment hotels.

Owner Hotel York and Owner Hotel Hull are both due to open this summer and will contain features such as emperor-sized beds with NASA-inspired mattresses and pillows which remain cool to the touch throughout the night.

Woodcock said: “As soon as word spread about our hotel plans in York, our telephones were ringing with potential investors expressing an interest.

“This concept is beginning to define the future of the hotel industry throughout Britain.”