Village Hotels, part of De Vere Hotel Group, will be investing £60m over the next three years to redesign its existing 18 sites and plans to double its portfolio to 50 sites within five years.

The first of the 18 properties undergoing a refurbishment will open at Ashton Moss Leisure Park, Ashton Under Lyne on 21 April 2008 as Village’s flagship hotel.

The £25m redesign of the four-storey building will boast 120 bedrooms, with i-pod docking stations, free Wi-Fi and wall-mounted televisions. It also has two restaurants, a traditional pub called Victory and the Verve grill for formal dining, as well as seven hi-tech conference rooms for business meetings and banquet weddings up to 300 people.

There is also a two-storey health and fitness club containing a large 70-piece Technogym, 25m swimming pool with whirlpool and sauna, fitness studios and beauty treatment rooms. Both hotel and local residents are allowed access to the facilities and personal trainers, with the capacity to hold 4,500 members.

The company is currently undergoing refurbishments on its hotels in Lancashire, south Leeds and Elstree, Hertfordshire all due to open later this year. The developments in Solihull, Bristol, Farnborough will open in 2009.

The first of 32 new-build hotels will be developed in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Rochdale and Portsmouth in 2010.