Formula 1 driver, David Coulthard, is part of the team that has opened its first boutique-style, budget hotel at Sherwood Business Park in Nottingham.

Facilities at the 92-bedroom Dakota hotel include a bar, a restaurant, a gym and a 12-capacity meeting room.

The hotel’s Bar and Grill restaurant will offer 74 covers, serving traditional steaks and a speciality dish every day.

Coulthard has personally provided part of the Dakota’s £10m building cost and the brand is expected to expand to around 20 hotels across the UK within the next two years.

Primarily aimed at attracting business professionals, Dakota sites will be positioned near motorways, in business parks, city centres and airports.

Ken McCulloch, creator of the Malmaison hotels and chair of Dakota, said: “I am frequently amazed by the lack of variety and innovation in the hotel industry. Mainstream hotels have become like the bland leading the bland.

“Dakota, named after the aircraft which revolutionised air travel for the masses in the 1930s, promises to break the mould and revolutionise a very sleepy industry.”

The Dakota chain hopes to begin the construction of its second site in Edinburgh by autumn 2004.