As mentioned in a previous post on March 20, Swissôtel Grand, Shanghai will open to the public later this month. It is offering a special rate on its ‘Classic Rooms’. If you book between May and August 2008, a one-night stay is RMB 1,295 (about US$178) inc. breakfast + tax and service charge.

Other deals include 20% discounts on food, bevs and spa treatments for members of the “Miles and More” program of Lufthansa and Swiss International Air Lines. And there are also benefits for those who belong to Asia Miles, Air China, Jet Airways and JAL. 
Source: Swissôtel Grand, Shanghai

In aid of this year’s ‘World Earth Day’ on April 22, Mandara Spa at JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai will donate US$1 from each spa treatment to the Arbor Day Foundation. This is a non-profit US-based organization of nearly one million members that plants and promotes the conservation of trees. Mandara Spas worldwide are making similar efforts to support this cause.

Marriott International has recently signed an agreement with the State of Amazonas in Brazil to fund US$2 million to an environmental management plan to be carried out by the Amazonas Sustainable Foundation. Guests at Marriott hotels will be able to contribute to this fund by the end of the year.
Source: JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai

URBN hotels are for environmentally conscious visitors. From the building’s design and materials to cleaning products to energy-efficiency, URBN hotels are eco-friendly.

The first, which is in Shanghai in Jiao Zhou Road is a 28-room full-service hotel.

The building design used an existing structure and locally sourced materials such as reclaimed hardwoods and old Shanghai bricks. Passive solar shades, rain water retention basins and water-based air conditioning have been used to decrease the hotel’s environmental impact. Low-VOC paints were used and interiors are cleaned with environmentally sensitive products.

What carbon emissions the hotel does produce — such as staff travel, stock deliveries and the energy consumed by each guest — will be tracked and offset by investing in clean energy development and energy efficiency projects elsewhere in China.

Guests can also buy international standard carbon credits from the hotel to offset their flights.

Over the next three years, 20 URBN hotels and resorts are set to open in Beijing, Hangzhou, Dalian, and Suzhou, containing up to 70 rooms each.
Source: Inhabitat.com

While it may be a problem for some guests with leanings towards claustrophia the perhaps soon to be built Songjiang hotel is an amazing innovative design. It is a 400-bed, five-star resort hotel set in a deep quarry in the Songjiang district of China and within easy distance of Shanghai.

Bristol based Atkins Design Studio designed the hotel and said it was inspired by the water and landscape features of the quarry it is to be set in.

The structure’s foundation will be laid into the 100 metre deep quarry and rise two levels higher than the rock face of the quarry. This will enable it to have several underwater public areas, restaurants and guest rooms facing a ten-meter deep aquarium.

When and if completed (nothing seems to be firmly set as yet) it should be totally astounding. Note that we have mentioned this hotel before and will continue to mention it until it becomes a reality. It is a fascinating idea.
Source: Journal de l’Atelier d’Architecture

International Branded Hotels Shanghai (IBHS) has donated RMB225,000 (around US$32,000) to the Shanghai Charity Foundation. The cheque was presented by William Hall, Chairman of IBHS, (on the left of the photo) at the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University on March 21. The money will be used to help children with congenital heart disease who are treated at the hospital.

IBHS currently has 60 members which are all four- and five-star hotels in Shanghai. William Hall said the hotels work with various charities individually or under a group banner. IBHS plans to hold several fundraising events in 2008; the major one being the Annual Charity Golf Tournament in June which will run for its fifth year in a row.
Source: IBHS

The Jumeirah Hotel Group has announced that it will open its first hotel in Shanghai this August and plans to expand to about five hotels in China over the next years. This first hotel in China will be called the Jumeirah HanTang Xintiandi and is located in the Xintiandi area and has over 300 guestrooms.

Meanwhile, more than 350 employees who were recruited in China have finished their training in the group’s Dubai hotel.

David Loiseau, vice president sales & marketing — Asia Pacific said that Jumeirah’s hotel will be priced 15-20% higher than other luxury hotels’ rates around China. Known locations will be Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

The Jumeirah Hotel Group runs the Burj Al Arab in Dubai which is arguably one of the most luxurious or most ostentatious hotels in the world, depending on your point of view.

Jumeirah, which was founded in 1997, said it plans to boost its China portfolio to five by 2011.

At the same time Tricia Warwick, Jumeirah VP Sales, said in Gulf News, ‘We are looking all over Asia for new developments but China is a key market. Two-thirds of our 16 hotels in Asia will be in China.’ Divide 16 by 3 and multiply by 2 and you get more than 10. Possibly the extra ones will be after 2011.
Source: Shanghai Daily

Jinling Hotels & Resorts has signed an alliance with Regal Hotels International and agreed to cooperate in a number of different areas including F&B, training and corporate culture. 

Jinling’s President Frank Hou said, ‘Expanding hotel chain properties, increasing brand name recognition, making full use of shared resources and forming cooperation that hold value are the ideal ways for Chinese hotels to succeed’. 

Regal Hotels International (RHI) is a Hong Kong-based hotel chain where it currently has five properties. In the mainland it operates Regal International East Asia Hotel and Regal Shanghai East Asia Hotel. (Two different properties but both in Shanghai).
Source: Jinling Hotels & Resorts

In England the Daily Telegraph reports The Bund, Shanghai’s much-photographed historic waterfront, is to get a radical face-lift.

The 100-year-old Waibaidu steel bridge across Suzhou Creek is to be removed, renovated and then replaced.

The city’s government has begun a £280 million scheme to divert the motorway that separates the Bund’s neo-classical buildings from the Huangpu river into a tunnel, and demolish the flyover that disfigures the view.

The government wants the work finished by the time Shanghai hosts the 2010 World Expo.

Thirty of the buildings have protected status, while the renovation of the bridge will turn attention to the Astor House Hotel and Shanghai Mansions, Art Deco haunts of the city’s pre-war glitterati.

It is that last sentence that attracts the attention. The Astor House Hotel is one of the city’s neglected treasures and a fair bet will be that it will be restored to it former glory and, sadly, the prices will zoom up to reflect this. A price worth paying for the Astor is part of the history of Shanghai. Consider:

It was the first modern hotel in China’s history, which hosted many celebrities from all over the world.
The hotel lit the first electric lamps in China on July 26, 1882.
In the same year, 1882, came the earliest performances of the circuses from Western countries.
In 1901 the first phone call was made from the Astor.
The first Yellow Pages in the city listed the number of the Astor House Hotel ‘200,’ the first phone used in Shanghai.
On November 5, 1897, a grand dancing party was held in the hotel to celebrate the 60th birthday of the Dowager Empress Cixi.
In December 19, 1990, the first stock exchange in China after 1949 was started at the hotel.

And the guest list is just as remarkable. In 1897, former American President Ulysses S. Grant. In 1920, English philosopher Bertrand Russell. In 1922, Alfred Einstein. 1931 and 1936, Charlie Chaplin.

It was originally called the Richard Hotel, after the American sea captain of the same name who was its first owner.

In 1860, the hotel was sold to Henry Smith, who changed the name to the Astor House Hotel.

1927, an eight-year-old girl named Peggy Hookham came to live at the Astor House with her family. Hookham’s father was the chief engineer for British American Tobacco and while she was here, the little girl continued her ballet lessons, studying with the Russian teacher George Goncharev. She later became Margot Fonteyn.

In 1923, the Astor House Hotel and other Shanghai hotels (including the Palace Hotel) were acquired by Hong Kong Hotels Ltd, making them Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd.

Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels were owned by the Kadoories, a Sephardic Jewish family that grew to become one of Shanghai’s wealthiest. And went on to open other stylish hotels including the Peninsula in Hong Kong.

The Astor Hotel is crying out to be restored to its former glory. It must happen. And before 2010 when the world arrives for Expo 2010.
Source: Pujang Hotel and a lot of research

In Shanghai, Hyatt on the Bund and Grand Hyatt Shanghai will be joined by the new Park Hyatt Shanghai opening in July.

In Beijing, host city for the Olympics, Grand Hyatt Beijing will welcome the July arrival of the Park Hyatt Beijing. This marks the Park Hyatt brand’s arrival in China.
In April 2008, Grand Hyatt Guangzhou opens.
By 2010, Hyatt will have added nine additional properties in Greater China to significantly expand its regional portfolio.

Shanghai is home to three Hyatt properties. Hyatt on the Bund (a Grand Hyatt hotel), located in the Puxi District to the west of the Huang Pu River. Designed by U.S.-based firm Remedios Siembieda.

In the center of Pudong the Grand Hyatt Shanghai (seen in our illustration) occupies floors 53 through 87 of the Jin Mao Tower. All 555 rooms offer views from what is currently the highest hotel in the world.

The soon-to-open Park Hyatt Shanghai is located a stone’s throw away from the Grand Hyatt Shanghai on floors 79 through 93 of the 101-story Shanghai World Financial Centre.

This will take over from the Grand Hyatt as the highest hotel in the world when it opens in July of this year.

In Beijing there are two Hyatt, both on Chang An Avenue. Grand Hyatt Beijing is in the Oriental Plaza .
A ten-minute drive away, Park Hyatt Beijing will be open and ready for the Summer Olympics. Occupying the top floors of a 66-story tower in the Beijing Yintai Centre, the city’s first Park Hyatt will also be its highest hotel.

Over the next three years, Hyatt will continue to grow its regional network of distinct Hyatt brands with opening three additional Grand Hyatt properties (Grand Hyatt Guangzhou, April 2008 and Grand Hyatt Macau and Grand Hyatt Shenzhen in 2009) and Park Hyatt Ningbo Resort & Spa (2009).

Hyatt’s core Regency brand will significantly expand throughout the region with Hyatt Regency Beijing (2009), Hyatt Regency Nanjing (2009), Hyatt Regency Suzhou (2009), the new Hyatt Regency Hong Kong (2009) and Hyatt Regency Chengdu (2010).
Source: BusinessWire

Rendezvous Hotels & Resorts International will manage a new hotel to be built in Shanghai. The 4 star, two hundred room hotel, to be opened under Rendezvous’ The Marque Collection of Hotels brand, will be named the Marque Hotel Yu Garden, Shanghai and is due to open in mid-2009.

This is the second property to be announced under the Marque brand in China, after the Marque Hotel, Guilin, which will open later this year. The new hotel will complement Rendezvous’ existing property, Rendezvous Merry Hotel, Shanghai which has operated successfully since 2004.

The developers are Shanghai Sin Tat Lee Property Development. It will incorporate the Marque Hotel Yu Garden, Shanghai into a 17 storey, multi-use complex with threeapartment buildings and a shopping mall on the podium levels.

Centrally located on He Nan Road South, just a few hundred meters away from the famous Yu Gardens and 1.5 km from the Bund Area, the hotel is close to Shanghai’s CBD. Hotel facilities will include a café, lobby bar and conference rooms.

A gym, out-door swimming pool and other leisure facilities will be located in a Club House on levels 6 and 7 of the hotel building. The illustration is of the Marque in Sydney which shows that there is a solid, basic standard which is very affordable.
Source: eTravelBlackboard