Tag: Hotel

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Hotels to turn into temporary hospitals

The health secretary said empty hotels across the country would help ease the pressure on hospitals that are filling up with patients. Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday (15 March), when asked if more hospitals should be built, he responded: “We’ve seen that many hotels are empty, so we’ve got ready-built facilities looking after people.”

On the back of this suggestion, Best Western Great Britain has said it will consider turning hotels into temporary hospitals if the NHS needs additional bed space during the coronavirus outbreak.

Rob Paterson, chief executive of Best Western Great Britain, said: “We are in unprecedented territory so we would be willing to take unprecedented steps to support the national effort.

“If the NHS wants additional bedspace, and we can partner with other companies to provide the right medical equipment and supplies and we can do it safely, then we would be willing to start having those conversations immediately. Whatever we can do to help.”

Best Western has approximately 260 hotels in Great Britain, with almost 15,000 bedrooms.

Keeping check back with EDGE Venues Insights for the latest coronavirus updates, including news on whether other hotels will consider temporary hospitals with their properties.

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50 new openings sees luxury hotel market buoyant in UK

Private overseas investors and a weak sterling against the dollar has helped keep the luxury hotel market in the UK buoyant over the past 12 months, according to new research.

Private wealth law firm Boodle Hatfield said that 50 new luxury and premium hotels opened in 2018/19, a 1.5% rise over 2017/18, up to 3,380 hotels across the UK. Meanwhile the number of three-star and lower hotels dropped by just under 1% to 4,120 during the same period.

A strong market in London has helped drive the luxury market with new openings this year, including the Biltmore Mayfair, the first hotel from Hilton’s new luxury brand LXR Hotels & Resorts, and the Standard at King’s Cross.

Private investors from the Middle East and Asia have helped drive the growth of London’s luxury hotel sector. Recent acquisitions include the 603-bedroom Kensington Hilton – sold to Kurdish investor Bakir Cola for £260m, while Queensgate Investments bought a portfolio of four London properties from Grange Hotels for £1 billion.

The sector has also been boosted by a fall in the value of sterling against the dollar, which has helped drive international tourists to the UK, with VisitBritain forecasting a record spend of £24.5b from overseas visitors during 2019, up from £22.9b last year.

Adam Chamberlain, partner in the real estate team at Boodle Hatfield, said: “The luxury hotel market outside of London has showed some signs of cooling off, but the opportunity to invest in a landmark London hotel is still one that attracts wealthy individuals and families the world over.”

“Ultra-high net-worth individuals from the Gulf and Asia have long found luxury London hotels to be attractive assets, both as major trophy properties and income investments. That shows no signs of changing.”

Research by Boodle Hatfield revealed that 210 new hotels are currently under development in London.

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Accor and Arora brings Fairmont brand to Windsor

Accor and Arora Group has announced the signing of The Fairmont Windsor Park. The hotel is currently undergoing a multi-million-pound redevelopment and will open in 2020.

The Fairmont Windsor Park hotel will be the third Fairmont property in the UK alongside The Savoy in London and Fairmont St Andrews in Scotland.

The hotel is located adjacent to Windsor Great Park and Savill Gardens. It is also located on the former site of Savill Court Hotel and Spa, which was owned by Arora Group and is now being redeveloped. The hotel will feature a 2,500sqm spa and wellness area, which will include an indoor lap pool and outdoor vitality pool, treatment rooms, salt room, Hammam and Japanese foot spa.

As part of its food and beverage offering, the hotel will have a tea lounge, specialist dining restaurant and a champagne bar. There will also be an all-day dining venue. Fairmont Windsor Park will offer 16 meeting rooms, an 800sqm ballroom which can cater for 700 guests, two private terraces and a garden for outdoor functions.

Marc Dardenne, chief operating officer, Luxury Brands, Accor Europe, believes The Fairmont is an “ideal match for this hotel asset” and “looks forward to showcasing all the brand has to offer in historic Windsor.”

Surinder Arora, founder and chairman, Arora Group, added: “We are incredibly proud to bring the Fairmont brand to Arora’s growing portfolio of hotels. Over the last decade our estate has grown significantly, with this new hotel joining our other flagship properties.”

Thomas Dubaere, COO, Accor Northern Europe, said that the signing of The Fairmont Windsor Park Hotel reflects Accor’s “expertise in the luxury segment”. Dubaere adds: “The signing also underlines our ambitious regional expansion plans demonstrating the UK’s continued role as a key global market.”

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Former Brexit day sees steep decline in London hotel performance

STR have released preliminary performance figures suggesting that the Brexit day that never was saw a steep decline in occupancy and revenue per available room (revpar) rates across London hotels.

Occupancy and revpar fell by 11.2% and 11.7% respectively on 31 October, the Brexit deadline until the date for the UK’s departure from the EU was moved until 31 January 2020.

The performance of London hotel across the rest of the month showed a 1.9% drop in occupancy to 87.6%, while average daily rate increased by 1.7% to £162.07 and revpar was largely flat, down 0.3% to £141.97.

The supply of new rooms to the market was up by 1.6%, ahead of a 0.3% decrease in demand from guests.

STR will release the full results for October later this month.

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Park Plaza sees increased revenue thanks to strong UK growth

Park Plaza hotels (PPHE) has reported a 6% increase in like-for-like revenue in the nine months to 30 September 2019, driven by strong growth in the UK.

Total revenue reached £276.3m, with occupancy of 80.6% and revenue per available room (revpar) of £102.

Boris Ivesha, president and chief executive of PPHE, said: ”We are pleased to report a solid performance during the quarter, with continued revenue growth and an increase in group revpar of 4.3%, as we benefited from the recent completion of several major repositioning projects and maturing properties across our portfolio and strong trading in the United Kingdom.

“Following several years of investment and disruption to operations, all hotels across our UK and NL portfolio are now open and contributing to the group’s performance. Strong trading at Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam in the Netherlands and Holmes Hotel London demonstrate our investment programme continuing to bear fruit, and we look forward to trading continuing to mature across other recently repositioned hotels in the coming months.

“We expect to invest approximately £300 million on our development pipeline, which includes exciting projects such as art’otel London Hoxton and an art’otel at Hudson Yards in New York City.

“Based on our results to September and our outlook for the remainder of the financial year, the Board anticipates the full year results will be in line with its previous expectations.”

The group reported it is making progress at the Art’otel London Hoxton development, with the demolition of the existing structure on the site having commenced.

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HotStats: European hotel rates down 5 per cent in July

Mainland Europe hotels saw a 5 per cent decline in average room rate to €170.60 in July, according to data from HotStats.

Gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR) was down by 9.4 per cent year on year. In addition to being the sixth month of year-on-year GOPPAR decrease in the region since the beginning of 2019, it was also one of the greatest months of profit decline this year.

“The drop in average room rate is disconcerting,” said Michael Grove, managing director, EMEA, at HotStats. “Especially since it’s the second consecutive month that rate has dropped year on year, after positive rate growth in the subsequent five months of the year and all of 2018.”

For hotels in Moscow, it was a case of hotel rates returning to normal levels after last year’s 2018 FIFA Men’s World Cup, as average room rate fell by €157.06 year on year to €92.86. However, hotels in the Russian capital did successfully record the highest room occupancy of the year so far, at 87.9 per cent.

In contrast to the regional falls in room rate, hotels in Nice saw a typical summer increase as room occupancy hit 90.2 per cent and a high was recorded in average room rate at €267.92.

Elsewhere in the world, hotel rates in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) fell to €119.19 with occupancy at 67 per cent. Hotels in Dubai were among those experiencing the biggest falls, with average rates seeing a 10.3 per cent decrease year-on-year.

“Profit decline in MENA has now become a trend rather than a blip,” said Grove. “With average room rate showing no sign of negative year-over-year letup, hoteliers will have to find cost-cutting measures to obtain positive GOPPAR increases in the interim.”

It was a different story across the pond, where hotels in the US saw a 0.9 per cent rise in average room rate to $201.51 and a 0.6 percentage point jump in occupancy to 81.1 per cent.

“Hotels in the US are bucking global profit trends, with only three months over the last 22 when GOPPAR turned negative,” said David Eisen, director of hotel intelligence, Americas, at HotStats. “Operators are doing an admirable job of making sure top-line gains result in bottom-line success, but they will need to continue to drive flow through in order to maintain and keep these gains afloat.”

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Principal Edinburgh George Street rejoins InterContinental

The Principal Edinburgh George Street hotel has rejoined the InterContinental brand after 14 years.

The 240-bedroom hotel operated as an InterContinental property until 2005, when it was sold to what was then Principal Hayley Group and became the George hotel. It was then renamed the Principal Edinburgh George Street following the launch of the Principal brand in 2016.

After the sale of the Principal group to French-group Covivio and InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) last year and “significant renovations”, it is being rebranded once more as the InterContinental Edinburgh – The George.

The property is an integration of a number of Georgian townhouses that were originally built in the 1780s.

Karan Khanna, managing director, UK & Ireland, IHG, said: “We are excited to grow our luxury presence in Scotland as we continue the integration of the Principal portfolio. Edinburgh is a key city in our home market so it’s great to reintroduce our flagship brand, InterContinental, to the city. I am confident its arrival will receive a warm welcome and the team will deliver a great service to guests.”

Tom Rowntree, vice president, global luxury brands, IHG, said: “InterContinental Edinburgh – The George is a fabulous addition to the brand, marking the return of InterContinental to Edinburgh.  We look forward to helping our guests unlock the heritage of this hotel and the enchanting city of Edinburgh.”

InterContinental Edinburgh – The George is the third InterContinental in the UK, joining InterContinental London – Park Lane and InterContinental London – The O2. IHG has 349 hotels operating under eight brands in the UK, with a further 26 in the pipeline.

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The first Barcelo Hotel opens in Hungary

The 4-star Barcelo Budapest will open next month and is located right in the heart of the city. It’s in Pest, the east side of the Danube, in the Terezvaros district VI which is the historic centre of the city and surrounded by museums, art galleries and restaurants. Most of the major sights are within 15 minutes walk from the hotel. The transfer from the airport takes about half an hour.

The hotel will have 179 bedrooms and a stylish roof terrace which is perfect for drinks receptions. There are three meeting rooms with a maximum capacity for 110 people. The meeting rooms all have natural daylight and the outdoor terraces can also be used for events.

Much of Budapest is an UNESCO World Heritage and many of the historic buildings can be used for events, such as the Castle in Buda, overlooking the city or the Art Nouveau Gellert Spa baths. The main street is Andrassy Avenue, home to the State Opera House. The Museum of Fine Arts and the Hall of Art can both hold dinners and conferences, and these are located in Heroes’ Square, at the end of Andrassy Avenue, which is one of the most visited sights in Budapest.

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£8m refurbishment starts at Crowne Plaza Marlow

The four-AA-star Crowne Plaza Marlow has begun an £8m refurbishment under its new owners to transform it into “one of the finest resorts under the Crowne Plaza brand”.

The refurbishment of the 168-bedroom hotel in Buckinghamshire, recently acquired by Meridian Leisure Hotels, will include all bedrooms and public areas including the Glaze restaurant, which holds an AA rosette, the Aqua bar and conservatory. Its Winterlake Conference Centre and 10 meeting rooms will also undergo a complete redesign.

The project will be phased and the hotel remain operational; work is expected to be completed by Christmas. The work is being overseen by design studio Twenty2Degrees.

Meridian Leisure Hotels group managing director, Moez Janmohamed, said: “We are delighted with this investment and are excited to restore Crowne Plaza Marlow to its former glory. We are very proud of the hotel’s heritage and the new design concept complements this, transforming the hotel into a venue of which Marlow can really be proud.”

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Why choose an unusual venue for your event?

There are lots of good reasons to choose a different or unusual venue for your event. Somewhere that has the ‘wow’ factor or is popular on social media will boost attendance because people want to go there. We all know about museums, sporting venues, castles etc, but now it’s all about what’s new. It’s not always easy to find a desirable venue, but look at Instagram and check which have created a great brand.

Of course, you need to follow the normal rules and consider the overall capacity, whether the space will work, access for production and caterers etc as well as the objectives and finding somewhere to match your brand. But if you’ve got the creative juices going then it’s time to think outside the box and find a venue to match your message.

Create an amazing first impression

This will start with the event invitation, people will want to attend and be part of your experience. Don’t only think about the venue, but what about the entrance and is there outside space? Build the excitement before people arrive.

Hire a bar or restaurant

There are new places launching all the time, some have private dining and some can be hired privately. Rooftops are really popular, so how about the B&H Garden Room on a rooftop in Leicester Square which has great views. Or Ours in South Kensington and Sushi Samba both have private dining rooms for small groups and are places that people want to be seen.

Hotels

The ME London can now privatise the Atrium area on their 1st floor for events and Zela is a new restaurant on the ground floor. The Curtain in Shoreditch can privatise their Lido Deck restaurant at some times of the year.

Cafés

The café culture has exploded in recent years and these destination venues are particularly good for a breakfast or lunch event. Take a look at
Feya and Butterscotch as well as the Elan Café, which has flower walls and LED lighting. Just one thing to watch for is that not all cafés are licensed so you may not be able to serve alcohol.

Blank canvass

Think about a warehouse, car park, ice rink, church and farm buildings as these venues can offer a large space to create the mood you wish. The ambiance is important, but also having flexibility to do what you want.

The warning signs

There is a risk if you work with a venue whose normal business is not events. You’ll need to keep on top of the communication, check their insurance, contracts and KPIs carefully to make sure the venue can deliver as agreed. If the venue is open to the public, there may be restrictions when you can have access and when you need to return it to them.