Looking ahead, 33% of general managers who participated in the HotStats Hotel Confidence Monitor consider the most significant threat to hotel trading to be a double dip recession. In contrast, 26% of respondents believe that public sector cutbacks will be the single most important factor.
In just a few months, Four Seasons returns to Mayfair with the opening of the new Four Seasons Hotel London at Park Lane. With its greenery-filled interiors opening up through windows and conservatories to terraces and sweeping views of Hyde Park and Westminster, the new Hotel will be a breath of fresh air that ushers in a new era as Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts celebrates fifty years of hospitality in 2011.
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.
Due to those magnificent men in their flying machines, profitability in London hotels continued its ascent in July with an astounding year on year increase of 30.5%, according to the latest HotStats survey from TRI Hospitality Consulting. The climb in Gross Operating Profit per Available Room (GOPPAR) was driven by a staggering 91.9% room occupancy and complemented by a 19.6% increase in achieved average room rate to £141.91. As a result of the movement in volume and price, Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) in the capital increased by 23.9% to £130.35.
Urban & Country Leisure Ltd, the innovative pub/restaurant management operator and owner, run by hospitality entrepreneur ROSS SANDERS, has today unveiled plans to expand into the small hotel market with the launch of its first exclusive boutique style hotel. UCL, which currently operates fourteen high-end pub/restaurants across the UK, has invested £1.5 million transforming the former Globe Hotel in Warwick into a hotel, pub/restaurant which will now be called The Lazy Cow.
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.
In a bid to inject some creativity into traditional and often mundane business meetings, Crowne Plaza is laying fresh green grass in conference rooms at a number of its hotels across the UK and Ireland. The new rooms, filled with living grass, aim to stimulate creative thinking among business guests by helping them step away from a traditional office environment into an unconventional space.
The Rezidor Hotel Group, one the fastest growing hotel companies worldwide, announces the Radisson Blu Hotel, East Midlands Airport in the UK. The new build property featuring 216 guest rooms is scheduled to open its doors in Q1 2012.
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.
At just past the 2010 half-way stage, against continued economic uncertainty and looming public spending cuts, we take a look at whether the recovery is still on track or likely to be de-railed; the first-half reality for the UK hotel sector and the prognosis for demand in the second half of the year. We also summarise the latest economic data and re-visit what the scale of the new public sector cuts mean for hotels – there’s a lot to lose with public sector travel procurement estimated to be worth around £3bn.
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.
A year-on-year increase in Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) of 15.8% in the month of June has led to a 14.9% increase in Gross Operating Profit per Available Room (GOPPAR) at London hotels. The strong RevPAR growth in London was led by an exceptional increase in achieved average room rate of 11.2%, to £131.23.
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.
Mamaison Hotels & Residences came to Sabre Hospitality Solutions with a desire to improve its online strategy and increase revenue generated from distribution channels. Since switching its 10 upscale properties across central and eastern Europe to Sabre Hospitality Solutions' SynXis Central Reservation System (CRS), Mamaison has enjoyed a more than 100 percent increase in revenue and bookings made on its Web site (www.mamaison.com) compared to the same period last year.
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.
U.K. pub group Mitchells & Butlers PLC (MAB.LN) Thursday took the first major step in its new management's business strategy, selling its 52 hotels for GBP91 million, with budget hotel operator Travelodge taking on the leases in a 25-year deal. The U.K. pub group said it was selling the Inkeeper's Lodges, which comprise 2,000 rooms, to Prupim, a property investment arm of Prudential PLC (PUK). Prupim in turn has agreed to lease the hotels for 25 years to Travelodge, the budget hotel chain owned by Dubai Holding's investment arm. The deal is the first under M&B's new strategy of selling non-core assets to focus on expanding its key brands.
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.