Lebua pampers women travellers

BANGKOK, 23 May 2013: Tower Club at Lebua offers a “Girl Getaway” package to serve women travellers’ requirements.

The package sells at US$799++ for double occupancy, from now until 31 October,  including privileges. Apart from the “special bathroom amenities for women travellers, most of the other features in the package could just as easily be applied to male travellers.”

The hotel identifies some of the features as free, however, as they are  integral features of the US$799 package they are more accurately described as services covered in the price.

Read more

Vietnamese Island lacks hotels

KIEN GIANG, 21 May 2013: An island destination near the Mekong River delta, Phu Quoc, needs more hotel rooms and better airline connectivity from neighbouring countries.

Kien Giang Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism director, Le Minh Hoang, told the local media that due to the growth in tourism, Phu Quoc Island needed around 3,000 new hotel rooms over the next two to three years to meet increasing demand.

Phu Quoc Island welcomed around 38,000 tourists per month at the start of the year, but the monthly visits are now 70,000. The island has approximately 2,900 rooms, with only 600 rooms that are star ratings.

Read more

Centara tops atoll pack

Bangkok, 17 May 2013: Centara Ras Fushi Resort & Spa Maldives, which opened 15 April, gained the number one ranking from TripAdvisor out of a total 31 resort hotels in North Male Atoll.

The adult-focused resort has gained most of its reviews from couples, and averaged four-and-a-half stars out of five.

“For a resort to have been open for only six weeks, and to have already hit the top spot among all the other resorts in North Male Atoll, is amazing,” says Centara Hotels & Resorts senior vice president for sales and marketing Chris Bailey.

Read more

Centara upgrades Grand website

BANGKOK, 10 May 2013: Centara Hotels & Resorts has completed a revamp of its five-star Centara Grand brand website that offers easier navigation and quick access to view 360º tours and HD Video showcasing the products of each property.

Centara also released recently an app for users of Android phones and will shortly release an app for iPhones, ensuring that the site can be browsed easily be  most smartphone users.

“Our portfolio of Centara Grand hotels and resorts is growing quickly, and we felt this was the moment to create a section of our corporate website that reflects the five-star image and the extremely high quality of the individual properties, while also giving them a distinct presence within our selection of seven brands” says, Centara Hotels & Resorts senior vice president for sales and marketing, Chris Bailey.

Read more

Onyx adds Bali footprint

BANGKOK, 8 May 2013: ONYX Hospitality Group has will manage a 435-room property on the Indonesian island of Bali, its first Amari venture in Indonesia.

Amari Pecatu is a joint venture between STA Group Property Division and PR Bali Pecatu Graha, due to open in 2015.

Located on the southern peninsula of Bali, Pecatu is well-known for its surfing and secluded beaches.

Read more

Bureaucracy slows hotel openings

YANGON, 3 May 2013: Delays in granting hotels operating permits causes operational headaches and adds to administration costs for hoteliers opening properties in Myanmar.

Hoteliers say there are properties that can welcome tourists, but are still waiting for approval and essential documents from government departments to allow them to open. It was cited as one key factor that has caused supply to lag behind demand.

Local media claimed, earlier this week, that one hotel owner has been waiting a year for a permit in Bagan where there is critical shortage of rooms.

Read more

Marriott pipeline expands

NEW YORK, 2 May 2013: Marriott International Inc reported first quarter income of US$136 million, a 31% increase compared to first quarter 2012 net income.

Diluted earnings per share (EPS) totalled US$0.43, a 43% increase from diluted EPS in the year-ago quarter, the hotel group reported to the New York stock exchange.

Marriott International CEO and president, Arne M. Sorenson said: “Our business has seen dramatic recovery in the past few years. In fact, in the first quarter of 2013, we exceeded peak 2007 levels for fee revenue and North American system-wide REVPAR.

Read more

Forbes ranks Euro hotels

LONDON, 25 April 25, 2013 Forbes Travel Guides has expanded its star rating programme into Europe starting with 31 Hotels and Spas in London.

Forbes Travel Guide said in its announcement, Thursday, it was bringing its star rating programme to central London’s top hotels and spas.

Six hotels and two hotel spas have been awarded the Forbes Travel Guide five-star rating. These properties join a group of 76 hotels and 35 spas across North America and Asia that have achieved the Forbes Travel Guide five-star status.

Read more

Head of Accor sacked

PARIS, 24 April 2013: The chairman and chief executive of French hotel group Accor has been sacked by the company’s board and replaced by a trio of executives, the company said on Tuesday.

In a statement after an emergency board meeting, Accor said board members had taken note of reservations by Denis Hennequin on company strategy and “had thus unanimously put an end to his mandate effective 23 April, 2013.”

The board of Accor — Europe’s biggest hotel group and owner of chains Ibis, Mercure and Sofitel — is dominated by private equity groups Colony Capital and Eurozeo which have grown increasingly dissatisfied with Hennequin, a celebrated French executive hired away from Mc Donalds Europe two years ago.

Read more

Accor sales slip in southern Europe

PARIS, 23 April 2013: A worsening economic climate, particularly in southern Europe, helped push down first quarter sales by French hotel group Accor by 1.2% from the same period last year to 1.2 billion euros (US$1.6 billion), the company reported last week.

“First-quarter 2013 trends – contrasted conditions in Europe and satisfactory business levels in the emerging markets – are expected to continue in the second quarter, given the lack of any observable shift in business at this stage,” said Accor.

Upscale hotels posted solid performances with firm demand in key European cities and emerging markets.

Read more

Next Page »