More than 300 event, hospitality and travel professionals in the UK and Europe are set to attend the first ever Cvent CONNECT Europe conference at the Pullman London St Pancras from 17th-18th October 2017.
YOTEL announced today that a fund affiliated with Starwood Capital Group ("Starwood"), a leading global private investment firm, has committed to making a strategic investment of $250 million in YOTEL, including acquiring a 30 percent stake in the company and investing in real estate acquisitions for new build, hotel conversion and adaptive reuse properties as YOTEL expands its international scale.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group"s European flagship Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, has unveiled the first phase of its extensive restoration, designed to confirm this historic hotel"s position as one of the best in the world. The hotel remains open throughout the renovation which will be completed in the third quarter of 2018.
Rosewood Hotels & Resorts has been appointed by global real estate investment firm Qatari Diar to manage a new hotel located on Grosvenor Square, in London"s prestigious Mayfair district. Set to be housed in the building that currently serves as the U.S. Embassy, it will mark the second Rosewood property in London and its sixth in Europe.
Finchatton, the preeminent international design and development firm, has partnered with Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, the world"s leading luxury hospitality company, to offer the first standalone Four Seasons Private Residences, located at Twenty Grosvenor Square in London. Opening in 2018, the residences will be the first Four Seasons Private Residences to be operated independently of a Four Seasons hotel or resort.
One Aldwych, Covent Garden, one of London’s most acclaimed luxury independently-owned hotels and member of Leading Hotels of the World, is pleased to announce Simon Hirst as Managing Director. Home to 93 guestrooms and 12 suites plus two renowned restaurants: the recently launched Eneko London by three Michelin-starred Basque Chef Eneko Atxa and Indigo, Hirst returns to the hotel where he launched the property as General Manager. He re-joins One Aldwych as a Board member and Managing Director. Hirst brings over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry to his new position at One Aldwych. He began his career with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, holding senior management positions with the group’s hotels in Hong Kong and San Francisco. Since, Hirst was General Manager at Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts in London, Mandarin Oriental in Hong Kong, and The Four Seasons in Chiang Mai. In 1997, Simon was appointed as opening General Manager of One Aldwych, London. Over the next 14 years at One Aldwych he also oversaw Carlisle Bay, Antigua, Dukes, London and Le Gray, Beirut. He joined Raffles Hotels & Resorts as General Manager of Raffles Seychelles in 2011 and two years later became General Manager of Raffles Singapore.
It has become a tradition over the last four years: the mayor of London launching the autumn cultural season of the British capital in the presence of several hundred VIPs and the cream of the crop of London's cultural institutions.
On the 31st of August, Sadiq Khan upheld this tradition during a soiree held at the Museum of Natural History, in Hintze Hall, where a gigantic blue whale skeleton was recently suspended from the ceiling.
In the context of this pre-Brexit period, Sadiq Khan the successor to the flamboyant Boris Johnson – the current Secretary of State for foreign and Commonwealth affairs of Theresa May's Conservative government – spared no effort convincing patrons of London's appeal.
STR's preliminary August 2017 data for hotels in London, England, indicates a year-over-year decline in occupancy levels, but growth in average daily rate (ADR).Based on daily data from August, London reported the following in year-over-year comparisons:
aul Duggan has been appointed General Manager of the 615-bedroom 4-star Holiday Inn London Heathrow M4J4 hotel. With a career in hospitality spanning three decades, Paul is a seasoned hotelier with exceptional experience at leading independent and branded hotels across the UK. Joining at a pivotal time for the hotel, Paul’s first role has been to relaunch the hotel’s restaurant and bar, the new T6 Bar & Restaurant concept, which officially relaunched at the beginning of September.
Former England number eight and Harlequins captain Nick Easter is to be the guest speaker at the HOSPACE2017 Gala Awards Dinner on 2 November at the Royal Lancaster London, W2 2TY.
The Set, the hotel collection behind Hotel Café Royal, London, Conservatorium, Amsterdam and the Lutetia, Paris is pleased to announce the appointment of Guillaume Marly as Managing Director for Hotel Café Royal.
Overlooking the world-famous Trafalgar Square, The Trafalgar St. James, Curio Collection by Hilton, has officially joined the exclusive collection of more than 35 hotels and resorts. As the first Curio Collection by Hilton hotel in the UK, the hotel was hand-picked to be a part of the global, upper upscale collection of one-of-a-kind independent properties all celebrated for their individuality.
HOSPA – the Association providing unparalleled support for hospitality's Finance, Revenue Management, Marketing and IT professionals with career development, networking and up-dating on industry trends and developments – is delighted to announce its highly topical autumn line-up of discussions and seminars, open not just to HOSPA members but the hospitality industry as a whole.
The first six months of 2017 produced the U.K. hotel industry's highest occupancy, average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR) for any first half on record, according to data from STR. Compared with the first six months of 2016, the U.K. recorded a 1.7% increase in occupancy to an actual level of 75.1%, a 4.7% increase in ADR to GBP89.33 and a 6.5% increase in RevPAR to GBP67.12. STR analysts note that the devaluation in the pound sterling following the June 2016 Brexit vote has resulted in strong tourism growth for the U.K., which has in turn benefitted the country's hotel sector. According to recent figures published by VisitBritain, total visits to the U.K. were up 9% from January to May 2017. While arrivals from Europe were up just 5% during the first five months of the year, arrivals from North America increased 22%, and visits from the rest of the world were up 25%. VisitBritain's findings also show that visitor spending increased 14% for the January to May period, indicating that many travelers are taking advantage of the more favorable currency exchange rate. This aligns with the country's hotel rate growth, which was particularly high in London, up 6.2% to GBP143.57 in H1. The U.K. capital continues to post performance growth, despite experiencing terror attacks in March and June.
Pentahotels, the innovative lifestyle hotel group, has promoted Ben Thomas to the position of Regional Director pentahotels UK, effective from 1 June 2017. In his new role, Ben will take over from Andrew Munt, who was promoted to Vice President Operations for the group earlier this year. Ben will now be responsible for all hotel operations and management within the region.
STR's preliminary July 2017 data for hotels in London, England, indicates strong rate growth. Based on daily data from June, London reported the following in year-over-year comparisons:
The Association of Serviced Apartment Providers (ASAP) - the not-for-profit trade body for the serviced apartment sector - is delighted to announce that Cathy O'Dowd will be the keynote speaker for its annual Convention in London on 7 December.The first woman in the world to climb Mount Everest from both its north and south side, Cathy is an exceptional motivational speaker, and will inspire delegates as she takes them on an expedition sharing stories about leading teams and executing plans in high-risk high-stress environments while striving for big goals, based around her experience rea ching the summit of Mount Everest.James Foice, Chief Executive of the ASAP, comments:'It's fantastic to have secured Cathy O'Dowd as our keynote speaker for our 2017 Convention. Our 2017 Convention theme is 'Rising to the Challenge' and who better than Cathy to inspire our delegates about how to succeed in the most challenging situations, run successful projects, get the best out of people and achieve your goals, based on her real-life insights on the many challenges she has faced as an adventurer and explorer'.Speaking from her home in Andorra, Cathy O'Dowd comments:'People assume the biggest challenge of Everest is the storms, or the cold, or the altitude. It's not. It's yourself, and your team. Much of what happens around you is out of your control, but how you react to it, how you manage the opportunities and the difficulties - that's what makes the difference between failure and success.'ASAP is also very pleased to con firm that best-selling author Frances Edmonds will compere the 2017 Convention for the first time.Tickets are now on sale for the event and can be booked on the dedicated Convention website – http://asapconvention.org.uk . Early-bird booking runs until 30 September.Further details of the Convention seminar programme will be released later this summer.
Raheel Baggia, Senior Director, BMSC Planning and Services will be responsible for Integration and Change Management, Program Execution and Training. Prior to this Raheel served as Director, BMSC Consulting-Middle East and Africa. Since joining Marriott in 2013, Raheel has been working on strategic continent projects both in his previous role supporting BMSC-Middle East and Africa as well as in Europe where he was part of the Global Operations team.
Small Luxury Hotels of the World is delighted to announce The LaLiT London as the latest addition to its collection of small, independently owned hotels in the UK capital. The hotel, which is available to book from 26th July via the SLH website opened in February 2017 and is the first overseas venture for New Delhi-based hotel company The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group.
Hilton London Metropole announced the appointment of Remco Norden as general manager on July 1. A Dutch national who speaks five languages, Norden has 23 years of experience with Hilton in a variety of commercial and operational roles in the U.K. and overseas, most recently at the 821-room Hilton London Gatwick Airport Hotel, where he had been general manager since 2016. In January 2014, he opened Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel & Conference Center, Hilton’s flagship and largest hotel in continental Europe. The hotel went on to win a number of company awards for its sales performance, as well as being recognised in the “2016 Best Places to Work Turkey” and nominated as “2016 Best Conference Hotel Europe” in the Grand Travel Awards. During his tenure as general manager at Hilton Warsaw Hotel & Convention Center, the hotel won total of 13 awards from seven different organizations in 2011 alone, including Best Employer, Best Hotel and Best Sustainability Initiatives.