Hotel Indigo Exeter

Hotel Indigo Exeter occupies the former House of Fraser department store at 3 Catherine Street, about a 30-second walk from Exeter Cathedral. IHG announced its opening on 15 December 2022 after a multimillion-pound restoration. Singapore's CDL Hospitality Trusts agreed to buy it for £19.4 million.

The place

The hotel is in central Exeter, on the Princesshay side of the city centre, in a 1930s modernist building. Its rooftop bar looks toward the cathedral.

The site has retail history going back to 1792, when a local milliner, Mrs Colson, opened a department store trading as Colson's.

The concept

The property had never been a hotel. Its 104 bedrooms follow three themes: The House That Moved, Colson's Department Store and Cathedral Heritage. Each room has a Hypnos bed with Egyptian cotton linen, a spa-inspired bathroom, a Nespresso machine and a 43-inch television.

Hotel Indigo says each of its hotels reflects the local culture and history, and in Exeter that is expressed through the department-store past rather than through generic decor.

The owner is Hotel Exe Limited, and Castlebridge Hospitality operates the hotel under licence from IHG. Castlebridge also runs Hotel Indigo in Bath, Chester and Stratford-upon-Avon. The CDL sale included two shops and the hotel's bars and spa, and the REIT signed a franchise agreement to keep the Hotel Indigo flag.

Dining & wellness

The IHG launch release names Colson's Bar and Restaurant, with locally inspired menus, Becketts, a rooftop bar with views over the cathedral, and The Dugout, a sports bar. Some listings give the restaurant another name, Dottie's, which the launch release does not use.

The Retreat Spa has four treatment rooms, two hydrotherapy pools, a sauna, a steam room, a gym, a nail bar and a lounge serving Champagne.