Hotel News in Brief
Oct 05, 11 | 12:01 am 
Industry Announcements
The owners of the Daily Telegraph have bought Claridge's, the Connaught and Berkeley, for €800m. Sir David Barclay and his brother Sir Frederick acquired the luxury London properties from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), the Irish government agency which was created to manage the bad property debts of bust banks in Ireland. The loans had originally been made to the Maybourne Hotel Group by two Irish banks to fund the acquisition of the hotels in 2005, said the BBC. By buying the loans, the Barclay brothers have acquired the hotels. The brothers already own the Ritz hotel in London. Sky News said that the Barclays are understood to have reached an agreement with other Maybourne investors, including an Abu Dhabi-based vehicle, about a deal in recent days. ‘Maybourne's ownership structure has been one of the most complicated to emerge from the Irish banking crisis and has featured some of the country's most colourful businessmen, including Derek Quinlan, the former tax inspector-turned-hotelier,' added the Sky report. The Guardian quoted Nama saying it had recovered every penny of debt from the Claridge's deal. ‘The loans were sold for in excess of €800m with Nama recovering 100% of the original value of the loans plus interest,' it said in the Guardian report. However, the Belfast Telegraph said there may be legal action from a Northern Irish developer following the deal. One of the investors in the Maybourne Hotel Group, Belfast-born developer Paddy McKillen, said he was considering mounting a legal action, claiming he wasn't consulted.
Wyndham Hotel Group has announced the introduction of its namesake Wyndham Hotels and Resorts® brand to Turkey with the signing of an agreement to open the 306-room Wyndham Petek Istanbul next year. The new five-star, 21-story Wyndham Petek Istanbul, scheduled to open in autumn 2012, will be conveniently situated less than seven kilometers from Istanbul's Atatürk International Airport. Hotel amenities will include a spa and fitness center with four treatment rooms and a 130-square-meter indoor pool, as well as 13 meeting rooms and one ballroom together offering up to 3,000 square meters of conference and event space. Guests staying in the hotel's 306 guest rooms, including 24 suites and 40 extended-stay apartments, will have access to 24-hour room service and all-day dining in the hotel's on-site restaurant and bar. Guests will also be able to take advantage of free transfers to and from the airport.
Photos of the Hurricane Katrina-battered Hyatt Regency New Orleans still have the power to shock: smashed windows, ragged curtains flapping in the wind, an American flag at the entrance blowing in shreds. Now, in just a few short weeks, a glamorous and completely rebuilt Hyatt Regency New Orleans will reopen following a $275 million, multi-year renovation. The 32-story hotel, which throws open its doors Oct. 19, will offer nearly 1,200 guest rooms, 200,000 square feet of meeting space and a number of ambitious restaurants operating under the eye of an internationally known chef, Eric Damidot. The hotel anchors a busy sports and entertainment district and is just blocks from the historic French Quarter. "We're bigger and better than ever," said Michael Smith, general manager both now and at the time of the hurricane, and a leader of the renovation. "This hotel has gone through a complete transformation." They've opted for a clean, contemporary look for the hotel and its interiors, Smith said. Previously, the hotel was a classic dark, 1970s boxy structure. They've flooded it with natural light and used plenty of marble and brass to light up its spaces, he said.
Global Staff Movement
With the Middle East and Africa division of Marriott International, Inc. planning to double its hotels over five years, the company today announced that Alex Kyriakidis, a top global executive at Deloitte LLP, has been named president and managing director of the division, effective January 1, 2012. Fluent in Arabic, English and Greek, Mr. Kyriakidis will lead Marriott's team in the MEA, one of the company's four continental operating divisions. He will oversee all aspects of the division's business activities, including operations, sales and marketing, finance and hotel development. The company's other continental divisions are the Americas, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.Arne Sorenson, Marriott's president and chief operating officer, said, "Alex brings exceptional business acumen, deep expertise in lodging, and focus on growth with a global mind set. He is the perfect leader to drive and manage our growth in the region."In his current position at Deloitte, Mr. Kyriakidis has led a team of 4,500 in a division that generates $700 million of revenues. His wide-ranging, 38-year career extends to 25 countries, with a particular focus on the European, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific regions, and involves broad experience in strategic and financial planning, mergers and acquisitions and asset management.
A 20-year veteran of executive chef positions around North America, David Garcelon has been named director of culinary for The Waldorf Astoria Hotel. He will be responsible for the entire kitchen operation of the iconic hotel which serves as the flagship property for Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts. Prior to joining The Waldorf Astoria, Garcelon served as executive chef of the 1,364-room Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, where he led Canada's largest hotel kitchen. He also served as executive chef for The Fairmont Southampton Bermuda; Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, Jasper, Alberta; and CP Hotels' The Lodge at Kananaskis, Kananaskis, Alberta.
Other Related News
Thompson Hotels, an international collection of 12 luxury lifestyle hotels, and Joie de Vivre Hospitality, the most influential boutique brand in the West, announced they have merged. It is the first step in the creation of a multi-brand lifestyle hotel group with a global footprint. The new group, provisionally called JT Hospitality, will be formally renamed early next year in concert with the completion of a comprehensive joint branding exercise that is currently underway. Thompson Hotels and Joie de Vivre Hospitality are equal partners in the merger, which took effect Oct. 1, 2011, and encompasses hotel-management operations and brands but not real estate assets. With the consolidation, the new hotel group manages 45 properties under the distinctive Thompson and Joie de Vivre brands with combined annual hotel revenues of approximately $500 million. The company will be based in New York City and Thompson Hotels CEO and Co-owner Stephen Brandman has been named CEO. Hospitality veteran John Pritzker, whose private equity firm Geolo Capital acquired a majority stake in Joie de Vivre in June of last year, will serve as co-chairman alongside Jason Pomeranc, the creative vision behind Thompson Hotels and one of its co-owners.
Brits who holiday at home during the Olympics will be offered more than a fifth off hotel rooms, the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said. Ministers are in talks with a number of hotel chains about offering a 20.12% discount off hotel stays just for UK residents in an effort to stop people taking their holidays abroad during next year's games. Mr Hunt also described those involved in August's riots as a "national disgrace", telling activists they would not be allowed to ruin the Olympics and the UK's reputation. Speaking at the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester, he said: "John Penrose, our tourism minister, and I want to use this to transform our tourism industry so that when people see Hadrian's Wall, Offa's Dyke, Snowdonia, the cliffs of Cornwall, we want to convert good publicity into good business and attract an extra four million tourists to the UK in the years that follow 2012, creating an additional 50,000 jobs. "Not only that but we want to use next year to transform our domestic tourism industry. We want next year to be the year to have a holiday at home and we are talking to hotels up and down the country about offering discounts for next year for people who holiday at home; discounts of, wait for it, 20.12%."
Worldhotels has partnered China World Hotels to develop over 75 Worldhotel branded hotels in China within the next 10 years. China World Hotels is one of China's leaders in the field of hotel management services having been involved in the planning, development and operation of more than 160 hotels in China. China World Hotels will launch the Worldhotel brand as their upper upscale offering for Chinese hotel owners. "The branded hotel solution was developed because we saw there was a request from some of our hoteliers for additional support and more prominent use of the Worldhotels brand. It offers one of the most flexible models in the world for upscale and for upper upscale hotels," said Worldhotels Vice President Asia Pacific Roland Jegge. "There was also a need from owners for support in the areas of managing their operations and technical support during construction or renovations under this solution, and our partnership with China World Hotels is an important milestone in delivering this." Worldhotels is expanding fast in China, with a portfolio of 36 affiliate hotels, including the major cities Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
