Swire, which as a holding company has a finger in many pies ranging from Cathay Pacific to Coca Cola Bottlers, is now entering the hotel business.

Although not much has been announced about it plans Swire Properties has said the hotel unit will set up and manage small luxury properties not only in China, but also in the UK.

The first property in China is called The Opposite House and should open in Beijing in June. Set in the Sanlitun district of the city, it has been designed by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. This is effectively a boutique hotel with 89 rooms and 10 suites.

In 2010, Swire Hotels plans to open a 100-room property in Guangzhou.

It is developing a collection of UK luxury boutique hotels to be launched in 2009 and has already acquired properties in Bristol, Cheltenham, Exeter and Brighton currently operating under the name of Alias Hotels.

This does sound the sort of place you take someone who is not your wife for a weekend. There is an excellent cartoon which has a receptionist saying, ‘Welcome back again, Mr Smith’ but we thought it inappropriate for these pages. Nor do we think it tactful to suggest that Swire should invest in the American No-tell Motel chain which allegedly thrives in the United States.

Managing director of Swire Hotels is Brian Williams, who spent 17 years with the Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and was chief executive of the Scotsman Hotel Group before joining Swire Properties in January 2006. Which suggests that this has been at least on the possible list of investments for Swire for two years or more.

Swire Properties is understood to be keen to establish a portfolio of as many as 100 hotels over the next few years.
Source: Forbes and research

Starwood plans to set up at least 30 hotels a year in China over the next three years to sidestep a looming recession in its main U.S. market.

Starwood has 41 hotels in China, the world’s fastest growing major economy, and its Asian business has been bolstered by a regional travel boom. However, Asia Pacific President Miguel Ko said, ‘We will, in the medium and long term, be quite immune from a downturn in North America. In the short term, about 25% of our business is still from outside of Asia — 12% from North America — but that percentage is decreasing.

‘In the old days, the yield for Asian business was lower, but that has now changed. The Asian business is now yielding as attractively as the North American and Western European businesses in average room rate, consumption of food and beverage, and use of the facilities for the hotel.’

Starwood owns, operates, or has franchised 896 hotels across the world. It has 136 hotels in Asia.
The firm has sealed deals for two joint ventures to set up ‘Aloft’ hotels in China, each costing between $10 million and $15 million.

Starwood is reducing its investments in real estate and increasingly focusing on franchise agreements and management contracts.  According to its website in 2006 it sold 43 hotels for approximately $4.5 billion.

In China, the firm’s Sheraton brand is the most popular although the brand faces difficulties in the United States through uneven standards.

Rising wages, higher costs of living and a growing need for trained talent putting pressure on firm’s development plans.

Starwood plans to add 15,000 staff in Asia over the next three years — 98% to be hired locally — to add to the 36,000 staff already in the region.

Miguel Ko said, ‘I think the day when you needed a Caucasian man standing in the lobby as general manager to signal that it is an international style hotel is over.’
Source: The Guardian

True, it will not happen until the end of the year, but InterContinental Hotels will launch its 125th hotel in China by the end of 2008.

Peter Gowers, chief executive of IHG Asia Pacific said the group has already opened and run 107 hotels under the group’s various brands in China. And, as an international hotel group, IHG runs the most hotels in China.

Of all the hotel deals signed by international hotel operators, 47% of them are with IHG.

The group operates seven hotel brands, namely InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites.

It is all a remarkable story and perhaps more so because of its uneven start. InterContinental began in 1946 when Pan American Airways decided that there was a lack of quality hotels in many of its destinations. The first hotel, the Hotel Grande, opened that year in Belem, Brazil.

The company grew and grew and the marketing people decided it would be known as Inter.Continental and were most insistent about the full stop in the middle of the name.

Pan Am started to lose the plot about 1973 although its inflight service in first class — the dining room in the air — put, say, Emirate Airlines to shame. Sadly, often a flight would only have a dozen of so passengers. There was a story, probably an urban myth, that one flight, New York to Amsterdam, only had one passenger. And the airline lost his luggage.

The airline, to keep going, milked money from the hotel company. Eventually, to raise cash Pan Am sold the company even though every person in the hotel company — and the writer was involved with both companies at the time — said sell the airline and keep the hotels.

In 1991 Pan Am finally went down the gurgler while InterContinental Hotels pottered along dropping the full stop in its name on the way. Finally the company was purchased by Bass Hotels & Resorts of the United Kingdom (now InterContinental Hotels Group) in 1998 and became one of the largest and most successful hotel groups in the world. On the official site of InterContinental the Pan Am connection rates one sentence: InterContinental, another of our brands, was created by Pan Am in the 1940s, when hotels were built in many of Pan Am’s destinations. One sentence is probably all that Pan Am deserves.
Source: Hotels and research.

Luxury hotel management company, Kempinski, plans to manage the five star Kempinski Hotel Suzhou, at Suzhou — once thought of as the Venice of China and the illustration of the old town shows why. The hotel will be ready for operation by May 2008.

Jinji Lake Grand Hotel Management has invested RMB 1.2 billion into this project.

The hotel is located within a large estate which encompasses the 27-hole Jinji Lake International Golf Course, Jinji Lake Grand Hotel, a State Guest House of five villas and Dushu Lake.

The new 458 room hotel will include 80 suites, in six different styles. Kempinski Hotel Suzhou will be equipped with meeting facilities; wireless internet access; shopping outlets and a ballroom with a capacity of 1,500 persons giving it MICE capabilities.
Source: Hospitality Biz

More and more five-star hotels are being constructed in Beijing in a bid to open up before the Summer Olympics. The latest to announce its launch (scheduled for May 1st this year) is
The Westin Beijing, Chaoyang.

Part of a mixed-use complex along the Liangma River in the capital’s eastern embassy district of Chaoyang (the same district as where the Olympic Green will be), the hotel will have 565 rooms and suites, Heavenly Spa (The Westin’s own brand spa) and 1,100 square meters of function space including two ballrooms and 10 meeting rooms.

Pictured on the right is new General Manager, Daniel Aylmer, who has over 15 years’ experience in the hospitality industry, including three previous positions at Starwood hotels in China.
Source: PR The Westin Beijing, Chaoyang

The Pullman Sanya Yalong Bay hotel opened on February 3, 2008. It faces the South China Sea. The hotel opened on February 3 and has 77 rooms and 115 villas (all with private swimming pools) and 9 adaptable meeting rooms. The hotel can host more than 800 people on the occasion of congresses or seminars, in particular with its Pacific Grand Ballroom, which can accommodate up to 350 people. Which makes it, beyond doubt, a MICE hotel.

Pullman is a new Novotel brand and the aim is that by 2009, the Pullman chain will offer 59 hotels (15,600 rooms) in 23 countries covering Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and South America. ooking forward, Pullman plans to build a global network of 300 hotels by 2015, with new hotels being added at the rate of 25 per year.

CEO Gilles Pélisson said, ‘Pullman will be one of fastest-growing brands of the Accor Group, especially in the Asia- Pacific region. The brand will expand rapidly this year, particularly in China. In 2009, we plan to open 18 hotels in the Asia-Pacific region, with the ultimate aim of around 100 Pullman hotels here.’

Novotel sees Pullman as a perfect fit with the Group’s overall portfolio, because its market positioning is complementary to the other non-standard brands of Sofitel, Mercure and All Seasons.
Source: eBlackboard

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

In July Carlson Hotels will open a new Park Plaza hotel near one of Beijing’s Olympic venues. The hotel is located in northwest Beijing in the Haidian district, home to several universities and many high-tech start-ups.

Centrally located in this lively district will be the Park Park Beijing West on Chang An Boulevard. The 13-story hotel includes 300 guest rooms, each about 40 square meters, as well as a business center, gym, spa, banquet room and meeting rooms.

Carlson has doubled its presence in China in the last three years, and now manages nine hotels under the Regent, Radisson and Park Plaza brands.

A further six hotels are under development in addition to the Park Plaza Beijing West. Carlson has announced a partnership with top Chinese property developer Sunshine 100, which will see the portfolio more than double with hotels in cities such as Tianjin, Chongqing, Changsha, Shenyang, Yantai, Nanning, Liuzhou and Guilin.
Source: Asia Travel Tips

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

The Westin Beijing, Financial Street has been officially certified a five-star hotel by the China Tourist Hotel Star-Rating Committee. It has only been open a year and is the second Westin in mainland China (the other one is The Westin Bund Center, Shanghai).

GM Charlie Dang said, ‘ We are very happy to be certified as a five-star hotel just after one year of operation. We will continue our focus on guest experience, and present the unique Westin lifestyle in this enchanting capital.’

According to the hotel, this ‘lifestyle’ is provided through services such as its Heavenly Spa by Westin, Westin Heavenly Bed, Service Express, Westin Workout and Westin Kids Club.
Source: PR The Westin Beijing, Financial Street