Improving economic conditions, the return of the business traveller and international demand should lift the London rate seven per cent for 2010, with the average room rate (ARR) for the Capital reaching £124 (up from £116 in 2009). This should boost a 2010 RevPAR gain of almost nine per cent.
Marcus Verberne has worked alongside Mark Hix for the last 10 years, previously at Le Caprice, J Sheekey and The Ivy, before joining Rocco Forte's Brown's Hotel in February 2008 as Head Chef.
A slow, unreliable internet connection is a source of huge frustration for today's business traveller when staying in hotels, according to independent research of 1,000 UK business travellers conducted by Quadriga. 62 per cent of respondents found having a reliable internet connection was almost as important as a comfortable bed (70 per cent) and decent bathroom facilities (68 per cent).
John Hazard, previously general manager at Bristol Royal Marriott, joins the Mayfair hotel with further experience gleaned from Comfort Inn, Choice Hotels and Premier Lodge. He is also joined by Georgina Evagora, director of sales and marketing, and Moira Azzopardi, the new director of revenue strategy.
Heard about the hotel that charges extra if you want your room cleaned? It sounds like a (bad) joke, doesn't it? But such a hotel actually exists, and it's in London. Last week, Tune Hotels, an Asian chain of budget hotels with properties in Malaysia and Indonesia, opened its first UK hotel, near Waterloo station. The company has plans to open 15 more hotels in the capital over the next seven years.
‘Growing Profitability in an Uncertain Market – The Challenges to Come’ is the title of the 5th Annual BAHA Hospitality Finance Conference and IT Exhibition - to be held on Thursday, 25 November 2010 at the Sofitel Hotel, London Heathrow at Terminal 5
Guoman Hotels has announced the appointment of Tim Cordon as general manager of The Cumberland hotel with immediate effect. Dynamic, passionate and forward thinking, Cordon comes on board with Guoman to further establish the iconic, contemporary, highly design-led, Oxford Street Hotel property as a unique, leading destination in central London. With a successful ten-year track record in developing flagship properties within the Radisson SAS portfolio, including the leading Radisson Blu Portman Square. Cordon will employ his proven expertise to drive forward the hotel's wide-ranging appeal and continually enhance The Cumberland guest experience in its entirety; delivered from the many bedrooms and ample meetings & events space, to the hotel's late-night destination venue, Carbon.
In just a few months, Four Seasons returns to Mayfair with the opening of the new Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane. With its greenery-filled interiors opening up through windows and conservatories to terraces and sweeping views of Hyde Park and Westminster, the new Hotel will be a breath of fresh air that ushers in a new era as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts celebrates fifty years of hospitality in 2011.
A new budget hotel run like a no-frills airline has opened its doors in London. The Tune hotel in Westminster takes the low-cost business model to the extreme. Unlike Easyhotel it even charges guests for using a towel. If booked in advance, rooms can sell for as little as £9 on promotion, and £35 for a standard rate. The BBC's Susannah Streeter tested out the accommodation.
As the clock continues to tick on the Savoy’s October 10 opening – after a delay that this blog was the first in the world to report – anticipation is growing to see exactly what delights the Old Dame has in store. Most are expecting a certain decadence within the frame of an ultra luxurious hotel – and quite right too, in view of the Savoy’s impressive heritage and longstanding tradition as an Art Deco hotel.
Today Corinthia Hotels released further details of the five-star luxury hotel it is building in central London, which is due to open in early 2011. It will become the world’s ninth Corinthia hotel. Corinthia Hotel London is being built within an imposing Victorian building, on a city block location between Whitehall Place, Northumberland Avenue and Great Scotland Yard, overlooking Trafalgar Square and the River Thames.
GEKKO A new service launches in beta today that will change how publishers commercialise their travel content. Gekko (www.gekko.com), the personal shopping assistant for hotels, is launching GEKKOLinks, which automatically converts mentions of a hotel on a page into an affiliate link. BusinessTraveller.com, the online version of the leading magazine for the frequent business traveller, with more than 1m unique page views per month worldwide, is one of the first publishers to sign up to use the service.
Prior to his promotion, Andrea was Regional Director of Sales & Marketing based in Orient-Express’s office in Milan, where he was responsible for sales and marketing for the company’s Italian hotels, including Hotel Cipriani in Venice and Hotel Splendido in Portofino. During this time he was involved in the successful opening of the Hotel Caruso in Ravello, and the launch of the company’s latest acquisitions, Grand Hotel Timeo and Villa Sant’Andrea in Sicily, in May 2010.
The Elegant Hotels Group, which owns and operates a collection of five distinctive hotels on the south and west coasts of Barbados, has announced the appointment of Caroline Kent as assistant director of sales for the UK. In her new role, Caroline joins Jayanne Young under the direction of Glynis Jeffery, director of sales and marketing for the UK and Europe to drive Elegant Hotels’ sales initiatives in the marketplace.
Easy (Ez) Revenue Management Solutions Ltd (EasyRMS) has sealed a new contract to deploy their EzRMS™ SaaS Revenue Management solution in London's newest hotel - the Pestana Chelsea Bridge Hotel and Spa.
Host Hotels & Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: HST) today announced that it acquired the 266-room Le Meridien Piccadilly in London, England at a purchase price of 64 million pounds, including the assumption of a 33 million pound mortgage. The hotel is located in the prestigious Mayfair district of London, a central location for both business and leisure travelers and offers 12,000 square feet of meeting space as well as a large health club featuring one of the largest indoor pools in the London hotel market.
Hilton Worldwide today announced the signing of an agreement with the Ability Group to open a new Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts hotel in Grade I-listed Syon Park, West London. London Syon Park, A Waldorf Astoria Hotel is scheduled to open in November 2010, offering an exceptional blend of parkland tranquillity and easy access to the city centre.
One of the most prestigious and eagerly awaited events in the UK hospitality industry calendar – the 5th Annual BAHA Hospitality Finance Conference and IT Exhibition – is to be held on Thursday, 25 November 2010 at the Sofitel Hotel, London Heathrow at Terminal 5.
The lingering memory for travellers caught up in the airport closures earlier this spring because of the eruption of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull, will be of days wasted at airports or meetings and holidays cancelled. For hoteliers in London and the city’s two major airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, the closures had no significant effect on the long-term trend toward growth in revenue per available room (RevPAR), according to data from STR Global, the leading provider of market information to the global hotel industry. See the trend lines in the graph below.
A hotel chain that promises to offer a power shower and a comfy bed but charge for extras such as room cleaning and air conditioning is marking its arrival on the London hotel scene with 1p-a-night room deals. Tony Fernandes, the man behind low-cost long haul airline AirAsia and a string of budget hotels in Malaysia and Indonesia, is to launch his first UK Tune Hotel in Westminster in August.