The Beijing Olympic Games are sparking fierce competition among hotel groups.

The US-based Hilton Hotels, which has five properties in China, hopes to have two more open by the end of July.
Marriott International has opened three hotels in the capital under the JW Marriott, Courtyard and Ritz-Carlton brands and increased its Beijing portfolio to seven. It is preparing to open two more, a Renaissance and a Marriott, in July.
InterContinental Hotels Group says eight more of its hotels will open this year in Beijing. The group already has nine hotels in Beijing.

Besides the new openings, many existing upscale hotels in Beijing, including New World Jing Guang Hotel, China World Hotel Beijing and Shangri-La Hotel Beijing, have redecorating and or expansion work scheduled for completion before the Games begin on August 8.

Lin Yuan, director of sales and marketing with Novotel Beijing Sanyuan said, ‘The Olympics is absolutely a golden opportunity, nobody would like to miss promoting themselves.’

There will be about 50,200 athletes, international workers, journalists, sponsors and their business clients who will be accommodated by 112 local hotels.

However, no hotel group is banking on just the Olympics. Sustainable economic growth is their goal.

The Beijing Tourism Bureau believes the number of overseas guests will grow at around 30 to 60% annually, rising to a peak in 2010, and the average occupancy rate will increase to more than 72% in 2009. A lot of hoteliers are praying that the Bureau’s projections come to fruition.
Source: China Daily

Koos Klein, Asia Pacific Hotelier of the Year is overseeing the largest development pipeline in Hilton International’s history in Asia, with the group poised to open 300 hotels in the next nine years

For the company this is a time of great change – Hilton was acquired by the Blackstone Group late last year – and the intent of the new investors is clear. Grow the company and sell it.

Koos Klein said, ‘It is clear that Blackstone did not buy Hilton to hold on to it forever. They are acting as our balance sheet which is good. It means more money for development. But private equity is opportunistic and the company is extremely active in gearing for growth.’

Five of the six top leaders at Hilton International have changed after the acquisition.

The accelerated rate of growth of Hilton in Asia Pacific can be put down to the fact that the company is introducing its Hilton Family of Brands across the market segments.

When Klein arrived in 1998 to run Hilton in the area, Asia represented only 5% of the company’s bottom line.

In China, the company will operate 26 hotels in China by 2011 and has entered into a deal to franchise 25 hotels under its mid-scale brand, Hilton Garden Inn to RREEF Alternative Investments (the global alternative investment management business of Deutsche Bank) and H & Q Asia Pacific.

Efforts to develop the flagship Hilton brand continue, while the company expects to bring more luxury properties into the pipeline under the Conrad and Waldorf Astoria Collection brands.
Source: 4Hoteliers

Hilton Hotels has signed a management agreement with China Merchants Property Development Company for the Conrad Beijing.

The Conrad Beijing will have 200 hotel guest rooms and 100 serviced apartments and will feature a variety of restaurants and extensive meetings facilities including an auditorium and a ballroom with a capacity for more than 500 people, as well as a full facility spa and health club. Which makes it a MICE hotel.

The Conrad will be located on Chang An Avenue, between the Second Ring Road and the Third Ring Road in the Chaoyang District, where the Friendship Store will be turned into a 200,000 square meter mixed-use development.

The hotel will take up approximately a quarter of the development and the rest will be made up of grade A offices and a large multi storey retail space. Chang An Avenue is the center of China’s political, economic and cultural activities and is known as the ‘First Street of China.’

Koos Klein, Area President Hilton Hotels Asia Pacific said, ‘The Conrad Beijing will be a stunning addition to our growing portfolio of luxury properties in China, building on the success of the Conrad Hong Kong which opened in 1990 and our upcoming Conrad Shanghai which opens in August this year.’

The Conrad Beijing is scheduled to open at the end of 2010. The Conrad name comes from the founder of the Hilton chain.

Conrad Hilton was born on Dec. 25, 1887, in San Antonio, New Mexico. He bought his first hotel in Cisco, Tex., in 1919 and soon bought others in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Waco. In 1946 he formed the Hilton Hotels Corporation. He is the person in our illustration.

Source: eTravel Blackboard

Hilton Hotels Corporation has signed a cooperation agreement with a local company to open in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province as well as an economic hub in China’s western region.

The new property in southern Chengdu is Hilton’s sixth hotel in mainland China. It will have 515 rooms with mixed international and Chinese features. The hotel is expected to start hosting guests in 2010.

The market in China’s western region has been growing rapidly in recent years, especially Chengdu.

Atkins Co, which is the designer of the famous sail-shaped Burj Al Arab, will design the luxury property. After the opening of this hotel, the number of five-star hotels in Chengdu will rise to 12, making it first in luxury hotels in western China.

Our illustration is a somewhat idealized view of part of Chengdu. It really is not all like that.
Source: Alibaba.com

This would be nice to do to get away from the freezing Shanghai, and I imagine, even more freezing Beijing weather. It’s a spa escape package at Hilton Sanya Resort & Spa on Hainan Island. Prices start from RMB 2,190/person/night and spa highlights include:

- One wellbeing consultation
- Two aromatherapy massages/person (during which you may be able to hold someone’s hand like the couple above)
- Two yoga classes/person

Prices applicable till the end of 2008, a minimum three-night stay is required.

Jesper Bach Larsen, the hotel’s Director of Business Development, describes the combination of yoga and spa treatments as ‘the perfect escape from the daily grind of modern life.’
Source: PR Hilton Sanya Resort and Spa

Paris Hilton, the daughter all parents hope they do not have, who is also millionaire heiress to substantial shares in the Hilton hotel chain, is in Shanghai. She is not staying at any Hilton. (Which may well come as a relief to the Hilton management.)

She is staying at the newly opened Hyatt on the Bund.

An employee of MTV China, who asked not to be named said, ‘The panoramic Bund view from the hotel room seemed the major reason to attract her there. Hilton hopes to gain a better understanding of the city’s landmark charm within a limited time.’

And no doubt the city will be able to get a better understanding of the limited charm of Paris Hilton during her short visit.
Source: Shanghai Daily

Hilton Sanya Resort & Spa has been voted ‘Asia’s Leading Spa Resort’ by the 2007 World Travel Awards, held on November 4 in Bangalore.

The resort is located along a 400-meter stretch of beach in Yalong Bay, southeast of Sanya City on Hainan Island. It has 501 guest rooms, six restaurants and bars, a stand-alone MICE Pavilion for meetings and banquets and extensive spa facilities at The Spa Retreat.

Photographed is Bharat Raheja (on left), Director of International Sales for Hilton, accepting the award.
Source: PR Hilton Sanya

Hilton Hotels has signed an agreement to manage the Hilton Guiyang. The property will be developed in two phases — the first phase will be completed at the end of 2008, and will comprise 100 guest rooms and 70 serviced apartments. The second phase will include another 230 guest rooms by the end of 2009.

The hotel will be in the commercial district of Guiyang, one of the largest cities in the western region of China.

In addition to the hotel, the complex will include housing, shopping malls, office buildings and community infrastructure such as a hospital, kindergardens, schools and a culture and science exhibition centre.

Koos Klein of Hilton said ‘The Hilton Guiyang will offer a new and unrivalled destination in the MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences & Exhibitions) sector.’

Chunhong Xiao, Chairman of Guizhou Honizon Real Estate Development, said, or a flack wrote for him, ‘We are delighted to work with Hilton for this project, where the development will blend with the beauty of its surrounding environment, appealing to leisure and business travelers alike.’ Sounds flack-ese to me.

The picture of Guiyang is a little larger than normal. That is simply because it is a most beautiful area and pictures hardly do it justice.
Source: Travel Daily News

Hilton Hefei in Anhui province was recognized as one of the Best Business Hotels in China by Forbes China. The guide surveys business execs in China and selects the top 50 hotels out of the 300 five-star hotels on the mainland. 

The hotel is the newest addition to Hilton’s properties in China having opened in February this year. Business incentives include 13 meeting rooms, an executive boardroom, 24-hour manned business center and a 1,600 square meter ballroom accomodating 1,200 people.

Pictured is Luc Bollen, General Manager, receiving the award.
Source: PR Hilton Hefei

With the Olympic Games scheduled to hit Beijing next year, major hotel companies have scrambled to get new properties in China open in time.

Hilton Hotels operates six hotels in China (the one in Beijing is shown here), but will more than double that in the next few years. In late August it announced an agreement to manage a new Hilton in the Wangfujing district of Beijing, set to open next year, and also has scheduled to open in 2008 a Doubletree in Beijing, a Conrad in Shanghai and a Doubletree in Kunshan, as well as a resort and spa in Chongqing. Three other Hiltons are set to open in China by 2011. In June, a joint venture of one of Deutsche Bank’s investment arms and private equity firm H&Q Asia Pacific agreed to create and manage more than 25 hotels in mainland China under Hilton’s mid-price Hilton Garden Inn brand.
InterContinental Hotels now has 67 hotels open. IHG plans to nearly double that by next year, and future growth is particularly focused on Crowne Plaza.
Marriott International now has 27 properties in China, according to company spokesman John Wolf, and by 2010 will have 15 more: six under the Marriott brand, three under the Renaissance brand, two under the JW Marriott brand and four under Marriott’s mid-price Courtyard brand. In addition, the company will open six of its luxury Ritz-Carlton properties in China by 2010.
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts has announced plans to open in China 15 new properties — three Park Hyatt hotels, three Grand Hyatt hotels and nine Hyatt Regency hotels. China already has more Hyatt properties than any other country outside of North America.
Wyndham Hotel Group has announced an Asia-focused investment management firm is investing $50 million in the master franchisor of the Super 8 brand in China, Tian Rui Hotel Corp. The franchisor already has opened 49 Super 8 properties in China and has agreements in place to develop 67 more.

Even with all those growth plans in place, however, travel managers said the region would continue to be a challenge as travel to the region increases. Travel managers often have to look outside of hotel offerings when planning Asia/Pacific travel.
Source: Business Travel News Online