Weekly Hotel Industry News Roundup from Europe, Middle East and Africa
Here's '1' For Green Campaigners
1 Hotel and Residences will leave no grubby carbon footprints in the greenhouse of life; this new brand from Starwood Capital Group is the world's first luxury, eco-friendly hotel brand. Eco-warriors may rest easy in the treetops, since all of the hotels will be constructed and operated in an environmentally friendly manner. Four of the first five hotels will be built in the USA; Seattle will have the honour of being the first city to roll out the green carpet, in late 2008. The fifth hotel will be in the French capital Paris, but weep not for the earth, for no gouging will be going on here. The property will occupy an existing building that is to be renovated.
Take Me To The...Bank
The largest business hotel in the UK and the largest hotel in the UK outside London are the subjects of a £417 million sale that should complete before the end of this year. The 1,054-room Hilton London Metropole and the 794-room Hilton Birmingham Metropole are to be bought by the family-owned company Tonstate. Hilton may be parting with the assets but it will retain the long-term management contract on both hotels.
A Tale Of Two Cities And The Novotels In Each
Sparkassen Immobilien is reported to be the new owner of the Novotel Bucharest City Centre after striking a sale and leaseback deal with Accor. The Austrian real estate firm paid a reported €29.5 million for the 258-room hotel, which stands in the Romanian capital Bucharest. From a capital with only one Novotel we move on to a capital that now has five. Budapest, in Hungary, is that city and hotel number five is the 175-room Novotel Budapest Danube.
Coppola Directs The Purchase Of The Grand Hotel Rimini
The Italian press reports that its countrymen Rino Fratus and Casto Jannotta, entrepreneurs both, have agreed to sell the Grand Hotel Rimini for €69 million. The 117-room, five-star hotel, which stands in the resort of Rimini, in northeastern Italy, is to be bought by Italian property developer Danilo Coppola.
Norgani On What's Going Down In Uppsala
Norgani Hotels, the Norwegian hotel property company, has three hotels in the Swedish city of Uppsala. Come 9 January 2007 it will have only two, for that is the date the company has set for the completion of the sale to Accome Invest of First Hotel Linné. The 116-room hotel had a book value of 77 million Swedish kronor on 30 June 2006 and is being sold for 78 million Swedish kronor (€8.4 million). Norgani will overcome the sorrow of parting with a hotel by immersing itself in work: the construction of a congress centre at the Clarion Hotel Copenhagen, one of seven hotels that it owns in Denmark. Norgani and Choice Hotels Scandinavia have agreed that the building will cover an area of some 1,200 mē and that work on the facility should be complete in November 2007.
InterContinental Hotel To Be Developed In Davos
The InterContinental Davos is not even the first InterContinental hotel in Switzerland but it can still kick snow in the face of any of InterContinental Hotels Group's hotels anywhere in Europe. For this is the property that will be the first in Europe to offer InterContinental residential apartments for sale. There will be 60 of them, and they will complement the 180 rooms available at the hotel. Work to construct the InterContinental Davos is set to begin next year and the hotel should be open in 2010.
Hotel Rooms To Buy And Let Up At The Brewery
GuestInvest has revealed details of what is to be its third buy-to-let hotel in London. The company has acquired from EC&O Venues the site of the former brewery on Chiswell Street, in the City, that was once owned by Whitbread. GuestInvest is to spend £55 million and the next 18 months on developing The Chiswell Street Hotel. The 200 rooms are on sale now, although the hotel itself will not be opening until 2008.
Hospitality Property Fund To Buy The Protea Hotel Victoria Junction
Hospitality Property Fund, of South Africa, expects to have completed by mid November the purchase of the Protea Hotel Victoria Junction, which stands in the South African city of Cape Town. The company will pay Protea Junction and Protea Hotel Group a total of R105 million (around US$14 million) for the 172-room, four-star hotel, which Protea Hotels will continue to manage. Meanwhile, Nesbitt Hospitality has opened its second hotel in the city of Bulawayo (and its third in total in its native Zimbabwe): the up-market 24-room N1 Hotel.
The Radisson Edwardian May Fair Hotel London Is Set To Open
There may be fireworks in London on 2 November too. If so, then they will be to mark the opening of the Radisson Edwardian May Fair Hotel London. Radisson Edwardian Hotels acquired the former InterContinental May Fair Hotel in 2003 and more than £75 million has since been spent on the renovation of the 410-room, five-star hotel. By the light of a bursting Golden Rain an observer may be able to make out Mariner House: a building near Fenchurch Street railway station, in the City of London. City Inn, which has a hotel in Westminster, has reportedly been given permission to redevelop the property as a 600-room hotel.
Accor Reports Revenues For The Third Quarter
By the end of the third quarter of 2006, Accor had made revenue of €5.6 billion, a like-for-like increase on the previous year's comparable of 6.3%. The company's upscale and mid-scale properties led the way in the hotel division, recording a like-for-like increase of 6.3% to finish with revenue of €2.2 billion. The total third-quarter revenue was in line with Accor's expectations and therefore the hotelier saw no reason to change its previously stated forecast of full-year pre-tax profit of €680 million to €700 million. In the RevPAR league the upscale and mid-scale properties in Europe were the champions, posting a like-for-like increase of 7.5% to finish on €64. The runners-up were the European economy hotels with RevPAR of €38, a like-for-like increase of 5.3%.
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