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Following two years of Covid disruption, 2022 saw the Commonwealth Games bring together athletes from across the world for 12 days of sporting celebration.
With all eyes on host city, Birmingham, Switch Hospitality was proud to support the organising committee by accommodating competing athletes in its flagship hotel, Park Regis.
With the coronavirus pandemic driving significant construction delays across the UK and beyond, it was announced in late 2020 that the Athletes Village development would not be completed in time for the opening of the much-anticipated Commonwealth Games.
This meant that with less than two years to go, the organising committee was tasked with sourcing quality accommodation for the 4,600 sportsmen and women, who would be travelling to the UK’s second city from across 72 nations.
Ensuring each athlete and their teams had a safe, secure and central place to stay, a multi-site campus model was chosen, with 2,800 competitors and officials housed in existing locations, including the principal village at the University of Birmingham.
However, a premium hotel was still required to accommodate elite athletes, VIPs and international dignitaries.
As Birmingham’s only major independent hotel, Park Regis has long-held a reputation for delivering service excellence, premium facilities and a home away from home.
This was recognised by the organising committee, who approached Switch Hospitality with nine months to go until the opening ceremony, to secure the hotel as an exclusive-use venue.
Also sitting in Switch’s property management portfolio, was the 83-bedroom Holiday Inn Express Birmingham South. This was used by the Games as a Covid-isolation hotel, providing a quarantine location for any positive Covid cases, whilst ensuring athletes remained safe, comfortable and catered for.
Over an exclusive hire period of 28 days, Park Regis provided 253 bedrooms to accommodate more than 12,000 athletes competing in the Commonwealth Games.
Due to the scale of the event, Switch was required to collaborate with 10 different departments in the organising committee, which each had unique planning responsibilities and teams to manage.
Robust security measures were in place across the hotel, which was in ‘lock-down’ for the duration of the Games, with vetting of all employees and accreditation for suppliers. Despite this, Switch’s operational team ensured there was minimal disruption, providing a diverse menu with more than 50,000 meals served, catering to a range of dietary requirements.
At Holiday Inn Express Birmingham South, 83 rooms were held for quarantining, and all residents were fully catered for during their stay.
Switch’s teams also supported the organising committee with comprehensive guest communications and travel management throughout their stay.
Steve Darling, Head of Special Projects for theCommonwealth Games, said:
“The Switch team came to the rescue when we established that we did not have an Athletes Village for the Commonwealth Games.
“Park Regis was the perfect venue for our elite athletes and VIP’s, and I cannot thank the team enough as they over delivered in every area, from the initial contracts to the multitude of planning meetings. I would like to particularly congratulate the team on the quality of food they produced every day, 28 days in the same hotel can make the food extremely boring, that was not the case at Park Regis.
“Finally, dedicating a hotel as a Quarantine Hotel was areal “life saver” for us and when John found us a private gym, we were delighted. Nothing really is too much of an issue for the Switch team. I’d like to thank them all.”