BIRMINGHAM city centre's first planned five star hotel is "lowering its expectations" after getting the go-ahead to cram in more bedrooms.

The new 23-storey Starwood hotel, at Snow Hill, will now have 198 rooms after developers successfully applied to lower the ceilings by ten inches to squeeze in 28 extra bedrooms.

Architects have been working overtime to ensure the outside of the hotel looks the same despite the internal rearrangement.

They settled on increasing the height to 261m and reducing the ceiling heights to 9ft 10ins.

The Snow Hill landmark hotel will be the American chain's first hotel in England and its board members demanded the extra rooms.

(...)
The hotel is part of the £500 million regeneration of Snow Hill and will be next to one of 's tallest buildings, a 43-storey residential tower which will be opposite St Chad's Cathedral.

As part of the deal developers have agreed to pay £1.5 million to build a public arts wall in the area which councillors hope will become a major attraction.

And the planning committee also gave permission for two more hotels to be built just outside the city centre near the Aston Science Park.

The Marriott Group got permission to build a 195 bedroom hotel in Holt Street and the Intercontinental Hotel Group can now build an eight-storey 130 bedroom hotel in Love Lane.