| Featured in this EMEA Hospitality Newsletter - Week Ending 4 February 2005 |
| Conrad Hotels Hopes To Celebrate Its 50th In 2010 | Return to Headlines |
| Conrad Hotels has at present 17 hotels to its name around the world. It is the earnest wish of Hilton Hotels Corporation (HHC) and Hilton International that this figure should be 50 in five years' time, and so the pair have acted now in an attempt to make the wish come true by appointing Dieter Huckestein to the position of Chairman and Chief Executive of Conrad Hotels. Mr Huckestein, formerly the president of HHC's owned and managed hotel operations, will lead the expansion, which will come about through Conrad's traditional method: that of securing management contracts. | |
| For Sale: The London Marriott Hotel Park Lane | Return to Headlines |
| The gradual sale of some of its hotel assets is part of Marylebone Warwick Balfour's plan, and as The Times reports this week the next lot on offer is the London Marriott Hotel Park Lane. The newspaper reports an asking price of up to £110 million for the 157-room, five-star property. Marriott International's management contract would be unaffected by any deal. | |
| Banyan Tree Grows | Return to Headlines |
| Anyone quietly contemplating the Banyan Tree Group recently will have felt the tremor caused by the roots, so firmly sunk in the Far East, beginning to burrow westwards. The first new example of this species of luxury resort and spa operator has already bloomed in the emirate of Dubai in the shape of the Angsana Spa & Health Club Dubai Marina. The developer Emaar Properties did the nurturing. Dubai Properties and Muzoon Holdings have the 2007 show in mind, working as they are on, respectively, the 50-villa Banyan Tree Resort and Spa at Jumeirah Beach and the 150-room Banyan Tree Hotel near Dubai Media City. Dubai will receive seven of the total of more than ten properties that Banyan Tree expects to develop over the next few years. Egypt, Kuwait and Morocco are the other countries that Banyan Tree has targeted. | |
| Starhotels Gets The Keys To The Door Of The Hotel Castille | Return to Headlines |
| Starhotels decided it would do something a little bit different for its twenty-first; after all, the luxury chain already has 19 hotels in its native Italy and has been to New York. So the company headed for Paris and paid €31.4 million for the 107-room Hotel Castille. Starhotels will spend some €1 million on renovation work on the renamed Starhotels Castille. Also stepping out into the hotel arena this week is the Spanish shoe company Camper, which has opened the €11 million Casa Camper in Barcelona. The 25-room boutique hotel is part of the design hotels portfolio. | |
| Mövenpick Enters Tanzania | Return to Headlines |
| Last month came reports that Tanruss Investment had sold the Royal Palm Hotel in the Tanzanian port of Dar es Salaam. But who was the unnamed buyer and to whom did South African company Legacy Hotels & Resorts hand the managerial reins? Both questions have now been answered. The buyer who took a 96% stake in the 251-room hotel was Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI) and the new manager is Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts. KHI will treat the renamed Mövenpick Royal Palm Hotel Dar es Salaam to a renovation programme costing US$2 million. | |
| Old Hotels Never Die | Return to Headlines |
| Those Muscovites who witnessed the demolition of the Moskva Hotel and reflected sadly that they would not see its like again may have cause to wipe the mix of tears and brick dust from their eyes. The Moscow Times reports that the city's mayor Yury Luzhkov, who had earlier flirted with the idea of transforming the space left by the 1,000-room relic of the Soviet era into a public square, has reverted to the plan for a new hotel. The newspaper notes that developer Decmos is to be encouraged to re-create the Moskva Hotel, with the only difference expected to be that the exterior of the new-build will be lighter in hue. Elsewhere in eastern Europe, Bulgarian company Mirad is celebrating the arrival of the Park Hotel Vitosha, in which it has invested a reported US$6.7 million. The company is said to be trying to interest either Best Western International or InterContinental Hotels Group in the 161-room hotel in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. | |
| All Go In Newcastle And Darlington | Return to Headlines |
| Restaurateur Terry Laybourne and developer Peter Candler have reportedly begun work on the conversion of the Grade II listed Jesmond Dene House into a luxury hotel. The 41-room hotel, which is set to open in Newcastle upon Tyne this September, will be the result of work costing a reported £7 million. Working on Grade II listed properties would appear to be a popular pastime in the northeast of England at present. Wharton Construction has been bitten by the bug in the town of Darlington; it is to add 16 guest rooms and a function suite, in work costing a reported £1 million, to Bannatyne Hotels' 45-room New Grange Hotel. | |
| Starwood Had A Good Year | Return to Headlines |
| Starwood Hotels & Resorts rounded off 2004 strongly with RevPAR across its portfolio of owned, leased and joint venture hotels in the fourth quarter 11.1% ahead on the comparable period in 2003. The Sheraton hotels were the star performers of the quarter, with marketwide RevPAR up 11.8%, closely followed by the W hotels on 11.7%. Net income of US$100 million for the fourth quarter was an improvement of 14.9% on the fourth quarter of 2003. Net income for the full year (after discontinued operations) was US$395 million, an increase on 2003 of 27.8%. | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 27/01/05-03/02/05
Sol Meliá - The share price remained buoyant after last week's expression of optimism by Sebastián Escarrer about the company's prospects.
Jurys Doyle Hotel Group - There was improved sentiment on the market for the company and the hotel sector in general.
Whitbread - The market worried about the possible effect of foreign exchange rates.
