Jumeirah Group, the global luxury hotel company and a member of Dubai Holding, has appointed Russell Durnell as Operations Director at Jumeirah Carlton Tower in London.
FRHI Hotels & Resorts appoints Helena Suarez as director, luxury sales. Suarez will be responsible for the Luxury Sales accounts in the UK, Scandinavia & Spain. With over 14 years of experience in the sales industry, Suarez started her career in the hospitality industry at The Halkin Hotel by COMO in 2001. In 2002, she became sales executive at The Rubens at the Palace Hotel in London. Suarez has since worked for Oberoi Hotels & Resorts as a senior account manager before joining the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group as a director of leisure sales in 2008.
Celebrating 15 years, St Martins Lane, London's first boutique hotel and Morgans Hotel Group Co.'s first European hotel, has revealed a fresh new contemporary design and updated public spaces to mark the milestone anniversary.
Jumeirah Group, the global luxury hospitality company and a member of Dubai Holding, has appointed Robert Touzel as Director of Sales and Marketing at Jumeirah Carlton Tower and Jumeirah Lowndes Hotel in London. Robert joins with an extensive range of experience across the luxury hotel industry. For over 20 years, Robert has held leadership roles across many international hotels including the Athenaeum Hotel & Apartments, Mandarin Oriental and Langham Hospitality Group. Prior to his appointment, Robert was Regional Director of Sales & Marketing at Langham Hospitality Group.
The digital revolution has democratised the way consumers shop for travel. To better understand this change, we worked with the British Travel Awards (BTA) to survey over 40,000 respondents about their travel activities. We found that travel has changed from being a seller's to a buyer's market. To adapt to this change, travel businesses need to undergo their own transformation from a product-centric to a consumer-centric model and put the consumer perspective at the heart of every business decision.
Sheraton Hotels & Resorts has announced the appointment of Thierry Henrot as General Manager of the Sheraton Skyline Hotel London Heathrow. Henrot joins the Sheraton Skyline from Le Méridien Etoile in Paris where he was Hotel Manager. Originally from France, Henrot began his long career with Starwood Hotels & Resorts in 2001 as Food & Beverage Manager at the Sheraton Porto Alegre in Brazil. After five years at the property, he moved to the Sheraton Barra in Rio de Janeiro to head up their Food & Beverage operations before returning to Europe in 2007 to take on the role of Food & Beverage Director at the Sheraton Porto in Portugal.
Ctrip.com International Ltd., the largest online travel agency in China, has completed integration with eRevMax to offer XML connectivity to its growing base of hotel customers. Accommodation providers using RateTiger and Connect solutions as well as the recently announced LIVE platform will now be able to make real-time ARI (Availability, Rates & Inventory) updates and receive bookings generated on the channel through eRevMax solutions directly into their property management system. This will result in more efficient rate distribution, enhanced rate optimization and the streamlining of all connections.
The luxurious Champneys Health Spa Group, the first health spa chain in the UK with four purposely built health resorts, has recently joined HotelREZ Hotels & Resorts' hotel portfolio. HotelREZ will provide all 4 properties with GDS representation under the HO chain code, as well as sales and marketing services.
Lainston House, an Exclusive Hotel near Winchester, Hampshire is delighted to announce the appointment of Gaius Wyncoll, who joins the luxury country house hotel as General Manager in April 2015. Gaius brings with him over 20 years of hotel management experience, most recently completing a 12 year tenure with Macdonald Hotels, where he was widely regarded as one of their leading food and beverage specialists, whilst working his way through the ranks to his most recent position as General Manager at the Compleat Angler in Marlow. Previous to this, Gaius spent 8 years at the leading Forte Hotels Group.
Whilst London hotels' profitability showed a virtually flat year-on-year movement in the month of March, the UK provinces continued to post strong performance with particular growth in gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR). In particular, South East hoteliers recorded an 8.4% surge in this metric, according to the latest data from HotStats.
Renato Moretto joins Jumeirah from Al Bandary Hotel Management in Qatar, where he was Group Director of Operations, supervising the development of seven properties. He was previously pre-opening General Manager at Nungwi Resort & Spa on Zanzibar in Tanzania, a five-star all-suite beachfront resort in the Indian Ocean, before which he was Re-opening General Manager at the Regency Hotel and Convention Centre in Kuwait. His previous experience includes senior positions at the Sonesta Pharaoh Beach Resort in Egypt, the Sonesta Great Bay Beach Resort on St. Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles and the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, United Kingdom. His earlier career included assignments with Sonesta in Egypt, at the Jebel Ali Golf Resort & Spa in the UAE, with the Cliff Bay Resort Hotel in Portugal and the Holiday Inn in Muscat, Oman. He started his career with Intercontinental Hotel Group.
Arora Hotels, management and hotel operator of the forthcoming InterContinental® London - The O2, has appointed Hasham Soliman as General Manager of the new 453-room luxury new hotel. With 25 years’ experience in the hotel and hospitality industry, Soliman joins Arora Hotel’s latest and largest new hotel development from his role as Hotel Manager at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London, bringing with him invaluable knowledge of the London market and solid experience managing an extensive conference, events and leisure product in the capital.
Hotel prices have increased across European cities this month – in some cases by as much as 58 per cent – according to the monthly trivago Hotel Price Index (tHPI) reported by comparison site trivago.co.uk. Travellers will pay an average of £10 more for their hotel room this month, with the average price per night jumping from £87 in March to £97 in April, based on the 50 most popular European cities on trivago.
Hilton Worldwide today announced the appointment of Nicholas Chalmers as General Manager of Conrad London St. James, effective from 13th April 2015. With extensive knowledge in luxury hotel management spanning operations and revenue, Chalmers brings strong commercial insight and a wealth of leadership to the role.
One of the UK hotel and catering industry's rising operational and technical management stars, Phil Brown, has joined rapidly expanding hospitality IT solutions specialists, Avenue9, as a Hospitality Consultant. He was formerly Area Operations Manager for the 12-strong Bath Ales retail estate, encompassing five different concepts – ranging from the Gordito charcuterie bar and Beerd craft beer and pizza bar in Bristol, to the Graze Bar, Brasserie and Chop House in Cirencester.
Leading global hotel management company, Interstate Hotels & Resorts, has appointed Michael McGarry as General Manager at Holiday Inn Express London - ExCeL, scheduled to open in June 2015. The new 204 room Holiday Inn Express, a new construction, the UKs first modular built Holiday Inn Express, situated within the Royal Albert Dock development zone, London Docklands, located within walking distance of the London ExCeL Centre and a start journey to London City Airport, Canary Wharf and the O2 Arena.
After all this talk about Millennial travellers and their habits, we thought we'd take a look at their defining characteristics so we can understand what makes them tick. It's only through really understanding the Millennials that the travel industry can hope to stay ahead of the curve. We've put together an infographic to understand their needs and expectations when away on business travel.
Corinthia Hotel London announces the appointment of Henrietta Low as PR Manager. Henrietta joined Corinthia Hotel London in February 2012 as PR and Marketing Coordinator following her experience in a variety of creative roles with Tomasz Starzewski, Drumkilbo Designs, Pierre Frey, and National Galleries of Scotland. Working closely with Fiona Harris, Director of International Public Relations Corinthia Hotels, Henrietta has been key in delivering the PR strategy for London and has been instrumental in the success of large projects including the annual Artist in Residence programme and the ‘Power of Sleep’ campaign in 2014.
The inaugural Bacchus Alumni Awards, held on the 30th March 2015 at London's St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, marked the professional achievements of alumni of the Oxford School of Hospitality Management at Oxford Brookes University. Staged as part of the university's 150th anniversary, the landmark occasion brought together nearly 300 graduates, students, staff and friends of the School.
Interstate Hotels & Resorts – the leading global hotel management company – today announced the signing of 18 management agreements for a portfolio of U.K. hotels owned by an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management. With these additions to its managed portfolio, Interstate continues to expand its regional presence and strengthen its offering, creating tailored management solutions to improve owners' profitability. Based in Birmingham, England, Interstate's U.K. division now comprises 59 hotels, including signed pipeline, throughout the United Kingdom.