STOCKHOLMS MOST EXCITING HOTEL AND MEETINGPOINT

Press release, August 2003

Benny Andersson to open new Stockholm hotel

The world’s top hotels are in for some serious competition from a new rival. Benny Andersson, former member of ABBA and creator of such classic musicals as Chess and Mama Mia, is soon to open a boutique hotel in Stockholm. And it’s not just a hotel – it also offers restaurants, bars, a bistro, café, bakery and cinema seating 700 people. The grand opening is on 1 September.

The Rival Hotel is located in the centre of Stockholm on Mariatorget, one of the city’s loveliest squares. The whole area is teeming with art galleries, small design and fashion stores, bars, and beautiful Cultural Heritage buildings. Södermalm is a Stockholm district with many highly original and genuine neighbourhoods and a dynamic pulse, comparable to London’s Notting Hill or New York’s Tribecca. Originality and personality are also key concepts at the Rival.

”Our goal is to create a hotel with its own unique personality, the kind of place we would want to stay in ourselves,” says Benny Andersson, who has stayed at thousands of hotels but only remembers a handful of them.

At the same time, the Rival is more than just a hotel. The Cocktail Bar (with its original art deco design intact), the Bar & Bistro, the Café and the Restaurant are all housed in the same building and there are plenty of opportunities to see and be seen.

The Rival Hotel will be Stockholm’s first boutique hotel – a small personal establishment offering 99 rooms that are all equipped with fixed and wireless Internet connections, 32” plasma TVs and DVD/CD players. The seventh floor consists of suites and commands a magnificent view.

The Rival also has its own cinema. It was first opened in 1937 and has now been completely renovated to meet top standards of technology and comfort. It can accommodate 700 people for conferences, fashion shows, seminars, concerts or other performances, and from Fridays to Sundays, Svensk Filmindustri will use the premises to show films. The hotel also has 5 more conference rooms, and the Rival’s spacious lobby area is the perfect setting for exhibitions or other social gatherings.

The Rival’s location could not be better, offering unbeatable shopping and sightseeing within easy walking distance. The Old Town and the Royal Palace are just around the corner, while a stroll along the water’s edge will take you to the boat service that transports passengers to the Wasa Museum, the Skansen open-air museum and the Gröna Lund amusement park.

The property and hotel business are owned by Rival AB, which consists of three equal partners – composer and musician Benny Andersson, Christer Sandahl executive chairman of MyTravel Northern Europe, part of the MyTravel Group, and Christer Hägglund, major stockholder of the Proffice staffing company. The Rival Hotel does not belong to any chain. The Rival will be opening on 6 August. Both the hotel and the conference premises can be booked as of today using GDS systems through Supranational, or online via www.netbook.se or reservation@rival.se.

Hotel Rival AB, Mariatorget 3, P.O. Box 17525, SE-118 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Phone: +46 (0)8 545 789 00, Fax: +46 (0)8 545 789 24, VAT No: SE-556591-9775, www.rival.se