| Board Prepares To Point Great Southern Hotels In The Direction Of The Market |
| Dublin Airport Authority has agreed with a decision reached by the board of its wholly owned subsidiary Great Southern Hotels that its hotel portfolio should be sold as a going concern. The Great Southern Hotels collection is nine in number: eight hotels in the Republic of Ireland and one over the border in Northern Ireland, in Londonderry. The Irish Times reports that the state-owned chain is worth €100 million in total, but suggests that the proposed sale could realise a greater amount. |
| Didier Ferré Has The Taste For Marmotte | Return to Headlines |
| The 27 hotels in the budget chain Marmotte between them provide more than 1,000 rooms. The private owners of the properties, which are sprinkled across France, have provided them with a new owner in Didier Ferré. M Ferré is a leading franchisee of hotels in France; his properties fly the flags of either Accor or Louvre Hotels. | |
| Mövenpick Opens A Hotel In Yemen | Return to Headlines |
| To the list of Middle Eastern countries in which Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts has a presence may be added the name of Yemen. The arrival of a Mövenpick hotel in that country was heralded in summer 2003; and now here it is with its 338 rooms. The five-star hotel in the Yemeni capital Sanaa is owned by the International Company for Touristic Investments. | |
| Yet More On Yemen | Return to Headlines |
| The Midroc Group of Sweden is said to be investing a total of a reported US$175 million in the construction of two hotels in Yemen. A newspaper report suggests that US$110 million will be spent on a five-star hotel in the capital Sanaa. The remainder of the money is for a resort complete with a 120-room, five-star hotel in Al Hudaydah on Yemen’s Red Sea coast. | |
| A Macdonald Holland House Bristol Fashion | Return to Headlines |
| The Macdonald Holland House hotel in the Welsh capital Cardiff is to have its name honoured in the English city of Bristol, according to a report. Rightacres, the development company behind the 165-room luxury hotel in South Wales, has been coaxed across the Bristol Channel by Macdonald Hotels & Resorts, which is standing outside a building formerly occupied by Royal and Sun Alliance. If the pair can secure planning permission, then they could begin work as soon as April on converting the building into a 305-room, de luxe four-star hotel. | |
| Cologne Claims Germany's Tenth Marriott Hotel | Return to Headlines |
| The tenth Marriott-branded hotel in Germany has been claimed by the city of Cologne. Marriott International announced at the end of 2004 that it had signed a management agreement with Lange & Luhrmann Kalk-Karree on the 228-room property. Over the border in the Netherlands, meanwhile, those who worry that national parks seldom receive the recognition they deserve will be singing the praises of Golden Tulip Hotels & Resorts. The company has renamed the 78-room Tulip Inn Beekbergen the Tulip Inn De Hoge Veluwe in honour of the nearby De Hoge Veluwe national park. | |
| A Trading Update From De Vere Group | Return to Headlines |
| De Vere Group has issued a trading update covering the 18 weeks, to 29 January 2006, of its new financial year. The update showed that the group's underlying turnover, after that figure had been adjusted for disposals, was 4.5% ahead of the previous year’s comparable. Like-for-like turnover across the De Vere Hotels portfolio was up 4.0%, with RevPAR 5.3% ahead. The Village Hotels & Leisure Clubs recorded an increase of 3.4% in like-for-like turnover and a rise in RevPAR of 2.2%. | |
| Maybourne's McKenna Moves On In March | Return to Headlines |
| Maybourne Hotel Group will be looking for a new chief executive; Geraldine McKenna has decided to step down from the role on 31 March 2006. The company, which owns and manages The Berkeley, Claridge’s and The Connaught in London, was known as The Savoy Group until the start of 2005 when the sale of The Savoy prompted the name change. | |
| Doubles Pair Look To Be Wimbledon Mixed-Use Champions | Return to Headlines |
| Remember the car park in Hartfield Road in Wimbledon? Those happy moments spent paying and displaying? Cherish those memories; for if Wimbledon Phoenix – a 50:50 joint venture formed by Development Securities and Foinavon – is successful with its planning application then the 1.25-acre site in London SW19 will be reborn in 2008 as a mixed-use development that will include a hotel of 30,000 ft². | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 02/02/06-09/02/06
Accor - The company remained the leader in Europe in terms of the number of hotel rooms operated, noted a report. This news was sufficient to raise the share price.
NH Hoteles - The share price rose amid more reported market speculation of a takeover.
De Vere Group - UBS's response to the group's trading update was to retain its 'Neutral' rating, noting that trading conditions in De Vere's health and fitness division remained challenging.
