| Hilton: Ireland, Here We Come |
| The Morrissey family will welcome Hilton International to their hotel on the Mount Wolseley Country Estate on 1 June and watch as Hilton shins up the ladder to fix a nameplate that will proclaim that the 142-room, five-star hotel has become The Mount Wolseley Hilton. The hotel, Hilton’s fifth in Ireland, enters the Hilton Worldwide Resorts portfolio. Elsewhere on the estate in Tullow, Co. Carlow, the 16 four-bedroom holiday lodges join the Hilton International Grand Vacations Company. The hotel’s holistic spa, which recently enjoyed a £5 million makeover, becomes part of the LivingWell Health Club portfolio and can boast that it is the largest spa in Hilton's UK & Ireland portfolio. |
| NH: No Halt To The Openings | Return to Headlines |
| NH Hoteles continues to shower us with hotels this April. The company began the month in London, where it purchased the Harrington Hall Hotel in partnership with Losan. NH Hoteles is now back in Spain, where it has opened two hotels on the southern outskirts of Madrid: the 62-room, three-star NH Pacífico and the 102-room, four-star NH Alcorcón. In addition, the company will reopen the NH Almenara at the Sotogrande resort in southwest Spain on 29 April. The hotel closed five months ago to enjoy some renovation work. | |
| Italy Opens The Door To Louvre Hotels | Return to Headlines |
| Louvre Hotels has opened its third Campanile hotel in Italy: a 113-room property in Rivoli on the outskirts of Turin. Those who seek minimalist charm should direct their feet to the island of Sicily, where the 14-room, four-star Hotel Ucciardhome is poised to open in Palermo. With all this activity going on in its homeland, Domina Hotels & Resorts has felt the need to go abroad for some sea air. The company now has a presence in Latvia with the opening of the 110-room Domina Inn Riga. | |
| Whitbread Signals That It Expects To Sell The Nelson | Return to Headlines |
| Have you ever walked past a hotel and thought, ‘gosh! I’d give my right arm to have a hotel like that.’? It would be an entirely appropriate sentiment to hold in Norwich, now that Whitbread has decided to sell the Nelson Hotel there. The 132-room property was one of five hotels wholly owned and managed by Whitbread to be excluded from the portfolio of four-star properties that Whitbread put up for sale last month. To secure a victory in the battle for the long leasehold interest, a potential purchaser will need to find at least £15 million. | |
| Amoun In Aswan Has A New Owner | Return to Headlines |
| EGOTH (the Egyptian General Company for Tourism and Hotels) has approved the sale of the Amoun Hotel in the Egyptian city of Aswan. An unnamed private company paid a reported US$3.5 million for the 56-room hotel, which has been under the operational control of Club Méditerranée since 1986. The new owner will be obliged to invest an additional US$9.5 million in renovation and extension work. | |
| Best Western's Belgian Brace | Return to Headlines |
| Best Western International has added another two hotels to its Belgian portfolio. Latest to join are the newly built 72-room Best Western Aero 44 in Gosselies on the outskirts of Charleroi and the newly refurbished 24-room Best Western Hotel Atlantis in Genk. Belgium will seem comparatively roomy to those travellers fresh from a stay on a man-made island in Denmark. Arp-Hansen Hotel Group has set itself a target date of May 2006 for the opening of the Copenhagen Island hotel. The 326-room property will be the company’s tenth and, to-date, largest hotel. | |
| Jarvis Hotels Finds A Buyer For The Bear | Return to Headlines |
| Jarvis Hotels led the Ramada Bear Hotel to market last September and opened the bidding at £3 million. Considered Hotels thought that too tempting an offer to pass up and the company has now paid an undisclosed sum for the 41-room property, which stands in the Berkshire town of Hungerford. The hotel will now undergo renovation. Should you have been one of the many who missed out on the purchase, and assuming that you have at least £1.1 million left in your pocket after a consolatory drink or two, then why not pitch instead for the Inchrie Castle Hotel? Stonefield Castle Group is selling the 52-room property, which stands in the Scottish town of Aberfoyle. | |
| Polish Cosmetics Firm Wants To Lay Foundations Of More Spa Hotels | Return to Headlines |
| Dr Irena Eris lends her name to a company that manufactures cosmetics in Poland. And in those moments between caring for your skin the company is thinking of your general wellbeing at its four-star spa hotel in the town of Krynica-Zdrój. A second hotel is under construction near the town of Ostróda, and, according to the Polish press, the company wants to open perhaps two or three more. Dr Irena Eris might well have a lotion to soothe trowel finger, in which case Bulgarian firm Van Holding might be in need of a bottle or two as it builds the 172-bed, four-star SkyWay Hotel in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. | |
| Wishing On A Seven Star In Southampton | Return to Headlines |
| The wind off the Solent may not be as warm as the wind in the Gulf and nor might the lower end of the High Street in Southampton be as enticing a location as Dubai. But put on an overcoat, close your eyes and try like developer Weyley is doing to imagine the seven-star grandeur, though not the scale, of the Burj Al Arab replicated on the south coast of England. Weyley’s proposed property will have some 45 luxury rooms, rise to five or six storeys and cost some £25 million to £30 million to build. | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 07/04/05-14/04/05
Hilton Group - Citigroup Smith Barney raised its rating from 'Sell' to 'Hold' and kept its target price unchanged at 290p.
InterContinental Hotels Group - ABN Amro placed a 'Buy' rating on the stock and noted a target price of 775p.
Accor - ABN Amro lowered its rating from 'Add' to 'Hold' but retained its target price of €37.
