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Holiday Inn owner urges calm after attacks on two hotels housing asylum seekers

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The owner of Holiday Inn has called for calm to be restored after rioters attacked several of its UK hotels housing asylum seekers over the weekend.

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) said on Tuesday: “This is a troubling and challenging situation, and we hope for calm to be restored as soon as possible.

“The safety and security of our colleagues and anyone staying in our hotels is always our priority.

“We continue to work closely with the authorities at a small number of properties, and the Home Office are in the best position to answer further questions.”

At least 10 police officers were injured, with one left unconscious, after a mob tried to storm a Holiday Inn Express hotel in Rotherham.

A police officer extinguishes a fire during an anti-immigration demonstration outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham (Danny Lawson/PA)
PA Wire

Hotel employees and residents, some of whom are asylum seekers, were “terrified”, but no injuries were reported, police said.

A similar incident played out at a Holiday Inn hotel in Tamworth on Sunday evening, where reports suggested asylum seekers were also being housed, in a scene which saw fires, smashed windows and missiles being thrown at officers, Staffordshire Police said.

The incidents over the weekend came one week on from the Southport stabbings as escalating violence continued in several cities across the country.

The Prime Minister said on Monday that a “standing army” of specialist police officers is being assembled to crack down on rioting, as he called for perpetrators to be named and shamed.

Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “ramp up criminal justice” after an emergency Cobra meeting was called in the wake of a sixth day of disorder which saw rioters storm hotels housing asylum seekers.

Police at the Holiday Inn Express in Tamworth after a mob attacked it on Sunday (Jacob King/PA)
PA Wire

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So far, there have been 378 arrests since the violence broke out last week, with the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) warning the total was expected to rise each day.

IHG made the statement as it reported interim results on Tuesday, when it said UK hotels filled rooms at a slightly better rate over the first six months of 2024 than the previous year, amid a broader growth in turnover across the group.

The company saw revenue per available room (RevPAR), a key industry metric which measures a property’s ability to fill rooms, grow 2.5% across its UK estate.