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New Premier Inn ready to open in Oxfordshire town
A new Premier Inn hotel next to the Tesco Extra store in Abingdon looks ready to open soon.
The chain owned by Whitbread already has a hotel a short distance away in Marcham Road but now is building a second one in the town on the site next to the superstore.
The building can now be seen clearly from the Marcham Road, close to the Marcham interchange.
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The opening of the new four-storey Premier Inn later this year will not affect the running of the existing one.
Gary Poulton, construction project and programme manager at Whitbread, Premier Inn’s parent company, said earlier: “Our partners Hinton Group are making good progress constructing the new 86-bedroom Premier Inn at Abingdon.
“The hotel will bring our very latest format rooms and restaurant to Abingdon at a convenient location close to the A34 and easy access into Oxford.
“All being well we hope to be ready to welcome guests to the hotel in autumn, bringing more of our affordable hotel rooms to the pretty market town and further strengthening our offer in the wider Oxford area.”
The new hotel will feature the latest Premier Inn rooms and ground floor restaurant.
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Recent openings in the Oxford area includes the Premier Inn in the city centre (Westgate – June 2021), at Botley (April 2021) and Oxford Airport (Kidlington) – January 2020).
The site next to Tesco Extra got planning permission as a Travelodge but the developers then switched to Premier Inn.
A spokesman for Premier Inn said an autumn opening was expected but did not provide a more specific date.
A spokesman for the chain said last year: “The existing hotel is a small older generation hotel and the new one will be our modern format.
“The new opening doesn’t impact the trading and the staff of the existing hotel.”
The new hotel is situated on the site of Tesco’s former garden centre.
In April 2021, Whitbread opened an eight-storey 123-bedroom Premier Inn at West Way, Botley, then an Oxford city centre hotel in Paradise Square in June 2021.
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According to the planning application, the new Abingdon hotel is expected to create about 25 full and part-time jobs.
There is also a Hilton Garden Inn in Marcham Road, at the start of the entrance road for Tesco Extra.
The Upper Reaches Hotel next to Abingdon Bridge closed in 2015 and has not reopened.
Since its closure it has become an eyesore and some residents have called for it to be brought back into use as a cafe, restaurant, new hotel or bed and breakfast.
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About the author
Andy is the Trade and Tourism reporter for the Oxford Mail and you can sign up to his newsletters for free here.
He joined the team more than 20 years ago and he covers community news across Oxfordshire.
His Trade and Tourism newsletter is released every Saturday morning.
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