Staying the night above a petrol station and car wash may not be everyone’s idea of the perfect luxury break. However, forecourt owners Rahila and Danny Ahmed insist their nine-bedroom boutique hotel, built over their Gulf site in Birmingham, has been so popular since opening in January that they want to offer the template to other operators.
Hotel Holloway, a conversion from a former set of offices, brands itself as an “oasis of comfort and sophistication” close to the city centre.
From the outside, the establishment, which opened in January, looks unprepossessing – a one-floor block running the entire width of the forecourt, with an entrance stairwell to the left. However, images on the website reveal top-end rooms, complete with minibar and Rituals toiletries.
Most importantly, it uses what might have been dead space to create revenue for the business. With covid encouraging more people to work from home, fewer businesses needed office space and Danny, together with his late father-in-law Arshad Iqbal, a director of Falcon Service Stations, came up with the idea of the vertical expansion into hospitality.
The website lists rooms at between £99 and £189 for a night in October. The self check-in hotel itself has no facilities other than the rooms. However, it offers 10% discounts at the Bull Burgers fast food outlet on the forecourt, and 20% reductions in the Costcutter convenience store, free parking, access to EV charging and a complimentary mini valet at their adjoining hand car wash with “signature” bookings.
Danny admits that some guests are surprised when they arrive at his 24-hour Holloway Head Service Station, which he bought over 10 years ago. But he says that any reservations they might have on the outside are blown away once they enter the hotel.
Reviews on online booking platforms such as Expedia and Booking.com are positive. “We have 4.8 stars out of five. People say on the reviews: ’Prepare yourself, it is above a petrol station, but once you are inside you could be anywhere. It is immaculate’,” says Danny.
The central address is key, he adds. “We are minutes way from the Bullring shopping centre, all the nightclubs, restaurants and New Street train station. We have an outside carpark and EV charging. It is a really good location.”
It took about a year to get planning and building consent for the project. Part of that was because of the administrative backlog from the pandemic but also because of the potential hazards of accommodation above a petrol station. However, Danny says efforts were made to convince the authorities everything was safe.
“The building has concrete floor, ceiling and walls, fire resistant doors and windows which are 65mm thick,” he says.
The £1.2 million investment is paying off with Danny projecting that revenues from the hotel will be £465,000 turnover from the hotel in its first year.
“Before we would get £15,000 annual rental. Now in the first nine months we have turned over a quarter of a million and are fully booked until March,” he says.
As a spin-off initiative, Danny plans to help other forecourt operators use his experience to develop spare space on their sites into hotels. And he says he plans to showcase this project and the consultany business by taking a stand at the 2026 Forecourt Show.
“We have learned so much that we can pass on,” says Danny. “And I have a friend who has a site in Manchester near a football ground who is interested,” he adds.
With Birmingham promoting more environmental transport, with a clean air zone already in place, Danny is taking further precautionary action to safeguard his business. He has plans to knock down and rebuild the site as a 14 floor hotel with 170 rooms, and 40 apartments, a hotel and spa. He has applied for planning this week although he says it will probably be 2030 before the project completes.
“The site sells two million litres of fuel currently, so we are in no hurry, be we need to future-proof ourselves and look after our assets,” says Danny.
