New photos offer a first look inside a six-storey hotel's 'shipping container' rooms.

Ashford residents noticed the pods being stacked up on the 140-room Hampton by Hilton site on the corner of Victoria Road and Beaver Road last month.

Made in China, the modules are fully furnished and ready to form the rooms and corridors of the new hotel.

The 'prefab method' is being used increasingly often by hotel chains as a more cost-effective and speedy way of building new sites.

David Smurthwaite, business development manager for CIMC Modular Building Solutions, which provided the modules, says the company has been using the design for almost 20 years.

He said: "The first hotel to use the system was a Travelodge in Uxbridge in 2002.

"It's also being used in universities – the company has just completed installing 1,400 rooms for Newcastle University.

"The rooms are far more effective in terms of staying warm and limiting sound, they are fantastic."

The Hampton by Hilton has been in construction since December last year, with the firm finally confirming it would run the site in January.

In February, a spokesman said the building was due to open this December , creating 25 jobs, with recruitment due to start this month.

However, construction was paused due to the coronavirus lockdown and it has been confirmed it will not open this year.

Mr Smurthwaite said that assuming construction is not delayed again, the hotel is due to officially open in March 2021.

"I would expect job advertisements to be coming out any time now," he added.

When it does welcome its first guests, the hotel will face stiff competition from the nearby Travelodge at Elwick Place.

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