Principal Hayley Group, a leading hotel and conference centre provider, has announced three new general manager appointments to its venue management team; Martin Jones has joined the team at De Vere Venues Wynchwood Park, Chris Falcus has joined Eastwood Hall, and James Grant has been appointed at De Vere Venues Brigade, London.
Principal Hayley Group, a leading hotel and conference centre provider, has announced three new general manager appointments to its venue management team; Martin Jones has joined the team at De Vere Venues Wynchwood Park, Chris Falcus has joined Eastwood Hall, and James Grant has been appointed at De Vere Venues Brigade, London.
Dan Moon has been announced as head chef of the Gainsborough Bath Spa.
On the first day of March in 2011, I received a phone call from a reporter from a local paper to let me know that the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in King's Cross was going to open its doors to the public soon and he asked me if I could write a feature on this iconic building for his newspaper. I was in Mumbai when I picked up the call, travelling in an auto-rickshaw outside the Victoria Terminus now known as CST - a building that bore an uncanny resemblance to the one housing the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel except that it was made of sandstone whereas the one in London was made of bricks. I'd like to have been back in London to tour the building that had intrigued me for years whenever I visited the British Library. I didn't know the reason for it being left empty. The clock tower of this Victorian Gothic building actually dwarfed that of the recently-built British Library.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts today announced the official opening of Hilton Edinburgh Carlton, marking the 16th property in the Hilton Worldwide portfolio of brands in Scotland and the eighth Hilton Hotels & Resorts hotel in the country. More than four million tourists visit Edinburgh yearly1 and they can now be welcomed with Hilton's brand of hospitality in the heart of the city centre. Hilton Edinburgh Carlton showcases the rich history of Edinburgh and is within walking distance of myriad attractions, from the famous Royal Mile, which it overlooks, to the beautiful St. Giles' Cathedral. The hotel is owned and operated by Amaris Hospitality and is part of their 73-hotel portfolio across the UK and Ireland.
STR's preliminary July 2016 data for London, England, indicates performance growth driven by rate. Based on daily data from July, London reported the following in year-over-year comparisons:
Leading international hotel operator Macdonald Hotels & Resorts has announced the addition of a key member of staff to oversee its portfolio in the North of Scotland. Simon Farr has been appointed to the role of CEO of the Macdonald Aviemore Resort and has also been named as Managing Director of the company’s Aberdeen and Inverness region. In addition to his responsibilities in the Aviemore Resort, nearby Spey Valley Golf & Country Club, Lochanhully Woodland Club at Carrbridge and Loch Rannoch in Perthshire, Mr Farr will also be responsible for Macdonald Norwood Hall (Aberdeen), Macdonald Pittodrie House (Aberdeenshire) and Macdonald Drumossie (Inverness). Mr Farr brings to the region a wealth of experience in senior management roles within the hospitality industry, including De Vere, Jarvis, Thistle Hotels and AccorHotels. During a career spanning three decades, Mr Farr has worked in some of the country’s leading venues including the Regent’s Palace Hotel in London and Wokefield Park in Berkshire. His experience also extends to the international hospitality industry having previously worked as Operations Director for Thistle Hotels in the UK and Asia.
Hotel occupancy in London showed its sixth consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline with Brexit poised to subdue the sector further, according to the latest Hotel Bulletin: Q2 2016, published this week by HVS, AlixPartners and AM:PM. Hotel occupancy in the capital, in common with other major European cities, continues to be affected by increased global terrorist activity. London has also seen a decline in the number of US tourists travelling because of the impending presidential election. The impact has been a 2% decline in London's RevPAR compared with Q2 2015 and average rates failing to increase for the second consecutive quarter. 'Whilst this is significant in the short term, London is, and will remain, a huge magnet for inbound tourism so the longer-term future of the capital's hotel sector is still positive, even when taking into account the new hotels in the pipeline and the potential impact of the Brexit implementation causing economic wobbles,' commented HVS chairman Russell Kett. Across the UK the picture was more varied; although, with overall demand sluggish, average RevPAR growth reached only 2%. This is seen as further evidence that we may be approaching the top of the property cycle in some locations. Performance of hotels across the 12 UK cities reviewed varied significantly in Q2. Birmingham was top with RevPAR growth of 16%, while hotels in the Roman city of Bath saw RevPAR up 11% year-on-year on the back of a boost in international tourists. In contrast, Newcastle recorded another quarter of RevPAR decline, down 4%, as the combined effects of a 10% increase in hotel supply over the past 12 months and strong comparators last year came into play. Aberdeen saw RevPAR decline 24% year-on-year as hotel occupancy continues to suffer from the city's exposure to the oil and gas industry. If predictions that oil prices will continue to fall are correct, this will further suppress demand for the city's hotels. 'Performance has always been very location-driven,' commented Kett, 'with localised supply and demand issues having an impact on hotels' operating performance. UK-wide averages tend to hide these fluctuations and even the performance within an individual city can vary quite markedly from hotel to hotel,' he added. Apart from the £575 million acquisition of Atlas Hotels by London & Regional, mergers and acquisitions in the sector have also been subdued throughout 2016 owing to uncertainties surrounding Brexit, weaker economic growth in China, terrorism in France, Belgium and Turkey, and the US election. Now the outcome of the referendum is known and Britain gears up to leave the EU, there is cautious optimism that the hotel sector will remain an attractive source of investment for global investors interested in the medium- to long-term growth perspective. However, this is reliant on the UK remaining an investor-friendly market post-Brexit. 'The Brexit decision is having the double-impact of weaker sterling and a reduction in anticipated economic growth. This is both good and bad news for the sector in that Britain becomes a cheaper destination for overseas visitors, dampening outgoing UK travel but potentially increasing the F&B costs as some suppliers pass on price rises. Hotel transaction activity is also likely to slow down as investors assess the outlook of future trading, but in the longer term we are optimistic the UK will remain an attractive source of investment for global investors,' Kett concluded.
Rooms Department Profit on the Slide at North East Hotels Year-on-year profit per room in the Rooms department at North East hotels fell by 7.2% in June as a result of a drop in Rooms revenue and rising departmental costs, according to the latest data from HotStats.
French hotelier Arnaud de Saint-Exupéry has been appointed general manager of the Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill and area vice president for Hyatt Hotels in the UK & Ireland, filling the vacancy left by Michael Gray following his retirement in March.
Tony Borthwick, former chef-proprietor of the Michelin-starred Plumed Horse restaurant in Edinburgh, is joining the four-AA-star Macdonald Rusacks hotel in St Andrews as executive head chef.
he latest new hotel causing a buzz in Britain is a "miniature luxury hotel” designed to offer hardworking honey bees much-needed rest and relaxation. The dollhouse-sized Bee Hotel, inspired by Wes Anderson’s Oscar-winning film The Grand Budapest Hotel, loosely based on the Corinthia Hotel in Budapest, was created by British tea brand Taylors of Harrogate in partnership with Kew Gardens, in a bid to raise awareness for the importance of bees and the role they play in the production of fruits and vegetables, and their declining population, as well as inspire people to ‘bee’ more “pollinator-friendly” and build bee hotels in their own private gardens.
The Arora Group ("Arora" or the "Group") today announces the opening of the landmark residential "Arora Tower", on the Greenwich Peninsula, London which offers unique, direct access to the Group's luxury InterContinental London – The O2 hotel. Construction was completed on 26th July and the sales will complete over early August.
In assuming his new role as Vice President, Design & Engineering, Michael will report directly to Robert Shepherd, Chief Development Officer, Europe and sit on the Development, Design & Openings (DD&O) Leadership Team.
Karan will report to Stephen McCall, Chief Operating Officer, Europe, and become a member of the Operations Leadership Team. As Vice President of Design & Engineering Karan has successfully transformed the team into a professional consultancy, raising the bar on design execution, developing best-in-class design guidance, leading the design and deployment of the Holiday Inn® brand family transformation and building a talent pipeline across all team disciplines.
Dorsett Hospitality International is delighted to announce the development of its second hotel in London, Dorsett City, a 13 storey building formerly known as The Matrix, located next to Aldgate tube station and the 18th century St Botolph Church.
In collaboration with British Vogue and British GQ to create Room No.8, The Ritz-Carlton presented a multi-sensory performance-art experience created by some of the best names in visual effects, sound art and immersive theatre. The first of its kind, this event showcased The Ritz-Carlton to patrons in London, by taking them on a journey of discovery, and tapping into every one of their senses. In addition to delivering a theatrical physical presence for The Ritz-Carlton, the performance was filmed and photographed, with this content then providing the basis for the creative campaign, including advertisements and video content that ran on Vogue.com and GQ.co.uk.
The first head of innovation has been named by Tui UK & Ireland as the group looks to further digitise the business.
A U.K. multifamily office and two Middle Eastern partners submitted a $1.3 billion bid for London’s Grosvenor House hotel and majority stakes in New York’s Plaza and Dream Downtown hotels to majority owner Sahara India Pariwar, controlled by once-jailed Indian businessman Subrata Roy. The bidders “are committing our own capital resources to acquire all three” hotels, Jesdev Saggar, managing director of the U.K. multifamily office, 3 Associates Capital Management Ltd., wrote in an e-mail. “We now await the sellers’ acceptance of our bid.”
The Arora Group (“Arora” or the “Group”) is pleased to announce that it has been granted planning permission to develop a new hotel at London Heathrow. The new hotel is part of the ongoing strategy to focus on larger assets with high revenue potential; it has been granted planning permission to develop a new hotel at London Heathrow with direct access to the Queen’s Terminal, Terminal 2.