Katara Hospitality, the Qatar-based global owner, developer and operator of iconic hotels, has added the first London landmark property to its portfolio of international hotels with an investment in The Savoy, A Fairmont Managed Hotel.
Consolidation amongst major hotel companies will be one of the key themes of 2015 as large groups seek to grow their business or risk being taken over themselves.
Capitalising on its position in London's most fashionable district, Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London is delighted to announce an exclusive partnership with French high end luxury Maison Chloé, as the Spring/Summer 2015 collections arrive in stores, commencing Thursday 12th February 2015.
The O2, the new 453-bedroom 18-storey luxury hotel currently in construction as part of a 7.6 acre development scheme on London's Greenwich Peninsula, will create in excess of 500 new job opportunities, boosting the local economy.
London hotels reported a slight increase in gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR) in the month of November, but the UK provinces continued to show much more positive year-on-year movements with Eastern hoteliers in the lead recording a 27.7% surge, according to the latest data from HotStats.
With a proven track record in luxury hotel sales, Mr. Partridge joins from the Dorchester Collection where he was Area Director of Sales. His role included managing a 35-strong sales and event planning team for three UK hotels: The Dorchester, 45 Park Lane and Coworth Park. Previous experience in the UK includes roles as Opening General Manager for the Montpellier Chapter Hotel in Cheltenham, General Manager for the York & Albany, owned by Gordon Ramsay Holdings and roles at the Maybourne Hotel Group, culminating in a two-year stint as House Manager at Claridge’s in London.
It opened to great fanfare promising spectacular views across London, but the first guests of the Shangri-La in The Shard got rather more than they bargained for. A design fault appeared to give the ultimate 'peeping Tom' view into other rooms, with guests complaining about unwanted sights and the Shangri-La hastily erecting some modesty blinds. So perhaps it is unsurprising that the luxury hotel on The Shard's 34th to 52nd floors has been voted the worst hotel opening of 2014 by expert reviewers at Luxury Travel Intelligence.
Mark Cooper, CEO of IACC has announced the election of Rachael Bartlett as President of IACC-Europe for a two-year term.
The winners of the prestigious Annual 'Hospitality Finance, Revenue Management and IT Awards of the Year 2014' were announced yesterday (18 December) in London by HOSPA – the UK's leading educational organisation for professionals involved in Financial Management, Revenue Management and IT within the hospitality industry.
Saar Sharon is the newly appointed CEO of Leonardo Hotels in the UK, where his brief is to lead the company's expansion through asset acquisition, joint ventures and leasing across the UK. As an alumnus of the Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, we thought it fitting to ask one of Saar's old professors to interview him on behalf of The Hotel Yearbook. Demian Hodari, the school's expert on hotel ownership and management structures, rose to the occasion. Their conversation touched on the advantages of being small and emerging trends in ownership structure.
Whitbread announced that, after ten successful years with the company, Patrick Dempsey, Managing Director of Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants (WHR), will be stepping down from the Board and leaving the company on 28th February 2015. Paul Flaum, currently head of Whitbread Restaurants, will become the new MD WHR on 1st March 2015. Paul has worked for Whitbread for 11 years and was Chief Operating Officer for WHR prior to becoming MD Restaurants. Reporting to Paul will be Simon Jones, who becomes MD Premier Inn UK and hub by Premier Inn (currently Marketing & Strategy Director) and Mark Anderson who will add responsibility for Premier Inn Germany to his existing responsibilities for Property, Procurement and Logistics.
Whitbread announces today that, after ten successful years with the company, Patrick Dempsey, Managing Director of Whitbread Hotels & Restaurants (WHR), will be stepping down from the Board and leaving the company on 28th February 2015.
Regional UK total revenue per available room (TRevPAR) and gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR) are forecast to rise by the end of the year by 6.5% and 14.4% respectively, while London will also experience positive year-on-year comparison but at a slower pace with TRevPAR and GOPPAR going up in 2014 by 1.3% and 1.8% respectively. Moreover, both Regional UK and London hotel markets will continue to grow in 2015 with rising TRevPAR and GOPPAR anticipated, according to the Hotel Profitability Forecasts Reports released by e-forecasting and HotStats.
A group of mothers staged a “nurse-in” outside Claridge's, a posh London hotel, today. The demonstrators took to breast-feeding their children outside the establishment in protest against its treatment of a young mother earlier this week. Louise Burns was taking afternoon tea at the hotel and began breast-feeding her hungry baby. A waiter told her—politely, by Ms Burns’s own account—that it was Claridge’s policy to ask mothers to cover up while feeding. He then produced a large napkin to drape over the baby. An embarrassed Ms Burns tweeted the episode (pictured), the Guardian picked it up, and a debate about the rights and wrongs of Claridge’s actions ensued. Nigel Farage, leader of UKIP, a popular right-wing political party, added fuel when he suggested that mothers might prefer to “sit in a corner” when breast-feeding so as not to upset others.
IDeaS Revenue Solutions, the global provider of pricing and revenue management software, services and consulting today announced that Quentin Hotels has implemented IDeaS Revenue Management System (RMS) across their property portfolio in two European capital cities.
The new Amba Hotel Charing Cross, the first Amba Hotel worldwide, is now open. Situated just steps from Trafalgar Square, the hotel offers the fastest Wi-Fi in the world in any Meetings & Events hotels, with no limits on uploads and download speeds.
McCartan previously served as Chief Executive Officer of eRevMax, a travel technology service provider, where he grew operations to serve more than 8,000 customers, capturing data benefitting more than 40,000 hotels worldwide. He directed product development, business development, and customer and hotel relationship management in more than 100 countries, managing offices and research development in the U.S., UK, Poland, Singapore and India, and sales representatives globally.
IDeaS Revenue Solutions, the leading provider of pricing and revenue management software, services and consulting, today announced a major new partnership with the Association of Serviced Apartment Providers (ASAP).
With Rocco Forte Hotels new strategic partner in Fondo Strategico Italiano (FSI), Sir Rocco Forte has been newly emboldened to state he wants to at least double the size of today’s 10-hotel company within five years. An injection of £60 million (US$95 million) from the Italian state-backed sovereign fund 80% controlled by Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) and 20% by Bank of Italy in exchange for a 23% equity stake would certainly give any European luxury brand renewed stimulus and Sir Rocco is already in discussions concerning a development in Venice and is actively pursuing projects in Milan, Naples and Sicily.
Mr. Mrad joins GBT from Hertz International where he was most recently the Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing. Previously he held the position of Managing Director for Hertz Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia. In addition to positions within the Hertz Corporation, Mr. Mrad has held senior roles in Asia Pacific with Sita, Japan Tobacco International and in the production department of Rolex-Geneva. He holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the Institute of Management Development (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland and a Master of Science degree in Precision Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.