We visited the Heathrow Holiday Inn Bath Road this week, and found the hotel in the grip of Olympics fever!
Not really surprising, given that Holiday Inn was chosen to help run the athletes’ village, where the Olympians are staying during both the two-week event and the Paralympics that follows, and even employing some of the Olympians during their training. Inspired, we thought this was the perfect excuse to take a close look at what Holiday Inn are doing to support this historic event.
Holiday Inn is the first hotel chain to be placed in charge of accommodation for Olympic athletes and they’re very excited about it. Almost 3,000 rooms in 11 blocks have been designed by Holiday Inn to house teams of athletes from the 204 participating countries, and the hotel chain’s staff will be looking after the athletes’ needs during their stay. Each block has a private courtyard for the Olympians to relax and socialise in, and the whole village is built around a central park. Stratford International train station is only 7 minutes away, giving the athletes transport links to central London.
Once the London 2012 Olympics and the Paralympics have wound down and the athletes’ village has been vacated, the apartments will be converted into affordable housing. This East Village will be the centre of plans to make use of Olympic projects in the long term.
The staff of the Holiday Inn Bath Road with the Olympic Torch
As if this wasn’t enough, Holiday Inn has done even more to support the Olympics by providing flexible employment opportunities to Olympic hopefuls during their training. The Holiday Inn Bath Road’s bar employed one of the provisional rowing team throughout his training and was also host to part of the Olympic Torch relay.
The London Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime event and the Holiday Inn is making sure the athletes are as well rested before their events as their guests are the morning after their stay. One thing’s for certain, Holiday Inn wins a gold medal for service.
