With the opening of Confortel Aqua, two hotels offering 3- and 4-star options, respectively, the ONCE hotel chain opens its first establishments in the city of Valencia, specifically in the Aqua Center shopping mall, thus taking another step in its strategic plan for location in all the main cities of Spain. Confortel Hoteles has announced the opening of this new twin hotel complex in Valencia for March 2006.

We would particularly highlight its privileged location, in the Aqua Center, at the confluence of Menorca and Pintor Maella streets and the Paseo de la Alameda, by the former course of the River Turia, one of the areas of greatest future potential and development, looking towards the port and right by the City of Arts and Sciences. The area will be directly connected  by means of a bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava, which is expected to be one of the city’s great tourist attractions in the future. It will stand next to a 21-storey office building, opposite the El Corte Inglés department store in one of the most exclusive areas, with excellent transport links and very near the El Saler shopping district.

The 4-star Confortel Aqua hotel will have 8 stories, with an equal number of suites and 184 rooms. It will also contain two restaurants, one at a height of 90 metres, which will be run by a prestigious Spanish restaurateur, as well as a gym, meeting and events rooms with capacity for up to 150 people and a car park. The 3-star Confortel Aqua will consist of 5 floors and 135 rooms. Both of them will be modern, innovative buildings, which are both welcoming and in line with the needs and tastes of today’s increasingly demanding customers.
  
The Confortel Aqua complex will have all the services of the chain’s Business Class, with functional spaces serving different needs, a modern design for the business sector, in both the communal areas – conceived for negotiation and privacy – and in the rooms, where above all comfort and restfulness is sought. Confortel’s Business Class services are a clear reflection of the company’s aim to attract demanding executives who, in the words of José Ángel Preciados, managing director of the chain, “are used to travelling and therefore appreciate our value-added services”.

A consolidated group
Confortel Hoteles, part of the ONCE Business Corporation, has consolidated its position in the domestic market in record time, with 9 establishments as well as a further 4 currently at the project phase, distributed around the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. The chain has two lines of business – the holiday sector and urban hotels – and in 2005 it underwent a process of change, with a new image and an ambitious expansion plan. This plan has already been confirmed with the recent inauguration of the Confortel Fuengirola (Málaga) and the Confortel Almirante (Barcelona), both of them 4-star, and these will shortly be joined by four other new hotels in Barcelona, Valencia, Cádiz and Almería, respectively.