| Featured in this EMEA Hospitality Newsletter - Week Ending 28 November 2003 |
| Europewide Thanksgiving For Marriott | Return to Headlines |
| Travellers heading for the German capital will have three Courtyard by Marriott hotels to choose from by early 2005 after Marriott International struck an agreement with Krausenstrasse to manage the 268-room Courtyard by Marriott Berlin Mitte. Marriott recently opened a hotel of the same brand across the border in Poland, which saw the 226-room Courtyard by Marriott Warsaw International Airport become the first hotel to touch down at Frederic Chopin. The company is also reported to be preparing two other brands for take-off: in Italy, where it has signed a franchise agreement with local real estate operator Salvatore Naldi that will see the 227-room Grande Albergo Mediterraneo renamed as the Naples Renaissance Grande Albergo Mediterraneo, and in Armenia, where the former Hotel Armenia in the capital Yerevan will emerge from its renovation this December as the 225-room Armenia Marriott Hotel. | |
| Television Company Receives Hotel | Return to Headlines |
| Norwegian company Otrum is more used to supplying interactive television systems to hotels but it now has the chance to tune into hotel ownership after paying Swedish hotel and leisure company Capona a reported €4.9 million for the Scandic Stavanger. Otrum will move into the 153-room property in southwestern Norway on 31 December, leaving Capona to celebrate a capital gain of some €782,000 as an early new year's gift. Sounds of celebration will be drifting across the Baltic from the direction of Poland, which has officially welcomed the 361-room Westin Warsaw Hotel. | |
| Rezidor Is Ready For Irish Resort | Return to Headlines |
| The Farnham Estate in Cavan is the setting for what will be Rezidor SAS Hospitality's first resort in Ireland: the Radisson SAS Resort & Spa, Cavan. An investment of €50 million will be sufficient to provide a 158-room hotel adjacent to the eighteenth-century Farnham House and a championship golf course on an estate that is owned by Roy McCabe. At the opposite end of the country, meanwhile, the privately owned, 30-room West Cork Hotel in Skibbereen is on sale for some €3 million, while across the border in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles are sure to bless the person prepared to pay a reported £2.75 million for Rostrevor House. The building, which sits in 29.1 acres of land, is reportedly thought suitable for conversion into a hotel. | |
| Starwood Tunes In To Tunis | Return to Headlines |
| Starwood Hotels & Resorts now has a second hotel in Tunisia after the scheduled fourth-quarter opening of the Sheraton Tunis Hotel & Towers in the country's capital city. The 271-room property is the former Hilton Tunis. Away to the east, meanwhile, Hani Kafafi will now be dividing his time between his current role as General Manager of the Crowne Plaza Kuwait and his new role as Director of Operations of the Crowne Plaza and InterContinental brands in Kuwait and Bahrain; Mr Kafafi is thus in command of three hotels in total. | |
| IHG Has Vision For Express In Spain | Return to Headlines |
| Midland, a family-owned Spanish group headed by Joaquín Galí, has signed a €130 million franchise agreement with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) under which it will develop up to 20 Express by Holiday Inn (EHI) hotels in Spain over the next six years. Midland will concentrate on secondary cities so that penetration of the national market is achieved more quickly. According to Alfred Gilbert, IHG's Development Director for Spain and Portugal, his company's ultimate aim is to have more than 60 EHI hotels in Spain. | |
| Troy Waits For Le Meridien Chance | Return to Headlines |
| A year on from his resignation as Le Meridien's Regional Managing Director for the UK and Ireland, Tony Troy is reportedly poised to return to familiar territory. Mr Troy's is the latest name to be put forward as a potential future operator of one or more of the 11 Le Meridien hotels owned by the Royal Bank of Scotland. If reports are correct, then Mr Troy would certainly feel more than at home: he will be offered hotels, such as Le Meridien York and the Le Meridien Russell in London, that were part of the former Principal Hotels chain which Troy headed. | |
| Cardiff Holds Key To Future | Return to Headlines |
| Canadian firm Future Inns, which signalled its approach earlier this year, has now landed in the UK and established a temporary base in Bristol. From there it will mastermind the development of six business-class hotels over the next three years, the first to open being the £12.3 million 200-room Future Inns Cardiff. Midas Construction is to build this property and has been lined up as the preferred contractor for others in cities such as Bristol and Reading and in counties including Hampshire and Devon. | |
| Nottingham's Merry Men | Return to Headlines |
| Kent-based Marston Hotels is hoping that it can secure the planning permission necessary for it to begin work in the new year on a hotel at the Nottingham Business Park. The company expects the property, which could cost anything between £10 million and £15 million to build, to be open in spring 2005. The city of Nottingham currently has a minor reputation for being something of a millionaires' row. Hot on the heels of the sale last week, for £1.5 million, of the 17-room Walton's Hotel comes news that another privately owned hotel, the nine-room Hotel des Clos, is up for sale with an asking price of £1.1 million. If you fancy something a little further north then you should head for Cockermouth in Cumbria, where Northern Developments and M Sport are waiting to hear from those parties who may be interested in leasing a 28-bed hotel to be built in the grounds of the Dovenby Hall Estate. | |
| Accor Boosts Economy In Germany | Return to Headlines |
| Accor continues to grow its portfolio of economy hotels in Germany at an impressive rate, despite the slow German economy. The company has held a topping-out ceremony at the Raschplatz in Hanover, on which site Accor had signed a long-term lease agreement for a new Suitehotel and an Etap hotel with a combined total of 224 rooms. The hotels are due to open in summer 2004. The site will also be home to a new shopping centre, office space and a medical centre. The total cost of the development has been estimated at €50 million. Accor has also laid the foundations of two new hotels at the Parkstadt Schwabing development in northern Munich. The hotels, a Suitehotel and an Ibis, total 300 rooms and are due to open in February 2005. Dahmit Parkstadt Schwabing has invested some €25 million in the construction of the 12-storey building. | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 20/11/03-27/11/03
Hilton Group - Deutsche Bank has a 'Buy' rating on the stock.
Sol Meliá - Stock on the Spanish market responded to strong trading on Wall Street.
InterContinental Hotels Group - Deutsche Bank increased its forward estimates in the wake of IHG's results last week, and has a 'Buy' rating on the stock.
