First, It's Foremost | Foremost Hospitality is on a tour of its native Germany clutching a franchise agreement that covers the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands. Foremost is visiting Germany’s key cities to open hotels with these brands, and will not rest until InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has counted up to 20. The countdown should be complete by 2016, and seven of the 20 hotels are already under development. Before IHG and Foremost embarked on their latest adventure together, there were 41 Holiday Inn hotels in Germany and 14 hotels with the Express by Holiday Inn brand.

Liverpool (M. Copthorne 2) 2—1 Liverpool Airport (Hilton) | Millennium & Copthorne has signed a deal to bring one Millennium hotel and one Copthorne hotel to Central Village, a mixed-use project costing £160 million that is to be developed by Merepark and Ballymore in the city of Liverpool. The Millennium Hotel Liverpool will open in the Grade II listed Watson Building, which stands next to Lewis’s department store, and the Copthorne Hotel Liverpool will occupy a former hardware store. The hotels should be open by 2012 and together they will have a total of at least 400 rooms. From this summer, those flying in to check on the progress of the development will notice that a hotel at Liverpool John Lennon Airport has taken the Hampton by Hilton brand. Hilton Hotels Corporation signed a franchise on the 160-room hotel with Peel Holdings.

Jnan Amar Polo Retreat, Marrakech, Morocco (That’s An Address) | The Address Hotels and Resorts has signed a management agreement that makes its five-star hotel in Morocco its first outside the Middle East. The 60-room hotel, which will also have 16 private villas, will be part of a mixed-use development in the city of Marrakech known as the Jnan Amar Polo Retreat. The 40-hectare development is the responsibility of the Saudi Arabian conglomerate Azmi Abdelhadi Group, and should be ready to open in 2011.

Rezidor Opens A Park Inn In Murmansk | What Russians might not have heard above the New Year’s fireworks was a representative of Rezidor Hotel Group saying: “We’ve opened a Park Inn in Murmansk.” The existing Poliarne Zori hotel, which is celebrating 36 years of life this year, has been refurbished to become the 266-room Park Inn Poliarne Zori Murmansk.

Interval International Affiliates The Royal Club Hotel | The Royal Club Hotel is not yet finished but that has not deterred Interval International from adding the resort to its vacation exchange network. The Royal Club Hotel, in the village of Visegrád, to the north of the Hungarian capital Budapest, should be finished in April this year; it will have 39 timeshare apartments.

Kiessling's Corner | The 71-room, four-star Bracos Hotel Logroño has been rebranded as the Husa Bracos, under a 15-year management contract with Husa Hoteles. This will be Husa’s second property in the city of Logroño, along with the Husa Gran Via. Iberostar Hotels and Resorts recently added a new establishment to its Grand Collection brand: the 126-room Grand Hotel El Mirador is now open in Tenerife. The hotel was previously managed by Sol Meliá. Hoteles Santos recently opened the 120-room, five-star Hotel Val de Neu in the town of Baqueira. This hotel will be the first five-star property in Baqueira. By Gabriele Kiessling, Analyst, HVS Madrid

Accor Announces Its Full-Year Revenue | Accor acknowledged the “softening demand in the Hotels business” in the fourth quarter of 2008. But just when it seemed that Accor would bring more rain, the company just as quickly dispersed the clouds by reporting that its revenue for the full year 2008 was 2.8% higher, like for like, at €7.7 billion. Things became positively balmy when Accor confirmed that its pre-tax profit would come within in its target range of €870 million to €890 million, before the company reintroduced a chill to the air by noting that revenue in the fourth quarter alone was down 1.1% like for like.

Real Warning On Sales Figures | The Real Hotel Group (RHG) on Tuesday (13 January) requested the suspension of trading in its shares on the AIM as the company issued a second trading update within the space of three days. The later update noted that early indications were that in the first seven days of January 2009 RHG’s revenue from continuing operations had fallen 34% on the previous year’s comparable, a decline that RHG attributed to “a reduction in occupancy and related food sales”. RHG is presently in talks with its bankers.

Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 8-15 January 2009

  • Kingdom Hotel Investments - The company's share price continued on its recent rollercoaster ride, rising phenomenally this week and easily outperforming the FTSE-100 index over the past week.
  • Sol Meliá - At the end of last week, Natixis lowered its rating from 'Add' to 'Sell'.
  • The Real Hotel Company - The share price took a predictable tumble as the company indicated that sales for the first week in January had fallen by 34%.

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