NH Hoteles - Broker Natixis named the company among several it tipped for possible involvement in M&A activity. | Whitbread - Barclays Capital raised its rating from 'Underweight' to 'Overweight'. | Accor - Citigroup reaffirmed its 'Buy' rating and raised its target price from €45.00 to €51.50. — Photo by HVS

Glasgow And Liverpool In The Mood For Indigo | InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is to add a touch of indigo to the usual colours of autumn in Glasgow and Liverpool. The precise tint is Hotel Indigo, a colour as yet not much seen at any time of the year in the UK, there being thus far only the solitary splash in Paddington, west London. The hotel in Glasgow will have 96 rooms, open in mid 2010 and be operated under franchise by Chardon Management. Sanguine Hospitality, like Chardon already familiar with other IHG franchises, is the owner of the 151-room hotel that is to open in spring 2011 in Liverpool.

Samara Takes Russia's Second Hilton Garden Inn | The sixth-largest city in Russia gets Hilton Worldwide’s sixth hotel in Russia. The city is Samara, in the southwest, and the brand nominated to travel there Hilton Garden Inn. Put them together and you have Hilton Garden Inn Samara, a hotel with 195 rooms that is scheduled to open in 2012. Hilton Worldwide signed the management agreement on the hotel with the private development company Otel. The Hilton Garden Inn Samara will be the second hotel in Russia with the Hilton Garden Inn brand: the Hilton Garden Inn Perm waved hello last year to the western city of Perm.

Fabz For Gooderson | Alawill Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Gooderson Leisure Corporation, has agreed to pay R18.5 million (US$2.4 million) to Crown Hill Properties 371 CC for the Fabz Estate Hotel and Restaurant. The 28-room hotel stands on 1.7 hectares of land in Lonehill, in the city of Johannesburg, South Africa, and is thus the first property that hospitality company Gooderson has acquired beyond the borders of its traditional heartland of the province of KwaZulu Natal. Gooderson expects the sale to be complete by 1 November and the company will then renovate the hotel and give it an as yet unspecified number of new rooms.

Novel Express Bedroom Experience In Hamburg | Some time ago, Foremost Hospitality was handed a franchise agreement by InterContinental Hotels Group and invited to develop a total of 20 Holiday Inn Express and Holiday Inn hotels across Germany. The latest off the production line – the 179-room Holiday Inn Express Hamburg City Centre – is especially noteworthy, because it is the first hotel in Europe to have the newly designed Holiday Inn Express bedroom (lie back and think of dark wood furniture, larger bathrooms, and flat screen televisions). The hotel, which is owned by German fund manager Union Investment, occupies a former tax office; Foremost’s subsidiary Apprimus clearly found it none too taxing to convert the office into a hotel. Hamburg is set to welcome a second, 120-room Holiday Inn Express, this time to the St Pauli district, in March 2010.

Oberoi's Do In Doha | Oberoi Hotels and Resorts has signed a memorandum of understanding with Al Wa’ab City Management that paves the way for the development of the Oberoi Hotel Doha. The hotel and its 225 rooms and 30 serviced apartments would be built by 2014 on Barahat Al Wa’ab, a piazza that is part of the Al Wa’ab development in Doha, the capital of Qatar.

The Tunisian Year Of The Mövenpick | China assigns a creature to each year. Other countries, though they would of necessity have to do so retrospectively, might perhaps like to attribute a hotel company to each year. Such a practice could encourage competition and prove motivational in these troubled times. Tunisia, for example, could take the initiative by naming 2009 the year of the Mövenpick; the Swiss company has as good a claim as any, having announced two new hotels and its departure from a third. It is the second new hotel that concerns us here: the 117-room Mövenpick Hotel Gammarth Tunis, which will have its official opening next spring. The hotel is owned by Consortium Tuniso-Koweitien de Développement, with whom Mövenpick signed the management agreement.

Curtain-Up In Covent Garden | Drury Lane in the West End of London is well used to staging big productions; and Camden Council has given permission for the curtain to be raised on the latest. This one stars the Travelodge London Covent Garden and tells the story of how the 249-room hotel became the largest in Travelodge’s European portfolio. The action takes place in an office building, where the assembled cast, most of them wearing the traditional costume of hard hat and boots, labours to realise the hotel’s dream by creating 209 new rooms. The production is set to run until January 2011.

Kiessling's Corner | Husa is to manage the 115-room, four-star Husa Via Sevilla – Mairena in the province of Seville; the hotel will be located in the complex Aljarafe Central (office and commercial centre) and is expected to be open at the end of 2010. In Barcelona, the common areas and the first three floors of the Palace hotel will reopen on 15 October after renovation work costing €20 million. The rest of the hotel should be accessible at the end of 2010. Ana Hotels & Resorts, the hotel chain of real estate group Santa Ana, recently opened its new tourist resort complex in Sant Jordi, in the province of Castellon. Sant Jordi Golf & Resort has 174 apartments. Paradores de Turismo has announced that it is to invest €20 million in the construction of a new parador in Cádiz. According to Paradores, the hotel will have 124 rooms and will open in 2012. By Gabriele Kiessling, Analyst, HVS Madrid

  • NH Hoteles - Broker Natixis named the company among several it tipped for possible involvement in M&A activity.
  • Whitbread - Barclays Capital raised its rating from 'Underweight' to 'Overweight'.
  • Accor - Citigroup reaffirmed its 'Buy' rating and raised its target price from €45.00 to €51.50.

About HVS

HVS is the world's leading consulting and valuation services organization focused on the hotel, restaurant, shared ownership, gaming, and leisure industries. Established in 1980, the company performs more than 4,500 assignments per year for virtually every major industry participant. HVS principals are regarded as the leading professionals in their respective regions of the globe. Through a worldwide network of over 50 offices staffed by 300 experienced industry professionals, HVS provides an unparalleled range of complementary services for the hospitality industry. For further information regarding our expertise and specifics about our services, please visit www.hvs.com.