External Articles

The 10 Airbnbs most coveted by Britons | telegraph.co.uk

From Orville to cheese rolling tournaments, we Brits never shy away from a bit of eccentricity, and it seems our holiday choices are no exception. Airbnb has worked out which of their properties have most commonly been put on British 'Wish Lists' – a feature of their site that allows prospective travellers to bookmark dream listings – and British users were more likely to opt for unconventional abodes such as huts and boats than the global average.

Rotana to add 1,000 hotel rooms in Dubai by 2020 | hoteliermiddleeast.com

UAE hotel operator Rotana plans to add 1,000 rooms in Dubai by 2020. Rotana is ramping up expansion plans for the Middle East, since announcing in February that it was planning nine new hotel projects for Dubai and Abu Dhabi over the next five years.

Where two hotel brands are better than one | jllrealviews.com

Building one strong brand has long been a basic rule in running a successful hotel – but some operators are now looking to improve margins by running two brands on the same property. Late next summer a new dual branded hotel is due to open in downtown Denver – even if many of the guests who stay there will be unaware of what makes it rather special. Just over half of the 495 rooms will be part of the full service Le Méridien brand while the remainder will operate under the select service AC Hotels flag. These two brands were owned by separate companies, Le Méridien by Starwood and AC Hotels by Marriott, before their planned merger was announced back in November 2015. The 18-storey Denver hotel will be the first ground-up constructed hotel with the AC and Le Méridien combination.

Hotel Jen from Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts to open in the UK | thecaterer.com

Hotel Jen – the younger, more hip sister brand to the luxury Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts – is looking to enter the UK market.

Launched in 2013 in Singapore with the rebranding of a Traders hotel to the Hotel Jen Orchardgateway, the brand is intended to offer affordable luxury at four-star level, with the aim of appealing to a young generation of traveller.

Traders, launched in 1989 as the original sister brand to Shangri-La, has gradually reduced in size to just three hotels in Abu Dhabi, Kuala Lumpur and Beijing as a total of 10 former Trader properties – nine in Asia and one in Australia – have been converted to the Hotel Jen brand.

The Trader Beijing hotel will also be converted to a Hotel Jen, but the other two Traders, which are primarily aimed at the business guest, will remain as they are. There will be no new Traders as Shangri-La looks to expand Hotel Jen globally.

IHG has luxury plan for Kimpton’s growth in Europe | hotelnewsnow.com

Following IHG’s well-documented buy of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, the brand, according to sources, will occupy a slightly higher niche in Europe than it does in its ancestral U.S. home. Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants has started its push in Europe, where its hotels will occupy a slightly higher niche than the company’s United States’ properties, according to sources.

Why Did Anbang Leave, & What's Ahead for M&A | businesstravelnews.com

It's a bit awkward, isn't it? To be back where we were five months ago. Marriott International is buying Starwood Hotels & Resorts. It's as true now as it was on Nov. 16, when the deal went public, and yet so much has happened. We've outlined a whole timeline of the Starwood sale process, so I don't intend to repeat it all once more here. But let's go over the bullet points of the past month. Starwood agreed to be acquired by Marriott. A Chinese consortium led by Anbang Group Insurance Co. submitted an unsolicited, all-cash takeover bid of Starwood. Starwood accepted. Marriott came back, with more cash this time. Starwood accepted. Then Anbang came back once more with even more cash.

W Hotels expects to reach 70 hotels by 2020 | hotelnewsnow.com

W Hotels' global brand leader Anthony Ingham said the company plans to open more hotels in North America and have 70 hotels globally by 2020. W Hotels intends to expand its global footprint by the end of the decade and plans to open new hotels and renovate current properties in North America, focusing on the U.S.

Qatar's Aiana to open 611-room hotel in Saudi | hoteliermiddleeast.com

Aiana Hotels & Resorts has announced plans to open a new hotel in the Saudi city of Makkah. Doha-based Aiana Makkah is scheduled to open in the third quarter of 2016, company officials said at an event in Doha that marked Aiana's first anniversary.

The Unsettling Acquisitiveness of Anbang, a Chinese Insurer, in the U.S. | nytimes.com

A buying spree by a Chinese insurance company that has emerged seemingly overnight is flashing a warning sign.

An alliance led by the Chinese company, the Anbang Insurance Group, has for the moment been outbid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts, the owner of the Sheraton and Westin brands, by Marriott International. But that Anbang is even in the running — and may yet win out — is an indication of deal-making gone awry.

Regulator Close to Rejecting Insurer's Plans for Foreign Hotel Investments | caixin.com

China's insurance regulator is set to reject two plans by Anbang Insurance Group, including one that could have seen it take over America's Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., owner of the Sheraton and Westin brands. A person close to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said the regulator had "clearly a disapproving attitude" toward both plans because completing the deals would break rules banning insurers from investing more than 15 percent of their assets abroad.

Asian investors look to buy quickly in Europe | hotelnewsnow.com

As Asian travelers flock to visit Europe, investors are coming with them. Speakers at the recent International Hotel Investment Forum said to expect more European transactions with Asian capital as the key players.

Hunter: Now’s the time to reinvest in your hotels | hotelnewsnow.com

As the pace of transactions slows down, many speakers during Day Two of the Hunter Conference encouraged hoteliers to reinvest in their properties and differentiate. The numbers presented during Day Two of the 28th annual Hunter Hotel Investment Conference reinforced Wednesday’s theme that a recession for the hotel industry is not an imminent event.

Starwood rejects Marriott, chooses Anbang's sweetened buyout offer | travelweekly.com

Starwood Hotels & Resorts said Friday that a group led by China-based Anbang Insurance Group raised its buyout bid for the hotel company to $13.2 billion, and that it will accept the offer and terminate Marriott International's buyout agreement.

New York's Plaza, Dream Downtown heading to auction | hotelsmag.com

The famed Plaza Hotel and the Dream Downtown in New York City are expected to be auctioned off at foreclosure on April 26 by the mortgage holders, billionaire brother David and Simon Reuben, according to a Bloomberg report. The move will serve to end a two-year ordeal over the state of the hotels’ ownership after current majority owner Subrata Roy of Sahara India Pariwar went to jail in India for defrauding investors.

Anwood or Marwood? Leaders speak out at HICAP | hotelsmag.com

So, will it be Marwood or Anwood? Hotel investors and brokers at the HICAP Update this week in Hong Kong were split down the middle as to who, between Marriott International and Anbang Insurance Group, will fit the glass shoe and save damsel-in-distress Starwood Hotels & Resorts before the stroke of midnight Eastern time on March 17.

Will Marriott increase its Starwood offer? | travelweekly.com

Anbang Insurance Group’s unsolicited $12.8 billion bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts reflects the perception that luxury lodging demand will remain high in the foreseeable future and may force Marriott International to increase or alter its bid for Starwood, analysts say. Starwood on Monday said it received the Anbang offer March 10 and received a waiver from Marriott to start discussions with the group the following day. That waiver expires at midnight on Thursday.

Analysts examine obstacles in Anbang’s Starwood bid | hotelnewsnow.com

Anbang Insurance Group’s cash offer for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide could be appealing to Starwood’s shareholders due to the price tag, but some barriers exist before that deal can become reality. A consortium led by Anbang Insurance Group made a splash Monday with an aggressive bid to acquire Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, and analysts said the company’s cash offer could be appealing to Starwood shareholders who were already considering a stock-based deal with Marriott International that carried a lower price tag.

Unpacking a Chinese Company’s U.S. Hotel Buying Spree | nytimes.com

When the Japanese began buying trophy properties like Rockefeller Center in the late 1980s, there was an intense reaction.

David Letterman began his show one evening with the announcer saying, “From New York, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi, it’s ‘Late Night with David Letterman.’ ” A New York Times Op-Ed was titled, “An Economic Pearl Harbor?”

Even Donald J. Trump got in on the act: “Bidding on a building in New York is an act of futility, because the Japanese will pay more than it’s worth just to screw us,” he told Playboy in 1990. “They want to own Manhattan.”

A quarter-century later, it is China’s turn.

Building in US bigger threat than Airbnb: Moody’s | hotelsmag.com

Moody's Investors Service has published a report indicating that the supply-demand imbalance from overbuilding in the hotel sector poses a greater threat to U.S. traditional lodging sector fundamentals for hotels backing commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) than peer-to-peer home renting platforms such as Airbnb, even as the latter continue to grow.

Starwood Gets Offer From Group Led by Anbang, Threatening Marriott Deal | wsj.com

A Chinese insurance giant lobbed in a roughly $13 billion bid for Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., an effort to break up the hotelier’s pending sale to Marriott International Inc. and the latest sign of China’s growing appetite for overseas takeovers.

The bid by Anbang Insurance Group Co. came just days after the insurer agreed to buy U.S. luxury hotel owner Strategic Hotels & Resorts Inc. from Blackstone Group LP for about $6.5 billion including debt. Less than two years ago, it struck a deal to purchase the historic Waldorf Astoria in Manhattan for nearly $2 billion.