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.
The Savoy, A Fairmont Managed Hotel, will reopen its doors on Sunday, October 10, 2010. One of this year’s most eagerly anticipated openings, The Savoy has been undergoing the most ambitious restoration in British history. The hotel closed in December 2007 for a restoration that encompasses the entire building from the iconic entrance and the American Bar to Savoy Grill and the 268 guestrooms and suites.
Pinchard previously held the position of Thistle Hotels’ head of sales UK and previously worked at an international management level for both Hilton and InterContinental Hotels.
The Rezidor Hotel Group confirms that the name change of their mid market brand Park Inn to Park Inn by Radisson (as announced in their press release dated June 2 and 8, see below) does not apply to the area within the M25 motorway that encircles London, where Edwardian has certain exclusivity rights for the Radisson brand. Edwardian Group Ltd has 12 hotels within the M25 which use the Radisson brand under licence from Carlson Hotels. Edwardian is not part of Rezidor.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.® (NYSE: HOT) and its new destination sensation brand, Aloft® Hotels, today announces the signing of Aloft London ExCeL. Scheduled to open in advance of the London Olympics in 2012, this 252 room hotel will be located at ExCeL London, the international exhibition & convention centre in the Docklands area of the city. Created to shake up the staid, traditional select service segment of the hotel industry, Aloft delivers urban-influenced, open and vibrant design and a social guest experience at an affordable price point.
Double-award winning concierge Ben Malpass is the latest member of staff to be recruited to the much-delayed reopening of the Savoy hotel, London. Malpass is due to leave the four-star, 230-bedroom Cavendish London this week and expects to take up his new position as head concierge of the iconic five-star property, operated by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, in July. Currently nearing the end of a refurbishment that will have far exceeded its original budget of £100m, the Savoy is now planned to reopen in September, having closed in December 2007. Originally from Australia, Malpass has been in the UK for 10 years, the past five years as head concierge at the Cavendish London, where Richard Jenkins, formerly assistant head converge at the hotel will replace him. He will head a team of 30, including concierges, door staff, valets, luggage porters and page boys.
Ms Ibrahim will succeed Bob Cotton on the 19 July 2010. Ms Ibrahim joins the association from London-based World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). As Chief Operating Officer at WTTC, working with governments and industry across the world, Ms Ibrahim has advised on policymaking and the development of planning frameworks for the long-term success of travel and tourism. As a keen promoter of public and private sector dialogue, she has been instrumental in the establishment of the Global Travel & Tourism Summit – the annual meeting of world leaders to discuss and agree key priorities for the industry. Prior to joining WTTC in 2000, Ms Ibrahim was in charge of the American Express Global Passport and Visa Unit for five years. She studied at the London Metropolitan University, graduating with a BA in Leisure and Tourism Management, and has recently graduated with distinction in her MBA from the Open University.
The Savoy Hotel has always been associated with style and decadence, so when it was closed for a £118million upgrade in 2007 the public eagerly awaited its glamorous reopening. But the project, which is already running 11 months behind schedule, has just been put back for a second time, delaying the opening until late August or early September this year.
Hoteliers in London could see double-digit revenue per available room (RevPAR) growth this year, according to the latest Hotel Market Outlook, a quarterly report issued by Deloitte.