Sue Finlay joins the Sheraton Park Tower from the Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa in Edinburgh where she worked for 22 years, most recently as the Director of Sales & Marketing, a role she held for the past 12 years. Sue played a key role in the re-launch and repositioning of the hotel in 2012 following its multi-million pound refurbishment.
Sergio joins Le Méridien Piccadilly from the Sheraton Algarve, a Luxury Collection hotel in Portugal. He started at the resort as a Sales and Marketing intern in 1999, working his way up to the role of Complex Director of Operations for the entire resort, including the Sheraton Algarve, a Luxury Collection Hotel, and the Pine Cliffs Luxury Collection Residencies. In his new role Sergio is responsible for the operations of the 280-room Le Méridien Piccadilly, including the hotel’s destination bar Longitude 0°8’, the Terrace Grill & Bar and the conference and event suites.
Dorchester Collection recently announced the appointment of Christophe Hilty as hotel manager for its contemporary Mayfair hotel, 45 Park Lane . Reporting to Roland Fasel, general manager of The Dorchester and UK regional director, Hilty brings with him a wealth of experience at luxury hotel properties across both Europe and America. Spanning a 13-year career, Hilty's previous luxury hotel positions have included director of rooms in both the Seychelles and Park Lane, London; assistant director of rooms in Los Angeles; and front office manager in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Fluent in French, German, English and Italian, Christophe is a native of France, and attended the European University in Brussels where he attained a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree. Commenting on his appointment, Christophe said: "45 Park Lane has made a huge impact on London's hospitality market since it opened in 2011.I am delighted to be joining such a state-of-the-art property, and a company with the reputation of Dorchester Collection."
Great Hotels of the World (http://www.ghotw.com) is pleased to announce the opening of a brand new hotel in London. Hotel Xenia will open today following a two-year development and a cost of approximately £9 million. Hotel Xenia (http://www.ghotw.com/xenia-hotel) is the latest addition to Great Hotels of the World’s Premium Collection.
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC (“IHG”) today announces that Ms Jill McDonald is to be appointed as an independent Non-Executive Director of IHG. She will join the IHG Board with effect from 1 June 2013.
London is outpacing New York in the real estate market - especially with wealthy buyers from overseas, analysts say. InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is still waiting to sell the InterContinental New York Barclay hotel, one of its limited number of trophy properties, but it had no problem marketing another of its key assets in London recently.
It’s that time of year when the annual Tea Guild Awards come round again and we’ve done our usual added-value research from their findings to help you track down the best – and best-value – London hotel afternoon teas. Dubbed by some as the Oscars of the afternoon tea world, these awards have been rewarding establishments that excel at delivering quality experiences for almost three decades. This year The Goring (tea pictured above) gained the highest honour – Top London Afternoon Tea 2013 – while 22 London venues were given prestigious Awards of Excellence.
The Autograph Collection (www.autographhotels.com), Marriott International's (NYSE: MAR) exclusive portfolio of upscale, independent hotels, announced today the debut of the St. Ermin's Hotel in the Westminster area of London, representing the third Autograph Collection hotel in the United Kingdom. Earlier this month, Autograph Collection announced its entree into the U.K. with the inauguration of Threadneedles in the heart of London's financial district and The Glasshouse in central Edinburgh, Scotland. The 331-room iconic St. Ermin's Hotel will expand the collection of independent lifestyle hotels to include more than 40 exceptional travel experiences in the United States, Europe, Caribbean, and South America.
Global hotel consultancy and valuation specialist HVS is pleased to announce the appointment of Samantha Muna, who will be in charge of business development for East Africa.
Jumeirah Carlton Tower and Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel have appointed Baerbel Moehrle as the new Event Sales Manager for both hotels.
Despite their «sophisticated algorithms» and their attentive «monitoring» of comments posted on the web, it has been duped by small pranksters who succeeded at getting a homeless shelter in the Top 100 of recommended establishments for the quality of its service in the United Kingdom.
HeBS Digital, the industry's leading full-service hotel digital marketing, website design and direct online channel strategy firm, announces President & CEO Max Starkov will present during EyeforTravel's Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2013 conference, to be held May 23-24 at the Novotel London West Hotel, London. Starkov will present during the panel "Capitalise on the Rise & Rise of the Tablet."
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts Founder and Chairman Isadore Sharp was honoured by The British Travel Industry Hall of Fame at a special awards dinner on April 25, 2013 in London. The Hall of Fame was created in 1995 to "honour excellence and outstanding achievement in those who have played a significant part in creating and developing the travel, hospitality and tourism industry."
Dorchester Collection's iconic British hotel in the heart of Mayfair, The Dorchester, and new contemporary hotel 45 Park Lane of the same location, were awarded Forbes Travel Guide highest Five-Star Award, two of only six hotels in London to receive the recommendation, and only 82 in the world. This marks the first hotel ratings in Europe for Forbes Travel Guide, which has anonymously inspected and rated hotels, restaurants and spas since the company’s founding in 1958 as Mobil Travel Guide.
The London hotel market experienced a gross operating profit decline of 7.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2013, according to the latest HotStats survey. In the first three months of 2013, RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) and TRevPAR (Total Revenue per Available Room) performance declined by 3.4% and 2.5%, respectively, when compared to 2012 performance.
Mr Sherwood, who ran the luxury hotel and train company for 13 years until 2007, is to lead the strategic development of D&D London, the restaurant chain set up by Sir Terence Conran. D&D London, which began life as Conran Restaurants and whose sites include some of London’s best known eateries, was bought by LDC as part of a £50m management buy-out. Well-known restaurants owned by the company include Bluebird in Chelsea and Quaglino’s in Mayfair.
The Autograph Collection, Marriott International's (NYSE: MAR) exclusive portfolio of upscale, independent hotels continues to grow in Europe with the introduction of two new extraordinary travel experiences this spring. Threadneedles, in the heart of London's financial district, and The Glasshouse in central Edinburgh, Scotland, will represent the Autograph Collection's first hotels in the United Kingdom. The additions are set to expand the exclusive portfolio of upscale, independent lifestyle hotels to include more than 40 exceptional hotel experiences in the United States, Europe, Caribbean, and South America.
InterContinental Hotels Group PLC today announces it has agreed to sell InterContinental London Park Lane ("the Hotel") to Constellation Hotel (Opco) UK S.A., which is an affiliate of Constellation Hotels Holding Limited, a Middle Eastern private investment group. IHG's leasehold interest in the Hotel has been sold for gross cash proceeds of £301.5m ($457m*), 62% above 31 December 2012 net book value.
Demand levels increased as occupancy rose by 1.4 percentage points to 75.9%, albeit at the expense of average room rate (-1.8%). As a result, RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) remained flat. Encouragingly, TRevPAR (Total Revenue per Available Room) increased by 0.8%, underpinned by an increase in non-rooms departmental revenue performance (+2.6%) when compared with February 2012 performance.
She will continue her role as Chairman of Just a Drop, the international water charity she founded in 1998. Reed has supported this charity since its inception and will continue to do so. Jeffery, who received the OBE for services to tourism last year, is to take on fresh challenges after leading World Travel Market to its commanding position as the leading global event for the travel industry.