| Bin Salem Group To Build The Grand Corniche Hotel In Abu Dhabi |
| Tourism Development and Investment Company, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, has appointed Bin Salem Group to build the 35-storey Grand Corniche Hotel. The five-star property, which will bring 439 rooms and 144 serviced apartments to the emirate of Abu Dhabi, will occupy an all-glass tower, shaped like a sail, which will cost close to a reported US$100 million to raise. The hotel is set to open in December 2009 under the management of an as yet unspecified international operator. |
| Rotana Hotels To Build On Saadiyat Island | Return to Headlines |
| Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC) has been busy too with its project on the island of Saadiyat, which lies just off the coast of Abu Dhabi. The company has signed up Rotana Hotels to build the Rotana Resort Saadiyat Beach, which is scheduled to open towards the end of 2009. The resort, which will be owned by the Al Nowais family (Nasser Al Nowais is the chairman of Rotana Hotels), will feature a five-star hotel of 400 to 450 rooms. TDIC launched the Saadiyat project last year and the company aims to have a total of 29 hotels on the island by 2018. | |
| Revealed: The Mystique Of Starwood | Return to Headlines |
| On the Greek island of Santoríni a pair of climbers are picking their way up the cliffs above the northern town of Oía. In front is the Greek property firm Kanava, which is guiding the American tourist Starwood Hotels & Resorts. They hope to reach the summit in May in time to induct the hotel Mystique and its 18 villas into The Luxury Collection. The island’s shores have sighted The Luxury Collection before; the Vedema Resort, the sister property of the Mystique, is also a member. | |
| Starwood Finds A Princess In Istanbul | Return to Headlines |
| The countdown to the new year is over but the count-up of the number of hotels that Starwood has in Istanbul has restarted. One, two, three, four. A franchise agreement signed with OC Tourism Services Inc. has allowed Starwood to take the hand of the Istanbul Princess Hotel. The 305-room property, which stands in the Maslak district of the Turkish city, will be extensively refurbished and will reopen midway through this year as the Sheraton Istanbul Maslak. The counter should have clicked round to six by the time the year is out: Starwood is set to open the W Istanbul and the Sheraton Istanbul Atakoy. | |
| Hungary For Hilton | Return to Headlines |
| Hilton Hotels Corporation has followed the Danube north from Budapest (where it has a brace of hotels – its only hotels in Hungary) to moor in the town of Visegrád. There waiting for Hilton’s ship to come in was Tourist Projects 2004 Ingatlanhasznosító, which had in its hand a piece of paper that guaranteed Hilton another piece of the country. The management agreement covered the 230-room Hilton Visegrád, which is due to open in early 2009. | |
| Seconds In: Round Two For Hilton In Ras Al Khaimah | Return to Headlines |
| In the past, when one hailed a taxi in the emirate of Ras al Khaimah and commanded the driver, “take me to the Hilton”, both you and the man behind the wheel had an easy ride for there was only one Hilton Ras Al Khaimah. Utter that same request today and the driver will ask which suffix you require, as that first Hilton has been joined by a second. So supply the words ‘Resort & Spa’ if your intended destination is the 151-suite newcomer; otherwise, say ‘and Beach Club’, which identifies the 227-room pioneer. The Hilton Ras Al Khaimah Resort & Spa will offer another 330 rooms once work on the site is completed in 2008. | |
| Check In Kiev With Rezidor's Airport Hotel | Return to Headlines |
| The Radisson SAS Airport Hotel Kiev joins the Radisson SAS Hotel Kiev as Rezidor Hotel Group’s second hotel in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Rezidor has signed a management agreement with VI Center, the owner of the new hotel, which is set to open its doors by the end of 2009. The Radisson SAS Airport Hotel Kiev will have around 300 rooms. Rezidor will have cause for double celebration at around the same time in the emirate of Fujairah. Here the company will be opening the Radisson SAS Al Aqah Beach Resort, which will have some 320 rooms. | |
| Double Park Inn Means England And Sweden Draw Again | Return to Headlines |
| The score after a festive round of that perennial favourite pass the Park Inn was one-all between England and Sweden. When the music in England stopped, Rezidor Hotel Group was at the Leigh Sports Village development in Greater Manchester, where it unwrapped the promise of the 135-room Park Inn Leigh, which should be open next year. Removing the paper from around a set of plans to build a Park Inn in the Swedish capital Stockholm was the construction firm Botrygg Bygg. The 177-room hotel, which is to be built in the Hammarby Sjöstad area, is set to open in 2009. | |
| The Cryptic Faktor | Return to Headlines |
| Faktor Eiendom, a property developer from Norway, is to buy all of the outstanding shares in both Scandinavian Hospitality Group, a company which has a right to develop and manage hotels for Marriott International in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Baltic States, and Nordic Hotell Property, a real estate firm. The transaction will involve solely the offer of shares in Faktor Eiendom; the company is not disclosing any other details until the deal is closed. | |
| Maritim Arrives On Majorca | Return to Headlines |
| Whenever Maritim Hotels sees HMS International heave to outside its door, the German hotelier knows that its associated partner is ready to whisk it away for another adventure. Last year, the twosome called in on Turkey, Egypt and Spain, and at the start of this year Maritim’s excited enquiry, “where to this time?” was answered with a resounding cry of “Balearics!” as HMS put its partner safely ashore on the Mediterranean island of Majorca. Maritim Hotels’ first property on the island, and its third on Spanish soil, is to be the 186-room former Club Galatzó, which Maritim is to manage as the four-star Maritim Hotel Galatzó. The property, which stands near the southwestern village of Paguera, is set to open in July after extensive renovation. | |
| Octopus Embraces Bulgarian Ski Resort | Return to Headlines |
| The Bulgarians don’t admit just any old octopus into their ski resorts; they want one that has come to build hotels. One such creature is Octopus Developments, a British-owned real estate firm that spent last year constructing an aparthotel in the resort of Borovets. That hotel, which opened this month, is the first of four properties that Octopus wants to construct at the resort over the next 18 months. The hotels will form The Lodge Collection and will cost a total of a reported €29 million to build. | |
| Unhappy Old Year For CHE Hotel Group | Return to Headlines |
| CHE Hotel Group has announced that owing to “substantial losses in the second half” of its financial year ending 31 December 2006 its results for the full-year 2006 (to be published in March) are expected to be “significantly below market expectation”. The warning contained in the company’s trading update comes after a fourth-quarter in which CHE Hotel Group saw a sharp decline in revenues: the result of extensive restructuring and the exceptional one-off costs arising from the company’s disposal of its European master franchise agreement with Choice Hotels International. The ending of this agreement also obliges CHE Hotel Group to relinquish the use of the name Choice Hotels Europe. | |
Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 04/01/07-11/01/07
Accor - Citigroup and Deutsche Bank each placed a 'Buy' rating on the stock, and each raised its target price: Citigroup to €70 (from €59) and Deutsche Bank to €68 (from €56).
NH Hoteles - Rumours that Accor could be interested in making a bid lifted the share price.
CHE Hotel Group - The company's warning that its full-year results were expected to be "significantly below market expectation" caused the share price to slump.
