The new Peninsula

Opening in late 2009, the Peninsula Shanghai is on the Bund with spectacular views of the Bund, Huangpu River, Pudong and the gardens of the former British Consulate, and blends with the historic architecture of its landmark neighbours along the Bund.

The opening of The Peninsula Shanghai heralds the return of parent company The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Limited to its roots, as it owned and operated four of Shanghai’s most celebrated hotels — The Kalee, Majestic, Palace and Astor House Hotels — in the first half of the last century. Peninsula Hotels is Asia’s oldest hotel company.

A homage to Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, The Peninsula Shanghai recreates the look and feel of this glamorous era when Shanghai was feted as ‘The Paris of the East’, yet also offers the latest in state-of-the-art technology, services and amenities.

Shanghai is celebrated for its glorious Art Deco architecture, and thus
The Peninsula Shanghai’s design brief was dictated by this architectural movement
from the 1920s and 30s in order to blend in with its neighbours on the Bund.
Source: BYM Waterside Property News

        Hotel Ibis Shanghai

Ibis, Accor’s worldwide economy hotel brand, has opened its 800th hotel in China, the Hotel Ibis Shanghai Lianyang.

Following the opening of the Ibis Beijing Sanyuan last month, the Ibis Shanghai Lianyang is the 16th Ibis hotel in China.

Since its creation in 1974, the Ibis brand has grown but in 2007, Ibis dramatically accelerated its global development.

Between 2008 and 2010, one to two new Ibis hotels will open globally each week.

Hotel Ibis Shanghai Lianyang offers rooms from RMB280.

Eight more Ibis hotels will open in the Asia Pacific region before the end of 2008, including Ibis Harbin Shangzhi and Ibis Qingxi Dongguan.
Source: PR Web

         New image Holiday Inn

Intercontinental, the world’s biggest hotels group, is facing a revolt by its Chinese hotel owners over its planned $1billion  Holiday Inn rebranding program — the biggest in the history of the industry.

The rebranding, which will involve a raft of changes including new signs, is scheduled to be completed by 2010. More than 3,000 Holiday Inns around the globe will be affected.

Intercontinental, which largely manages hotels now, rather than owning them, has put up $60m towards the $1 billion cost, with individual owners having to foot the bill for the rest.

But Martin Jia, the head of the Intercontinental hotel owners association in China, said that some of his members were seeking a delay in the overhaul because of the financial crisis and the impact on business in the region.
More HERE.
Source: The Independent

Cittitel in KL

The Malay based IGB, which operates the Cititel hotel chain, plans to invest $500 million over the next five years to develop ‘tourist-class’ hotels in China under a new brand name.

The group considers 3- to 4-star hotels as tourist-class. Cititel managing director Datuk Eric Lim said the group planned to build about 20,000 tourist-class hotel rooms in the third and fourth-tier cities in China.

He said, ‘These tourist-class hotels would be called Cititel Super-Express Hotel, a new brand name which we are developing. There would be at least 1,000 rooms for each of the Cititel Super-Express Hotel to be developed in China.’
More HERE.
Source: The Star

Wynn Casino and hotel, Macau

Casino mogul Steve Wynn has said in an interview he couldn’t tell when Macau’s slowdown might let up, but expressed confidence in its long-term fortunes and backed government measures to curb travel to the Chinese gambling city.

The chief executive of Wynn Resorts also said he was in ’sharp disagreement’ with comments by a top executive at rival Las Vegas Sands Corp. suggesting the government’s actions were harming Macau’s casino industry.

Wynn, who has one resort open in Macau and a second on the way, said the government has handled ‘practically everything beautifully.’

‘The fact that the economy and the development and expansion of Macau occurred at such a rapid rate has created a great deal of stress on the community,” Wynn said. ‘The central government and the Macau government putting a crimp in or a slowdown in visitation was an attempt to give the community a chance to absorb the stuff that had been built.’

More on this somewhat contentious view HERE.
Source: AP

URBN, Shanghai is said to be China's first carbon-neutral hotel. 20 more to folllow

Conceived by owners Scott Barrack and Jules Kwan, URBN is claimed to be a carbon-neutral hotel. It is in Jiao Zhou Lu, in Shanghai and is promised to be the start of a new boutique hotel empire.

No strangers to luxury developments or to China where they have lived for 10 years, the two plan to open another 20 URBN hotels in China in the next three years, starting with Beijing, Hangzhou, Dalian and Suzhou.

The hoteliers will go as green as possible by rehabilitating existing structures, using recycled materials, maximizing green space and introducing eco-friendly solutions.

The hotel’s interior designer is Brazil native architect, Tais Cabral, known for her commercial, cultural, residential and retail work in Paris, as well as her furniture design.

Carbon neutrality is a way to offset or reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere by efforts such as increased energy efficiency, gas capture techniques to reduce harmful gases and generate electricity, and renewable power sources such as wind, solar, bio fuel, and hydro power.
Source: 4Hoteliers

Hotel Kunlun Beijing

The Ministry of Commerce has announced that China’s hotel and catering industry kept its rapid upwards trend and saw retail sales rise 25.8% year on year to RMB147.33 billion ($21.58 billion) in October

According to the ministry, the industry’s retail sales totaled RMB1.25 trillion during the January-October period, up 24.9% year on year. The growth rate is 6.3 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

The hotel and catering industry contributed 14.2% to the nation’s total domestic consumer goods retail sales during the same period.
Source: Ali Baba.com

Peace Hotel

Shanghai’s iconic Peace Hotel, once known as the most luxurious destination in the Far East, is to host what is called a contemporary arts center but which sounds more like a high class watch shop.

The centre in the hotel’s south building — in fact it is suggested it will be taking over the Peace Hotel South Building — will open to the public before the start of Shanghai’s World Expo in May 2010.

Swiss watch makers Swatch Group will own a 90% stake. It will be interesting to see whether contemporary arts and a display of Swatch watches work together or whether the center brecomes a Swatch shop with pictures.

Swatch watches

The press release states: ‘The Swatch Art Peace Hotel will welcome the arts and working artists from around the world to its splendid venues, becoming once again a focal point of Shanghai’s vibrant cultural life. . . ‘

‘The Swatch Group’s close association with contemporary art and artists will be highlighted and complemented by a Swatch Art boutique and by the presence of numerous works of art on site, the statement said. Dedicated boutiques on the ground floor will host the Swatch Group’s most prestigious brands, including Breguet, Blancpain, and Omega. Each of the brand boutiques will be designed to complement and enhance the period decor and cultural ambience of the hotel.’ PR releases are written like that.

Sadly, it sounds like a lot of high quality watch shops taking over the Peace Hotel South Building. This is a joint-venture acquisition with the leading Chinese Jin Jiang Group, a hotel and tour operator, which holds a 10% share in the venture.
Sources: AFP and JCKonline.com

The hotel computer is now an essential tool

The word ‘informatization’ exists in English in no dictionary consulted. It does exist in Russia and some of the Baltic countries. It is probably a management-speak way of saying information.

A group of figures in the statistics report 2008 China Hotel Industry Study said: the single-room profit ratio of five-star hotels with three management models, namely international brand, domestic brand and self-management, is 1:0.86:0.77. Frightening figures.

Han Ming, president of China Hotel Association, expressed that the application level of hotel informatization technology was a key reason for this difference. The application level of hotel informatization technology in China has a great impact on hotel operation.

From 2000 to the end of 2006, the number of star-hotel in China increased from 6,029 to 12,751, with an annual rate of increase of 15.3%. Up to 2007, there were 361 five-star hotels and 1631 four-star hotels.
It is estimated that from 2006 to 2010, the investment in the hotel industry of China will be RMB340 billion.

At which point the more the operation is stream-lined and computerized the greater the profit.
Informatization technology has also become an important way to save energy and reduce consumption.
Much more HERE.
Source: CE.com

Home Inn Nanjing

Chinese budget chain Home Inns & Hotels Management said third quarter net profit rose to $4.34 million with the gain supported by expansion.

The company gave no comparative data but based on figures from last year’s third quarter financial report, net profit for the third quarter of 2008 rose about 27%.

Home Inns added that its mature hotels continued to provide stable revenues.

It had opened 148 new hotels as of the end of September, with a target of 200 for 2008.

Revenue increased 98.0% to $77.7 million in the third
quarter, including revenue of $5.7 million from the
Top Star hotel chain which the company acquired
last November.

The company said revenue in the fourth quarter is expected to come in at between $78.8 million and $81.7 million.
Source: Forbes