CBRE Hotels are delighted to announce that they have been
chosen by King's Cross Central as advisers and agents for the Great
Northern Hotel at the development. CBRE Hotels have been
instructed to select a developer/operator/tenant on a long leasehold
basis for the historic Great Northern Hotel, which has circa 90
bedrooms. Built in 1855, this is the oldest purpose built hotel in
central London and is located in the new Piazza to be created between
King's Cross and St Pancras International Stations. Commenting on the
development, Chris Rouse, Senior Director, CBRE Hotels said: "With
Eurostar connections to Europe, National Express services throughout
the UK and the Northern, Victoria, Hammersmith and City, Piccadilly,
Metropolitan and Circle underground lines this hotel will be the "best
connected" in the UK." Roger Madelin of King's Cross
Central said: "The Great Northern Hotel is a fantastic opportunity.
With CBRE on board we are confident that we will find an operator who
will make the most out of this unique location and complement the other
first class occupiers we have signed up at King's Cross Central. " Renovation
works are currently underway to the external and basement level of the
hotel which are anticipated to complete in the final quarter of 2009.
It is proposed that the operator will be on site by mid to late 2010 in
order to undertake the refurbishment and renovation. The Great Northern
Hotel is expected to begin trading pre-Olympics in 2012.
Adding
to an already inspiring number of accolades, T'ang Court at The
Langham, Hong Kong has been awarded a coveted Two Michelin Stars. The
Michelin Guide results have been widely speculated upon in the local
media for weeks, as this is the first time not only that The Michelin
Guide has awarded stars for a Cantonese Restaurant, but that it has
published a Hong Kong Guide. Historically the Michelin Guide judges an
establishment based not just on one visit, but their famed inspectors
will visit a restaurant again and again in order to establish that it
is consistently excellent, and deserved of its famed star ratings.
Commenting on T'ang Court's award, hotel Managing Director Katie Benson
said "We are truly delighted with this award, as we believe that this
win highlights T'ang Court's total commitment to excellence, and it
accentuates the loyalty of our team of chefs and service staff in
ensuring authentic Cantonese cuisine and outstanding service. I am
very proud of our team and their ongoing dedication to providing
memorable dining experiences."
GAYOT.com,
which has converted the content of its famous award-winning hotel
guides into a comprehensive and complimentary online hotel database, is
pleased to announce the release of its Annual Hotel Issue for 2008.
In preparation for the publication, the professionals who write for
GAYOT.com visited and revisited thousands of hotels to update their
ratings and informative reviews. Readers looking to stretch their
travel budgets will enjoy the Top 10 Value Hotels in the U.S., as well
as methods for securing the best deals on hotels throughout the world.
For the first time, GAYOT.com names the Sexiest Hotels across the
country. The highly-anticipated issue also features the Top 10 New
Hotels in the U.S., and spans the globe for the Top 10 Remote Hotels
worldwide. Because GAYOT.com also contains thousands of restaurant
reviews, the culinary experts include their selections of the country's
Top 10 Hotel Restaurants. The newsletter also details the
most-important travel trends, such as hotel spas growing larger and
more lavish despite trying economic times. Readers are encouraged to
submit their comments and suggestions in the GAYOT.com online
Community, and now can post their own reviews for every hotel on the
site.
Pan
Pacific Singapore has appointed Frederic Jenni as Hotel Manager with
effect from 1 December 2008. He will support General Manager Ivan Lee
in driving the success of the hotel. A hotelier since 1991,
Frederic has held key positions in hotel groups including
Orient-Express Hotels, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and
Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts. Prior to this appointment, he
was General Manager at Hotel Le Germain in Toronto Canada. Since
graduating from the E.H.L. Hotel School of Lausanne in Switzerland,
Frederic has garnered a wealth of experience in countries such as
Switzerland, South Africa, Sultanate of Oman and Canada.
An
upscale Marriott-branded hotel is planned to open in Xi'an, China, in
2011 under a long-term management agreement reached between Marriott
International and Shaanxi Chang'An Construction & Investment
Development Co., Ltd. When opened, the 315-room Xi'an
Marriott Hotel will be part of the Chang'An Metropolis Center on
Nanguan Zhengjie, near the South Ancient City Gate in Xi'an's central
business district and within easy reach of major historical sites and
entertainment areas. Xi'an's hi-tech zone is about a 15-minute drive
away.
Best Western International, the World's
Largest Hotel Chain®, with more than 4,200 hotels around the globe,
announces the development of its Best Western Premier Hotel in Padang,
Indonesia. This new development will be marked with a
"topping off" ceremony in December which will be organized by Pt Bangun
Wahana Indah Indonesia, area development office of Best Western
International in Indonesia. Best Western Premier Padang, scheduled to
open in 2009, is designed to cater to the international business
upscale travelers.
Booking.com,
Europe's largest and fastest growing online hotel reservation service,
announced today the opening of new offices in Sydney, Moscow and
Orlando. The openings raise the number of Booking.com
worldwide offices to 24. Sydney is Booking.com's second office in the
Asia/Pacific region, while Moscow is the company's second office in
Eastern Europe. Booking.com now has three offices in the U.S.
Booking.com is part of priceline.com. Earlier this year, priceline.com
announced that it had opened a 24/7 customer care call centre in the
Grand Rapids area to support customers making their online hotel
reservations through Booking.com. The customer support centre
provides customers with telephone support in 4 languages and answers
e-mail inquiries in 21 languages. Regional Booking.com offices maintain
relationships and provide support for local hotel partners wishing to
access Booking.com's network of customers, distribution partners and
advertising channels. Booking.com is experiencing increased demand from
international website visitors making trips to Australia and New
Zealand. In addition, independent and chain hotels in the respective
regions are increasingly seeking to market their properties
internationally to Booking.com's global customer audience developed
from online marketing and website translations. "We believe that these
new regions will support the future growth of our company. By setting
up these offices, we can better focus on providing a localised service
and personalised account management," comments Gillian Tans, Director
Hotels of Booking.com, who is also responsible for the hotel portal's
worldwide operations. "In addition, it emphasises our commitment and
dedication to expanding our business model in these countries."
It's official. Online is where it's at for those targeting budget travellers in 2009. That's
the advice from Australia and New Zealand's premier backpacker hostel
network, BASE, who have put their money where their mouth is to invest
in an innovative new booking platform launched this week. Base
General Manager of Sales & Marketing Thomas Clark says the
consumer-direct online booking mechanism – available through
stayatbase.com – is a major innovation for both the
backpacker and travel industry."Now more than ever, particularly given
the current economic climate, budget travel options and online bookings
are where it's at for savvy travellers," says Mr Clark. "This
new booking platform sets a new standard that will meet the diverse
needs of budget travellers and backpackers worldwide – from spur of the
moment last minute deal seekers to more conservative holiday ‘planners'
seeking year round enquiries and reservations." Base
has developed its new booking engine around one simple philosophy -
simplicity – with well-thought out functionality aspects allowing for a
seamless and memorable online booking experience.
DOCOMO
interTouch (http://www.docomointertouch.com), one of the world's
largest technology providers for the hospitality industry, today
announced the availability of Singapore's first digital concierge or
‘DC2Go' across over 17 hotel partners within the country. Created
in partnership with Singapore-based Cellcity, the state-of-the-art
application will allow hotel guests to access important local
information such as entertainment, dining, essential amenities and even
flight status, on a single web-based platform. At the same time, one of
the unique qualities of this latest offering also enables them to
search for tourism, hospitality and retail outlets that lie within the
proximity of their hotels. Unveiled at this year's CommunicAsia, the
region's largest international technology tradeshow, DC2Go was launched
as a prototype application, following a year-long pilot programme with
the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) and Singapore Tourism Board
(STB). The city guide is intended to provide an information service for
every individual as well as a marketing platform for merchants to fuel
the growth of the tourism, hospitality and retail sectors in Singapore.
Charles Reed, CEO of DOCOMO interTouch said: "Since its inception in
June 2008, we have seen the vast potential of Cellcity's highly
successful, DC2Go. We are confident that this advanced technology
application will be well received by our hotel customers. DC2Go will
enhance the guest experience in terms of being connected and
convenience of travelling around the city." "We are honoured to be
working with one of the world's leading firms in the hospitality
technology space. With this partnership, our coverage will be extended
to all the major hotels in Singapore and we hope that this homegrown
product will gain traction amongst properties around Asia Pacific
during the next 12 months and eventually reach a global scale," said
Dannie Francis, CEO of Cellcity. Besides being broadcasted on web-based
hotel guest portals, DOCOMO interTouch also aims to extend the outreach
of DC2Go where the application will also be available on interactive
television and Internet protocol (IP) platforms. "As
Cellcity expands across the region and develops rich content for major
cities, we hope to be able to provide the application to all our hotel
customers. We hope to continue to offer such value-added services that
will give our hotel partners a competitive edge and upgrade their
technology infrastructure," said Reed.
