HVS EMEA Hospitality Enews - Week Ending 11 September 2009
The Hotel National Luxuriates In Moscow | The Hotel National, in Moscow, Russia, has become the first hotel in the country to open under Starwood Hotels & Resorts' Luxury Collection brand. The 206-room hotel, which was built in 1903, has just undergone the first phase of an extensive renovation programme and is now operating as the Hotel National, A Luxury Collection Hotel. Phase two of the renovation is to start in 2012 and the work is expected to be complete by the end of 2012. This hotel is Starwood’s third property in Moscow, alongside the 204-room Sheraton Palace Hotel and the 131-room Le Meridien Moscow Country Club.
Barceló Debuts In Egypt | Spanish hotel chain Barceló Hotels & Resorts has already been to Tunisia and Morocco and now it can add Egypt to its list of North African destinations. The company has recently opened the 210-room Barceló Cairo Pyramids in Cairo, bringing its portfolio up to 181 hotels across 17 countries.
A Holiday Inn For Barnsley | The Brooklands Hotel in the village of Dodworth, near Barnsley, in south Yorkshire, UK, is to be rebranded under InterContinental Hotels Group’s Holiday Inn chain. As of October this year, the 77-room hotel will be operated under a franchise agreement as the Holiday Inn Barnsley. The hotel is currently undergoing a £1.5 million refurbishment to bring it into line with Holiday Inn standards.
A Double Celebration For Jurys Inns | Jurys Inns has cracked open the champagne to toast not one but two new openings in the last couple of weeks! First was the 214-room Jurys Inn Prague, which is Jurys' first hotel in mainland Europe. After the party had finished in Prague, the celebrations then started in the northeastern city of Aberdeen, in Scotland, where the Jurys Inn Aberdeen became the first new build hotel in the city for 13 years. The 203-room hotel was built at a cost of £17.5 million and is part of the Union Square mixed-use regeneration programme.
Marriott Drops Anchor in Dubai Marina | Marriott International has once again teamed up with the Emirates Group to sign an agreement which later this month will see the Harbour Hotel & Residence at Dubai Marina, in the UAE, become the 232-room Dubai Marriott Harbour Hotel & Suites. Marriott and Emirate Group's first project resulted in the 1,614-room JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai, which is currently under construction and is expected to open in 2011.
Address Number Three For Dubai | This week The Address Hotels + Resorts, owned by Emaar Hospitality Group, opened its third property in Dubai, UAE: The 244-room Address Dubai Mall, which is directly linked to the Dubai Mall. However, the company’s trio of hotels in the emirate is soon to become a quartet as the 200-room The Address Dubai Marina is scheduled to open by the end of this year.
A Touch Of Southern Sun For Hyde Park | If I were to tell you that Southern Sun is opening a hotel in Hyde Park this September you might think that the South African hotel group has travelled to London for this latest venture. However, the Hyde Park in question is not an expanse of green in London but a shopping centre in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa. The 132-room Southern Sun Hyde Park was developed for a cost of R180 million (US$23.8 million) by a joint venture between Southern Sun and Hyprop Investments.
A Trading Update From Whitbread | Whitbread has announced that its total sales for the 24 weeks to 13 August 2009 have increased by 2.4% on the same period in 2008. Like-for-like sales for the company’s Premier Inn brand fell by 7.7% during the same period. RevPAR was reported to have declined by 9.4%; however, this is an improvement on the first-quarter 2009 figures. Whitbread’s chief executive officer Alan Parker commented that “Whitbread has strong brands offering great value for money and we will continue to focus on what our customers want in today’s price conscious environment. We are delivering on our priorities to outperform our competition, to achieve cash flow neutrality and to reduce operating costs.”
Kiessling’s Corner | The news from Spain by Gabriele Kiessling, Analyst, HVS Madrid. Rafaelhoteles, a chain of the Reyal Urbis group, has opened its first establishment in Salamanca: the four-star, 218-room Rafaelhoteles Salamanca Forum Resort. Owing to the current economic situation, Hospes announced that it would not progress any further with its expansion plans until the beginning of 2012. However, Hospes is planning to open the five-star, 40-room Palacio Marques de la Sonora later this year in Malaga. Luabay, the hotel division of Orizonia, has recently opened a hotel in La Manga del Mar Menor: the five-star, 99-room Luabay Abity Spa.
- InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) - Credit Suisse upgraded IHG from "neutral" to "outperform" and raised its share price target from 527p to 910p.
- Accor - Credit Suisse maintained its "neutral" recommendation for Accor and increased the company's share price target to €39.40 from €39.30.
- Millennium & Copthorne - Credit Suisse upgraded the company to "neutral" from "sell" and increased the share price target to 290p from 240p.
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