THE ROOM REPORT ➔ Big Apple boost for Starwood
25 per cent of the new hotel rooms coming online in the city this year and follow the opening this summer of the Sheraton Brooklyn. This year’s openings will mean Starwood has more hotels in New York than any other city in the world. Starwood's new additions include a fifth W Hotel in the city – its 35th worldwide – as well as the Four Points by Sheraton Long Island City, the Sheraton Tribeca and, ushering in new brands to the city, the Aloft hotels in Harlem and Brooklyn, and the Element hotel in Times Square. The two select service brands
STARWOOD Hotels is set to open six new properties across New York City by the end of the year, increasing its offering in the Big Apple by 50 per cent and adding over 1,700 rooms. The group currently operates
12 hotels in the city across six of the nine Starwood hotel brands, but the new properties will
BIG SPENDING TRAVELODGE
TRAVELODGE has acquired the leases to 52 Innkeepers Lodges from pub operator Mitchells & Butlers, a move that will add nearly 2,000 rooms to its inventory. The budget hotel chain’s portfolio will subsequently rise to 452 hotels and 30,500 rooms across the UK, Ireland and Spain. Travelodge claims it is the biggest transaction in the hotel sector since 2008 and that it will embark on a £10million investment programme to bring the properties in line with the Travelodge brand. The group's executive chairman, Grant Hearn, says, “We have an aggressive growth plan in place and with this acquisition we are on track to more than double the size of Travelodge hotels over the next ten years.
include the debut of the group's two newest brands – Aloft and Element – in Manhattan. The openings put Starwood well on track to open more than 80 hotels in key destinations around the world this year. The new properties in Manhattan,
as well as others in Long Island City and Brooklyn, will represent
were launched in 2008 and by the end of the year will have a combined portfolio of nearly 60 hotel properties worldwide. The Aloft brand makes its debut in Europe this winter with a property in Brussels, and is due to arrive in the UK in 2012 when the Aloft London ExCel opens ahead of the Olympic Games in the Docklands area of the capital city.
SHANGRI-LA TO OPEN IN PARIS
PARTNERSHIPS are the lynchpin of the business travel industry: partnerships between buyers, suppliers, TMCs and travellers. At ACTE, our sponsors are critical partners for us and, regardless of their commitment level, each and every one of them is essential to our success. Without their support we would be unable to provide the level of education and networking for which we are known. Similarly, members are the heart
and soul of ACTE. They are the people on whom we rely to share their experiences, their struggles, solutions and their ideas about where we have been, where we are and where we are going as an industry. Critically, each ACTE event is enriched through the people who attend them. Delegates are made up of our sponsors, members, non- members, press representatives, and association colleagues. Together they are what make ACTE events the best places to learn and network in the global business travel industry. As ACTE's board director, I have
had the opportunity to get to know many of our partners but as with all industries, times are changing and so are our partners. As business travel veterans retire or pursue other career paths, a younger generation is stepping in to fill the void – a generation brought up on personal computers and mobile phones. This is a generation that is more connected to their peers and the world than ever before. So, as our partners’ needs change,
SHANGRI-LA is to open its first hotel in Europe this December after acquiring the 110-year-old palais of Prince Roland Bonaparte in Paris. Located on Avenue d’Lena, near
the Trocadero, the Bonaparte family mansion is in Paris’ prestigious 16th arrondissement and offers impressive views of the River Seine and the Eiffel Tower. The new hotel will feature 81 deluxe rooms and suites, two restaurants and meetings facilities in the form of the Grand Salon, Petit Salon and Salon Bleu. There will also be a ballroom, library, indoor
pool, spa and business lounge. Following hot on its heels is the 207-room Shangri-La Hotel Vienna, due to open in February next year. The hotel will be located in the former Erste Bank head-quarters on the Schubertring, in the city's 1st district (Bezirk). Further afield, the Shangri-La Hotel Mumbai will open in the second quarter of 2011, becoming the second Shangri-La property in India. The 410-room hotel is located in the heart of the city within the Lower Parel area, now one of the city's most sought-after areas.
so does ACTE's education programme – which is exactly what is happening – and ACTE's Global Education Conference in Berlin this October will feature a keynote presentation from Fabio Sergio, executive creative director at one of the world's premier innovation firms, frog design. He will discuss how design is being used not just for aesthetic reasons, but to actually solve the problems impacting our industry and the world. Change is happening and while some may fear it, we welcome it. Other forthcoming ACTE events include two London education forums, on September 14 and December 2. See:
www.acte.org.
ACTE UPDATE
BRIAN DONNELLY ACTE BOARD DIRECTOR
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