Budget hotel brand The Big Sleep is to expand across the UK with nine new sites due to open within the next three years.

Owned by the Bedfactory Hotels group, which was founded by Cosmo Fry, the flagship Big Sleep hotel is located in Cardiff.

The group plan to open a second, £5m Big Sleep hotel in Cheltenham in November, followed by another site in Exeter shortly after.

The Cheltenham Big Sleep will be constructed from a former Inland Revenue office block in the centre of the town, on a street surrounded by Regency buildings and situated close to the Promenade. A total of 63 bedrooms will be created.

Other cities where potential Big Sleep sites have been identified include Chester, Brighton, Eastbourne, Southampton, Portsmouth, Oxford and Reading.

A spokesperson for the group said: “Providing the location is right, we have proved with our Cardiff site that The Big Sleep formula can work anywhere.”

Bedfactory shareholders include Robert Devereux, former chair of Virgin Entertainment Group, publisher David Macmillan and actor John Malkovich, who is Cosmo Fry’s neighbour in the South of France. Details: www.thebigsleephotel.com