Brendan Dwyer has joined the Hyatt Global Sales Office in London as the new Director of Global Sales for the U.K. & Ireland. In his new role Brendan leads the sales team and has responsibility for the MICE, Corporate, Leisure and Entertainment segments in the UK & Ireland.
With clear focus on guest satisfaction, a keen eye for design and interiors, and superb management skills garnered over more than three decades in hospitality, Jutta Asta joined The Dorchester as Executive Housekeeper. Asta arrived at The Dorchester from the Aldon Kempinski Berlin, a 382-bedroom, five-star deluxe address where she was Executive Housekeeper. She held the same role at various properties across London going back to 1998, including Claridge's Hotel, The Savoy, The Berkeley Hotel, The Goring Hotel, and The Howard Hotel. Asta has also worked at Central Middlesex Hospital, Hillside Hospital, Sheraton Heathrow, Sheraton Park Tower, Holiday Inn, Sloan Street, Hyatt Regency in Brussels, and elsewhere. She launched her career with an apprenticeship at Hotel Maritime in Bad Salzuflen
Following success as Head Chef at The Grill at The Dorchester, Brian Hughson headed north to Ascot to join Coworth Park as Executive Chef. He oversees all the kitchens at the luxury country house hotel and spa, including Restaurant Coworth Park, The Barn, The Bar, The Drawing Room and The Spatisserie, as well as in-room dining for 70 rooms and banqueting for four private dining rooms and the marquee, which can host up to 300 guests. Hughson brings more than 20 years of culinary experience to Coworth Park, with previous positions including Head Chef at Gary Rhodes' W1 restaurant, which was awarded a Michelin star during his tenure and three AA rosettes within seven months of opening. Hughson has also worked at eminent London restaurants including Pétrus, Rhodes in the Square, Frith Street, 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin), and Savoy Grill, as well as at Mirabelle, Belvedere and Wheeler's with Marco Pierre White.
With experience earned at some of the finest luxury hotels across the U.S., Stéphane Lafon oversees one of London's most exciting dining destinations as Director of Food and Beverage at The Dorchester. Previously, he was Food and Beverage Operations Manager at the Hilton Group. Lafon spent 20 years in food and beverage management roles through the States, with assignments including Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort, Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, Ritz-Carlton Palm Beach, and Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Along the way, he demonstrated talent for successful management of multiple outlets with different styles of service, cuisine and banquet facilities and has a strong track record for achieving increased industry ratings and raising the bar for unique and memorable dining experiences. Born in France, Lafon graduated from Florida International University with a Bachelor's Degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management.
The roll out of InterContinental Hotel Group's (IHG) boutique brand Hotel Indigo is gathering pace in Europe, with the company announcing the signing of the first Hotel Indigo for Barcelona and the second in Birmingham, UK. IHG's Chief Development Officer in Europe, Robert Shepherd, said 2012 has been a strong year for Hotel Indigo signings in the region.
'Taking the Investment Forward – Making the Most of the Investment in Your People and Business to Create Value' is the title of HOSPACE 2012, HOSPA's Annual Conference and Exhibition for Hospitality Finance, Revenue Management, IT and Commercial Professionals to be held on 22 November
London hotels reported a significant uplift in August as a result of the Olympics and Paralympics, whilst regional operators also saw yields rise, according to preliminary figures released today by PKF Hotel Consultancy Services. Hotels in the capital recorded a 48.5% increase in rooms yield to £135.35, up from £91.12 in August 2011. This was the result of a 49.8% year-on-year rise in room rate from £110.22 to £165.05 and a 0.8% drop in occupancy from 82.6% a year ago to 82.0%.
Accor is establishing this international upscale brand in the UK in a move to widen its hotel brand portfolio in the UK, which currently includes Sofitel, MGallery, Novotel, Mercure, ibis, ibis Styles and ibis budget. Pullman London St Pancras, previously home to Accor's Novotel brand, officially opens this month (September) following a comprehensive refurbishment which has seen the complete transformation of the hotel into one of London's most contemporary and stylish hotels.
Here at London Hotels Insight, we have an ever growing collection of photographs of hotels that we’re adding all the time to our Flickr account, all of which we’ve personally visited. From beautiful afternoon teas to sleek interior design, our London hotel Flickr account covers a wide range of wonderful features across 16 hotels – and it’s growing all the time.
Hilton Glasgow, has welcomed new senior team member Simon Magnus to the hotel’s renowned hospitality team. The appointment comes at a time when the hotel is undergoing an extensive multi-million pound renovation and redesign. Magnus has over 16 years of experience in the hospitality industry and joins Hilton Glasgow having previously worked as restaurant manager at the Dormy Clubhouse, Gleneagles. A former winner of the prestigious Veuve Cliquot Award as a student at the Scottish Hotel School, University of Strathclyde, Magnus said: “It is an exciting time to be joining the hotel and I can’t wait to start working with such a fantastic team. It has been a busy summer for the food and beverage team and I’m relishing the prospect. I am extremely proud to be part of the team charged with the opening of three new dining destinations.”
"Luxury on a budget" is what Bloc Hotels was striving for when it opened its first ever hotel in the city of Birmingham last year. The 73-guestroom establishment offers all the commodities one would expect from, at least, an upper-midscale hotel: powerful drench showers, king-size beds, high-speed Wi-Fi, luxury bed linen, sound insulation, high-definition flat screen televisions, and Nespresso coffee from self-serve machines. Only one thing is unexpected: rates start from £48 per night.
These include a Novotel and ibis hotel in Blackfriars, a second ibis hotel in Shepherd’s Bush and a new addition to the growing Mercure hotel portfolio, opening in Greenwich. The newly built Novotel and ibis London Blackfriars hotels aim to offer easy access to the city and Eurostar connections at St. Pancras International. Encompassing the latest in consumer technology, visitors to the four-star Novotel London Blackfriars will be greeted by self-service touch screen check in systems, in addition to the standard check-in desks, to allow guests to check in quickly and easily.
Joel has reached this prestigious role after seven years of working for Puma (previously Barceló UK). Starting as a Management Trainee at the Blackpool Imperial Hotel in 2005, Joel progressed to senior positions at the Angel Hotel, Cardiff, Shrigley Hall Hotel Golf and Country Club and more recently at the Walton Hall and Hotel as Senior Operations Manager. Joel brings knowledge of the hotel group to the position as well as an in depth familiarity with the Palace Hotel as he spent a year as the hotel’s Operations Manager in 2010. Joel was also awarded the National Acorn Scholarship Award in 2011, is a Springboard Charity Ambassador and Member of the Institute for Hospitality. Joining Joel is new HR manager, Jenna Fletcher who previously worked at Thomas Cook Airlines and new Sales executive Leanne Fitter, who leaves the nearby Moorside Hotel to work at the Palace Hotel.
Jason Lewis has been named director of sales and marketing for Europe, Middle East and Africa at hotel distribution company SiteMinder. Lewis will work from the company’s London office as its European business grows. He will also be joined by new recruit Cassian Silins, now head of sales for Northern Europe. SiteMinder is a multi-award winning online distribution company whose products are trusted and used by thousands of accommodation providers in over 90 countries worldwide to help increase online revenue, streamline business process and drive down the cost of acquisition. The cloud-based product suite continues to set the benchmark in online distribution technology by challenging conventional operating strategies.
A while back we looked at which budget hotel chain was best, Travelodge or Premier Inn, with the latter just getting the edge across a raft of criteria. But time has moved on since then and with Premier Inn now angling more towards the mid-price market, there’s room for another budget contender in the capital. Enter Tune Hotels, and its ‘limited service’ concept.
It was an inevitable consequence of the capital hosting 'the greatest show on earth' that headline performance levels would see a dip, and with record occupancies achieved during the same period in 2011, the results were never going to be pretty this month, according to the latest HotStats survey of approximately 560 full-service hotels across the UK by TRI Hospitality Consulting.
Joining from his role as head chef at The Grill at The Dorchester, Hughson brings more than 20 years culinary experience with him to Coworth Park. Previous positions include head chef at Gary Rhodes’ W1 restaurant, which was awarded a Michelin star during his tenure and three AA rosettes within seven months of opening. Hughson has also cooked at eminent London restaurants Pétrus, Rhodes in the Square, Frith Street, 30 St Mary Axe (The Gherkin), the Savoy Grill, and Mirabelle, Belvedere and Wheeler’s with Marco Pierre White. Previous executive chef Chris Meredith leaves for Barbados with his family for a position at Sandy Lane. Food and beverage manager Scot Turner will leave this summer for a promotion to hotel manager at InterContinental Victoria, a replacement will be announced in due course.
Travelodge (The Company), the UK's leading budget hotel company, is pleased to announce that it has agreed a financial restructuring, which will secure the long-term future of the business. This will be undertaken in conjunction with a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which was launched today and will reduce levels of rent at certain sites.
London hotels reported increases in average daily rate and revenue per available room during the 2012 Olympic Games, according to STR Global, the leading service provider of market information to the hotel industry. The games started with the opening ceremony Friday, 27 July 2012 and ended Sunday, 12 August 2012.
New plans announced to boost UK tourism are unlikely to have the desired effect unless much more fundamental reforms are implemented, says the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). Reacting to plans from Jeremy Hunt, the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for an £8m extension of the "GREAT" marketing campaign, and a further £2 million to promote domestic tourism, David Scowsill, President & CEO, WTTC said: