Hospitality industry figures have played down fears there will be a shortage of hotel rooms during the 2012 Olympics. According to official figures, 17,000 new hotel rooms will be needed in time for the Olympics to cope with the demand of tourists and sponsors such as Coca-Cola, which says it will require 10,000 hospitality packages and 20,000 hotel rooms for the duration of the Games.
The 156 bedroom, 5 star Athenaeum Hotel & Apartments on London's Piccadilly overlooks Green Park and is surrounded by all the excitement of Central London. The hotel is one of a small group of luxury hotels operated by Ralph Trustees Limited, including The Runnymede Hotel & Spa in Surrey and The Grove, Hertfordshire. The hotel is approaching completion of a multi-million pound renovation of the suites and bedrooms but before you even step foot inside The Athenaeum, you can see the hotel has changed. A magical vertical garden has been installed 8 storeys high, towering over Piccadilly!
Chris joins from Jones Lang Lasalle Hotels in London, where he was a Senior Vice President and where he executed a number of high profile hotel asset and portfolio sales across Europe. Chris brings with him over 15 years of specialist hotel brokerage experience, gained in Europe, Asia and Australia. Chris will further strengthen HVS Hodges Ward Elliott’s expanding European team. His appointment reinforces the firm’s position at the forefront of the European hotel transaction market and its goal to provide clients with the highest level of expertise, particularly in anticipation of increasing activity in the sector.
World Travel Market, the premier global event for the travel industry, has organised a high profile speaker line up for its first half-day WTM Vision conference. Well-respected Mail On Sunday Travel Editor Frank Barrett will moderate the first session on global travel and tourism trends, which will unveil exclusive Euromonitor International research on the impact of the recession on the travel and tourism industry.
To say the market has been extremely tough over the last few months would be a massive understatement. We can see the effects that the banking crisis is having, the wider implications of an economic slowdown in the UK and the knock on for our own industry. As clients you have been very supportive of us in the past, either when we were The Bench or HotelBenchmark and now as STR Global and we want to try and help as much as we can. We are sitting on a large amount of quality market information, and whereas you have the ability to pull a lot of data through our website, you probably haven’t had the time to. In all market conditions, whether growing or contracting, we need to look at the specific market segment because they all behave differently.
The Dorchester, the iconic London flagship of the Dorchester Collection, has announced the appointments of four top-flight hospitality pros to the hotel management team: Ann Costelloe as manager of the soon to debut new Dorchester Spa launching in May 2009, Brian Hughson as Head Chef of The Grill, Renaud Gregoire as Director of Food & Beverage, and Rosanna Crawley as Head of Communications.
By Tanya Gold. I have a small but significant confession to make. I will never stay in a luxury hotel again. It's been crawling up on me, this disgust with the world of self-flushing toilets, floors so shiny you can squeeze your spots in them, and tall, thin people wearing Ralph Lauren. (The clothes, not the person). I am middle-class, and I was born in suburbia, so it was natural that I would embrace the deluxe lifestyle, as soon as I got credit. It's the inadequacy. I was too fat for fashion, so I used to wear Claridge's instead. I used to sit in the bar, sipping a Diet Coke, wondering if I would ever make it into Tatler. But so slowly that nausea set in. Expensive hotels are designed for rich people to feel loved. You pay, and they wrap you in a bathrobe that says, "You are not a psychopath, and we care about you." But actually, if you look deeper, if you open your eyes from your soporific, luxurious slumber, you will realise that the people who are waiting on you hate your guts. With good reason.
London hoteliers are expected to see a 12.7% drop in revenue per available room (revPAR) by the end of 2009 according to Hotel Market Outlook, a quarterly report released by Deloitte. The report uses the outputs of an econometric model produced by an independent economic research group to produce forward looking changes in hotel performance.
McHale will join the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park hotel next month, taking over from acting general manager Werner Anzinger. Anzinger has been acting general manager since Christoph Mares left the hotel last July and will continue as deputy manager at the property after McHale joins. McHale was most recently general manager of the Orient Express Hotels run Keswick Hall Club and Estate in Charlottesville Virginia. Mares, who is himself rejoining the Mandarin Oriental Group as operations director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in April, said: “On behalf of my colleagues at Mandarin Oriental, we are delighted to welcome Tony McHale to his new position as general manager of our flagship European property.
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) opened the doors of Hotel Indigo London Paddington today -- the first Hotel Indigo outside North America -- and announced a deal to open three more Hotel Indigo properties in the city.
The world's largest hanging basket has today been unveiled in Paddington, London. The six by three metre (20 foot by 10 foot) structure - weighing over a quarter of a ton - took a team of designers, engineers and gardeners three weeks to construct and includes over 100 different varieties of seasonal plants and flowers.
LONDON & BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. | Doubletree by Hilton™, the upscale, full-service brand that is part of the Hilton Family of Hotels, today celebrated the debut of its first hotel in central London with the re-branding of the 112-room Courthouse Doubletree by Hilton London-Regent Street. This opening marks a brand development milestone of more than 200 hotels and resorts now welcoming travellers within the Doubletree collection, as well as the addition of a fifth Doubletree by Hilton hotel in Europe.
With a prestigious heritage grounded in individualism and elegance, The Dorchester Collection is pleased to launch the first phase of a new campaign focusing on its legendary guests.