Hotel News in Brief
Aug 01, 08 | 1:46 am
Hélène Darroze opened her eponymous restaurant ‘Hélène Darroze at the Connaught' on Monday 14th July, reinforcing this legendary Mayfair hotel's 110 year old legacy of fine dining. Hailed as one of France's most distinguished chefs, two-Michelin starred Hélène Darroze, owner of the widely praised ‘Hélène Darroze' restaurant on the Parisian Left Bank, has chosen a menu at The Connaught that reflects her signature style of cuisine. This includes a combination of traditional produce from her native Landes in South West France, coupled with some of the finest ingredients from the British Isles. As well as signature dishes such as Gillardeau oyster tartare with caviar d'Aquitaine jelly and le poulet jaune de chez Monsieur Duplantier, guests will discover le sole de Douvres, and with a nod to the local butchers on Carlos Place, le boeuf Aberdeen Angus De Chez Allen's of Mayfair.
Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, the Swiss chain with more than 90 hotels existing or under construction worldwide, made Ho Chi Minh City's five-star accommodation scene this month by assuming management of the Omni Hotel Saigon, which opened in 1994 as the city's inaugural international-standard hotel. Now called Mövenpick Hotel Saigon, the landmark is undergoing myriad upgrades and changes that will allow it to sparkle in the high-end category, a segment that has grown by leaps and bounds here in recent years but still pales in comparison to demand. "This is a move we've been eyeing for a long time," said Hubert Klemenz, the hotel's general manager and the chain's vice president of operations for Vietnam. "Statistics continue to show that Vietnam has massive tourism and business traveller appeal but a shortage of hotels that possess warm-hearted hospitality and quality-our signature. The timing is right in every way." Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts arrival in Ho Chi Minh City is the first in a series of steps the group plans for a country that welcomed more than four million visitors in 2007-a 16 percent increase over the previous year. A similar overhaul-and-operate strategy has been plotted at the former Guoman Hotel in Hanoi, starting in January, as well as the development and handling of up to three more hotels in Vietnam by 2010. In Ho Chi Minh City, Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts inherits a storied address. During the Vietnam War, the site was headquarters of America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), according to a 1994 South Morning China Post report. In the early ‘90s, Hong Kong's Marco Polo Hotel Group razed what was left of the edifice and constructed a gleaming hotel of a standard never before seen in a city taking its first baby steps toward a market economy.
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts announces a second project in the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Abu Dhabi Creek. Positioned at the mainland gateway to the city, the Fairmont Abu Dhabi Creek is scheduled to open in 2009. The urban beachfront resort with bespoke business facilities will join a second Fairmont hotel being developed at the Marina City Development, scheduled to open in 2011. The hotel, featuring a striking, contemporary design, will offer 369 rooms and suites, a variety of restaurants, and a wide selection of conference and leisure facilities. "The Abu Dhabi Creek area is experiencing growth, and it is exciting to be a part of the development", stated Tom Storey, President, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. "So many of our hotels, such as London's Savoy and The Fairmont San Francisco, helped shape the destinations where they are located, and we look forward to continuing that tradition and providing our guests with distinct experiences within the city." Fairmont Abu Dhabi Creek is the most recent project to be announced by Fairmont in the Middle East and Africa and joins other future developments in the region including Fairmont Mt. Kenya Safari Club (2008), Fairmont Nile City, Cairo (2008); Makkah Clock Royal Tower, A Fairmont Hotel, Saudia Arabia (2008), Fairmont Palm Island, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai (2009); Fairmont Zimbali, South Africa (2009); Fairmont The Wave, Oman (2011) and Fairmont Kingdom of Sheba, Dubai (2011).
Enjoying a career that has taken him from Adelaide Hotels in the early 90's, across the UK and Ireland and more recently throughout Australia, James Murphy has returned to his native South Australia as the newly appointed General Manager of Novotel Barossa Valley Resort. Having undergone a $2.5million refurbishment, the Novotel has a brand new look to welcome guests old and new, combining its popular resort facilities with new state-of-the-art features in the same stunning setting overlooking the Valley. "It's a pleasure to showcase the new features of the hotel to our guests and a privilege to have such a new and exciting product to work with," says Mr Murphy. "The Novotel is the only resort in the Barossa Valley that caters to leisure and corporate guests, couples and families and everything in between - there is really an option for everyone to enjoy."
Milestone Internet Marketing, Inc., (Santa Clara, CA) announced that it has won the IMA's Outstanding Achievement Awards for its design and optimization of the Ginn Reunion Resort's Blog. Out of hundreds of sites submitted for the IMA Awards this year, http://blog.reunionresort.com/ was judged as one of the best in the Blog and Hotel/Resorts categories by expert hospitality, travel, tourism, and media professionals. The judgment was based on the internet marketing strategies used to promote the blog as well as merit and success in achieving its objectives. The Interactive Media AwardsTM recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honor organizations for their outstanding achievement. Ginn Reunion Resort was looking for a way to engage their customer base through social media whilst increasing revenue. Milestone responded by developing a concept and creating a blog to promote the destination, and position the resort as an expert of the Orlando market. The resort partnered with local attractions, restaurants, and other demand drivers to provide useful articles and permit user-generated comments for others to read. This strategy is one of industry's first implementations and greatly enhances credibility, branding, and online revenue for the hotel. The blog's design projects upscale positioning of the resort. Several plug-ins for permalinks, SEO, title tags, ultimate tag warrior, etc. were activated to maximize the effectiveness of the blog.
The seventh luxurious JW Marriott-branded hotel is planned for India by Marriott International under a management agreement reached with Uppal Hospitality Ltd., which is also developing the 175-room JW Marriott Hotel Chandigarh, India. The 206-room JW Marriott Hotel Gurgaon is expected to open in mid-2009 in suburban New Delhi. It will be located in Gurgaon on the Delhi-Jaipu4 Highway.
StarCite Inc., the leading provider of Web-based solutions to strategically manage and automate every element of corporate meetings and events, today unveiled its first business intelligence offering called the StarCite Group Rate Advisor report. The StarCite Group Rate Advisor equips meeting planners and meeting suppliers with forward-looking hotel rate forecasts using meeting planning data from RFPs flowing through its meetings platform. StarCite's new offering paves the way for more effective meeting management by allowing planners to analyze hotel options and make cost-efficient decisions based on pricing trends as well as historical information. Using data collected from StarCite's marketplace, StarCite can produce reports for any city or geographical region that will provide sleeping room rate ranges and trends as far as twelve months in advance. The StarCite tool will also provide in-depth benchmarking information derived from years' worth of historical booking data from the StarCite marketplace. "Meeting planners have never before had the ability to analyze hotel rates using forward-looking data," said Keith Forshew, chief operating officer of StarCite. "This look into the future, based on specific aggregate pricing information derived from the $7.5 billion in corporate meeting business flowing through our online marketplace, will provide immense value and insight for our customers. It will bring a new degree of pricing transparency to the meeting planning process and allow companies to make more cost-efficient decisions based on better knowledge of how their rates compare with average rates within the StarCite community."
Preferred Hotel Group recently announced the arrival of their new Sydney office with a fabulous party. Over 130 senior executives from the travel industry including media, airlines and tourist boards along with clients from the corporate sector celebrated the launch with the Sydney team - Lynne Ireland as Managing Director, Preferred BoutiqueTM and Area Managing Director - Australia, New Zealand, and Pacific; Carolyn Holmes, Director of Global Sales; and Janet Chan, Manager, Brand Development - and Preferred Hotel Group Chairman and CEO, John Ueberroth. The event showcased the regions growing team and confirmed the company's commitment to growing its presence in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific at a rapid pace.
