Hotel News in Brief

Oct 12, 10 | 1:45 am

Hotel Announcements

CapitaLand's wholly-owned serviced residence business unit, The Ascott Limited (Ascott), has brought its premium Ascott brand to Dubai, United Arab Emirates through a management contract for the 118-unit Ascott Park Place Dubai in the prime commercial area of the city. Ascott will operate the property from 1 October 2010 and rebrand it as Ascott Park Place Dubai by the end of 2010 upon completion of some upgrading works. The premier serviced residence occupies 15 floors of the spectacular 56-storey Park Place Tower, a high-end mixed use development that also comprises Grade A offices with prominent tenants such as Pictet & Cie, The Royal Bank of Scotland and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council.

The Chatwal New York, Manhattan's newest luxury hotel located on West 44th Street, today unveils the much-anticipated The Chatwal Spa by Kashwére providing a sumptuous sanctuary for both overnight guests and savvy Manhattanites alike.  Kashwére, a brand synonymous with extreme comfort, and with a huge celebrity following for its much coveted robes, spa and home furnishings, has joined forces with The Chatwal New York for a first time collaboration.  The well-appointed spa is designed to delight the senses, and is the only hotel spa of its calibre in Manhattan's theatre district. 

The new hotel brand EDITION will officially launch its first hotel in Hawaii on October 15, 2010. This new brand and the first hotel in Waikiki will combine a personal, intimate, individualized and unique lodging experience with the global reach and scale of Marriott International. The vision and originality of The Waikiki EDITION-a new, modern, lifestyle hotel-together with the operational expertise of Marriott, delivers in a delicate balancing act, the best of both worlds: polish with personality, perfectionism with individualism and comfort with charisma and charm.

Eton Properties Group, the China-based real estate firm of taipan Lucio C. Tan, is looking at opening three more hotels in this East Asian state to cater to growing numbers of business and leisure travellers, officials said on Friday. The Eton Hotel in ShanghaiThe expansion plans come amid a recent pickup in occupancy of the company's flagship hotel in Shanghai, host of the 2010 World Expo, the officials said. The company is considering opening a second five-star hotel in Xiamen -- also a coastal city -- in two to three years, Lance Lin, Eton Hotel director of sales and marketing, told reporters in an interview. Two hotels in other provinces are likewise being considered, he said without elaborating. The planned Xiamen hotel will likely be bigger than the Eton Hotel Shanghai, which has so far attracted more guests, Mr. Lin said. The four-year-old property in Shanghai has so far enjoyed a 90% occupancy rate versus just 50% in the same period last year largely as the five-month World Expo hosted by the city has attracted a record number of travellers, he said.

Global Staff Movement

Carlson, a privately held, global hospitality and travel company, today announced that Gregory R. Page, chairman and chief executive officer for Cargill, has been elected to the Carlson Board of Directors. Page, who has served as chairman of the board of Cargill since September 2007, CEO since June 2007, and continues to hold the office of president since his appointment in 2000, is the 11th member of Carlson's expanded board. He has served on the Cargill Board of Directors since August 2000.

Other Related News

The international awards keep coming for the Andel's Hotel Łódź, Poland's showcase project of successful architecture. The 4-star hotel recently won the the Architecture Award of the European Property Awards 2010 in the category of Leisure & Hospitality as well as the Tophotel Award 2010 for Design. The European Property Awards are awarded annually in association with Bloomberg Television for the most prestigious properties in Europe. The andel's Hotel Łódź in Poland recently won its first European Property Award, The Architecture Award, in the category of Leisure & Hospitality. The award was received by Wojciech Poplawski of OP ARCHITEKTEN in London last week. The developer was real estate firm Warimpex Finanz- und Beteiligungs AG, which is publicly listed in both Warsaw and Vienna. At the same time, the 4-star hotel was selected as Tophotel 2010 in the category of design in the third national competition organised by the Polish companies NetMedia SA and hotele.pl. More than 50 hotels had been nominated for the awards, presented in 20 categories at a gala ceremony in Warsaw.

WorldwideHilton Hotels has announced the opening of two National Sales Offices to support the company's nine hotels across the UAE. Based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the new sales offices will bring together the sales teams from all hotels in the country into one cohesive team of more than 40 people. "By joining forces, we've created a team of professionals who will be better placed to build new relationships and manage our customer accounts." said Victor Louis, regional director of sales, Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean. WorldwideHilton Hotels Middle East and Africa conducted an extensive analysis of target markets and the sales capabilities of each hotel to formulate a new structure that would enable the team to look after a larger number of source markets, more easily identify cross-selling opportunities, continue International Sales Office activity and increase sales. Under the new structure, the Abu Dhabi sales office will cover all outbound business from Abu Dhabi and Al Ain to the rest of the UAE while the Dubai sales office will concentrate on the Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah markets. "This new organisation allows us to be as efficient and effective as possible, to deliver the best service possible to our customers and to explain why we offer more than the competition." said Louis.

Forget about what you see in the movies. The average hotel guest does not order Champagne and eggs Benedict while watching the latest big-budget epic by James Cameron. At least not the guests of the Park Plaza hotels. The chain of 35 hotels around the world, operated by Minnesota-based Carlson Hotels, combed through hotel sales receipts to figure out the most common food, drink and movie purchased by guests. The results might be surprising.

- The favourite food ordered by guests: pizza

- The most commonly ordered drinks: water and Red Bull.

- The most popular movie ordered by hotel guests: the 1994 prison drama The Shawshank Redemption.