"This is an exciting move for us in our growth strategy and will give us greater visibility," said Joseph Grimaldi, managing director, Accor UK Economy Hotels Ltd. "The hotels are of a high standard and similar to our core brand. It immediately adds 660 rooms to our network and brings the total number of Ibis hotels in UK and Ireland to 34 (3,705 rooms), with three more new-build hotels due to open later this year in Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow".

Accor operates 6 hotel brands in the United Kingdom : Formule 1, Etap Hotel, Ibis, Novotel, Mercure and Sofitel. The 8 new Ibis hotels bring the total number of Accor hotels in the UK to 64 (7,583 rooms).

Accor UK Economy Hotels Ltd comprises 26 Ibis Hotels, 8 Formule 1 Hotels and 1 Etap Hotel with plans for expansion in Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and London in 2001.

All the hotel staff are being retained and the hotels will be integrated into the Ibis brand standards over the next few months.

The hotels were previously operated under the Express by Holiday Inn banner and are located in Barlborough in Derbyshire (86 rooms), Bradford Shipley (78 rooms), Cardiff Gate (78 rooms), Chesterfield (86 rooms), Lincoln (86 rooms), Preston North (82 rooms), Rotherham (86 rooms) and Wellingborough (78 rooms).

Those hotels offer from now all Ibis brand services and advantages. Already you can book a room by :

• Accor Reservation Services (United Kindom) : 0208 283 4500
• Web sites : www.ibishotel.com and www.accorhotel.com

Accor with 129,000 associates in 140 countries, is the European leader and one of the world's largest groups in travel, tourism and services with two major international actvities:.

• hotels: 3,400 hotels (370,000 rooms) in 90 countries and travel agencies, restaurants and casinos:
• services: each day, over 11 million people in 30 countries use a broad range of services (vouchers and cards, on line services) developed, issued and managed by Accor on behalf of corporate clients and public authorities.