Jones’ new responsibilities include providing strategic leadership to global intermediary segments such as travel management companies, travel agencies, group intermediaries, wholesalers, group tour operators and consortia. He will continue to provide strategic oversight to Marriott’s global sales operations located throughout Europe.
Park Plaza Westminster Bridge first appointed Daniel to the role of hotel manager in November 2009. Having honed his skills at a host of UK hotels and venues such as Grosvenor House, Le Meridien Piccadilly, Café Royal and Somerset House for more than 20 years, Daniel brings a wealth of knowledge to the role and has particular expertise in providing outstanding service to large events and conference guests.
HSMAI Europe has the great pleasure to announce that our own Hans Stenseng, leader of the HSMAI Student division, has won a prize awarded by STR Global for his essay on:
The problem with London hotels in the past wasn’t always that the food was unexciting; quite a few hotels had extremely good chefs working for them. No, the problem was that the ambience was unexciting – ancient waiters in dinner jackets, rooms that hadn’t been redecorated since the Duke of Wellington’s day and a rather starchy feel. That’s all changed today and so has the way many hotels see their food service. Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, for instance, is really a Heston Blumenthal restaurant which just happens to sit within the Mandarin Oriental hotel – rather than being the hotel’s dining room.
The latest eagerly-anticipated hotel offering from The Dorchester Collection, 45 Park Lane, opened last week. And with room rates starting from £395 we were pleased to see that WiFi is free throughout the hotel. However we were not so pleased to discover that the original Dorchester Hotel in London - a 5 star hotel with similarly lofty room rates – is charging a hefty £19.50 per 24 hours of WiFi. What’s more, if you want to log on quickly for 10 minutes there is no option for a shorter cheaper tariff - you’ll still need to pay the full £19.50. It sounds like a big rip-off to us. What a pity when this grand old hotel is celebrating its 80th anniversary in style.
Good Afternoon Mr. Ronson we've been expecting you - was the unexpected yet pleasant greeting I received from the Doorman of the newly opened 45 Park Lane as I told him my name while handing over my luggage upon arrival at the Hotel. Opened just three days ago on September 1st, 45 Park Lane is the latest addition to the Dorchester Collection and is appropriately located on the adjacent block to the original Dorchester Hotel - in Park Lane, London.
With one year to go until London welcomes athletes to the 2012 Olympic Games, hoteliers in the capital have been breaking records of their own this month as room occupancy levels reached an extraordinary 92.4%, according to TRI Hospitality Consulting's latest HotStats survey of approximately 550 full-service hotels across the UK. Not only did hoteliers in London successfully achieve a 0.6 percentage point year-on-year increase in room occupancy following the staggering 91.8% achieved during the same period in 2010, but room rates also soared. At £148.65 the achieved average room rate for the month is the highest recorded. This is 0.6% above the previous high, which was achieved last month.
Fiona Jeffery, founder and chairman, Just a Drop, the international water-aid charity, announced the appointment of Alfred Pisani, founder and group chairman, Corinthia Hotels, as a corporate patron. Corinthia Hotels, the five-star hotel collection, will also formally adopt Just a Drop as its official charity. Other Just a Drop patrons include Baroness Joyce Anelay of St. Johns, Lord Digby-Jones as well as television presenters Stephen Sackur and Alastair Stewart. Corinthia Hotels hosted the recent Just a Drop annual gala reception at its newly opened luxury property, the Corinthia Hotel London, located in the heart of the West End in Whitehall Place, in-between Trafalgar Square and the Embankment.
The premium channel management company has enhanced its RTCorp offering and launched a new product to help the industry better see how hotel rates are behaving. RateTiger is now making all its rate data available to online hotel sales channels, hotel chains and corporate buyers to provide greater pricing transparency for the industry.
The all encompassing WTM Social Media Programme has been designed to connect with the thousand's of people and companies that make up the online travel community, to encourage interaction year-round and especially during World Travel Market 2011.
With one year to go until the start of the Games, hoteliers in the capital have begun taking advantage of an anticipated influx in visitors from home and abroad. Although the majority of hotels have not yet released their rates for the period covering the Games – July 27-August 12 – those which have are quoting prices well in excess of what they would usually be at that time of year.
If our post on London’s four most expensive hotel rooms whetted your appetite for the high life, you’ll be pleased to know that you can live the lifestyle without bearing those eye-watering prices. Whilst these suites certainly aren’t cheap, they do offer super value given the “wow” factor they offer, proving you can splash out without breaking the bank. Here is our top 5 “value without compromising luxury” rundown.
Tourism Ministers and industry leaders attending the November 8 Summit – How Tourism Can Prosper Following the Global Downturn – will discuss and agree actions and principles the sector should take moving forward to consolidate recovery.
Burba Hotel Network (BHN), has announced that David Goodger, Director of Tourism Economics, Europe (an Oxford Economics Company) will speak at the upcoming Hotel Investment Conference Europe (Hot.E) conference. Hosted by BHN, Hot.E is scheduled for 6-8 September 2011, at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London.
How gingerly should travel managers and business travellers approach London’s hotels during next summer’s Olympic Games? The UK capital at the end of July and the beginning of August 2012 is going to be a busier place than normal in a city where hotel occupancy rates of 90 percent are common in summer. No matter how many locals flee the capital for calmer climes (Oxford Economics forecasts that the UK will lose £91 million from Londoners heading overseas due to overcrowding fears), hundreds of thousands of Olympics ticket-holders and ticketless hangers-on are expected in town. They’ll all need somewhere to stay.
WTM 2010 highlighted the tourism development in the BRIC nations in its inaugural World Travel Market 2010 Industry Report. The Report – which polled 1,300 WTM exhibitors and buyers from the Meridian Club as well as 1,000 UK holidaymakers – revealed almost half of the industry see the BRIC economies as one of the biggest growth opportunities of the next five years.
COSTA MESA, California, USA Burba Hotel Network (BHN) has announced that three special country/regional session tracks will be featured at the upcoming Hotel Investment Conference Europe (Hot.E) conference. Hosted by BHN, Hot.E is scheduled for 6-8 September 2011, at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel in London.
Based in London, Mr Buchs is responsible for supervising all existing hotel operations and upcoming developments in EMEA as well as those in Seychelles and Mauritius. In addition, Mr Buchs is in charge of developing the Group’s EMEA business through new opportunities. Mr Buchs replaces Mr Bernold O. Schroeder. In his new role, Mr Buchs reports to Mr Ho Kwon Ping, Executive Chairman, Banyan Tree Holdings.
Boutique Hotel Summit, Europe's first ever b2b conference for the boutique and lifestyle hotel sectors, drew a capacity audience of hotel professionals from around the world to London's St Ermin's Hotel to engage in lively debate over the future of the industry.
This was the upbeat conclusion of HVS London director Tim Smith, speaking earlier today [14 June] at the inaugural Boutique Hotel Summit 2011, held at London's St Ermin's Hotel.