Whilst walking down the street in my London neighborhood, I stopped by the latest bus advertising from GuestInvest. Their latest catch phrase is "We make beds, you make money".
The concept of GuestInvest is for investors to have the opportunity to buy a luxury hotel room, staying there free of charge for up to 52 nights a year and receiving a rental income from its use during the rest of the time.
The famous hotel brand Ritz Carlton is building the future tallest hotel in the world in Hong Kong as part of the ICC Tower. The hotel will have 300 rooms on 118 floors. If this project comes to completion (around 2010), it will breaks the record currently held by the Park Hyatt in Pudong, Shanghai that is due to pen in Autumn this year.
Ritz Carlton Hong Kong Park Hyatt Shanghai
Since the failure of a merger between the # 1 UK hotel brand Premier Inn (owned by Whitbread) and # 2 Travelodge (owned by Dubai International Capital), Travelodge has decided to reinforce their management team by appointing Guy Parsons as Managing Director UK and Paul Harvey as Managing Director - International and Development. Paul will overlook the expension of the brand internationally.
Probably a wise move since Premier Inn already has put a foot in Middle East with their first hotel in Dubai.
Can't wait to try these out.
Among other re-openings, The Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, Florida must be one of the most anticipated hotel opening of this year. The celebration gathered numerous celebrities as shown on the video and $1B was spent for the renovation and celebration of this grand hotel.
I remember this hotel from my first visit in the US in the 80s where my parents took us in Florida for Winter holidays. This is probably where all my passion towards the hotel industry started. I was 14 years old at that time and I still remember how big that hotel was and also how delicious was the breakfast. I am sure it has all changed now, especially it is not managed by Hiton Hotels anymore.
MamaShelter is a new urban design hotel in the 20th district in Paris designed by Philip Starck and funded by the Trigano family (who created ClubMed) & Cyril Aouizerate, the philosopher of the house. This new hotel has created a lot of buzz around the designers and creators of new hotel concepts. Last year was the year where CitizenM won most of the innovation awards. 2009 could be a good year for Mama Shelter.
Their website is very well designed and has plenty of pictures, including pictures of each room type (remember my post last Friday). On the negative side, their booking engine just sucks. I don't find it easy to use and also hard to read with small characters.
The KOP Group - a real estate investment company with $2.5B worth of assets around the world - has recently invested in Stein Management Company International and has consequently appointed Michael Sagild to the position of Chief Executive Officer.
Why Franklyn? The group PR agency explains:
"Following intensive research, the company’s name was subsequently developed with ‘Franklyn’ offering a polysyllabic moniker that positions itself alongside other world-class hotel brands such as Morgans, Aman, COMO and Starwood. Franklyn is a bi-syllabic name, consisting of a free morpheme, ‘Frank’, and a suffix, ‘lyn’, and enjoys a rich cultural heritage through its etymology. The historical resonance of the name itself alludes to the notion of classicism – with the classic and contemporary forming core brand values of the company - and it also conjures warm associations of American hospitality. The etymology of Franklyn derives from a broad range of positive concepts: it carries the meaning of a frank or seal, it also denotes sincerity, authenticity and honour. The Franklyn brand will act as a seal of approval, guaranteeing a level of quality and luxury, whether it be in a Franklyn Hotel, Resort, Restaurant or Spa."
12 hotels are part of the group like the Gran Hotel Son Net in Mallorca or The Cadogan in London.
