THE ROOM REPORT IN BRIEF
• Grasshoppers Glasgow is a new penthouse boutique hotel in the historic Caledonian Chamber buildings, overlooking the Central Station. The Scandinavian-style rooms start from £70 a night, with breakfast, free wifi, and an LED TV with SKY HD, featuring sports and movie channels. Fresh evening meals and ready-made meals for late arrivers are available and the restaurant can be hired for meetings.
• THE Chancery Court Hotel, London,
formerly a Renaissance property, is now an independent hotel. Close to Covent Garden and The City, the five-star hotel has 356 rooms and suites and flexible meetings space fitting 435 theatre- style, plus a spa and restaurant. It is a member of Preferred Hotels.
• HOTEL Indigo Liverpool is now open in the city's commercial district. The InterContinental boutique brand hotel has design features based around local influences and features a Marco Pierre White Steakhouse and a gym and rates include an English breakfast and wifi. There are 151 rooms all with media hubs, LCD TVs and rainfall showers.
• LONDON Marriott Grosvenor Square has completed its £3.5million refurbishment. Out of the Mayfair hotel's 237 rooms, 130 now feature contemporary designs in line with its Gordon Ramsey Maze Restaurant.
• THE Montcalm London City at The Brewery had its soft opening this May. Formerly the site of the Whitbread Brewery, the five-star hotel has butler service, an executive club lounge, meeting and banqueting rooms for up to 100 guests and a restaurant from the team behind The Botanist. The 235- room hotel, with its wellness centre and gastropub, will open fully in September.
• HILTON is to open a new luxury business hotel and spa one mile from Heathrow Terminal Five this August. The 350-room hotel will have the capacity to entertain 1,170 delegates in a theatre arena, plus boardrooms and an executive lounge. Rooms feature wifi and generous work spaces. Restaurant Mr Todiwala’s Kitchen, is based on Todiwala's Café Spice Namasté.
• THE new joint venture from Marriott International and Spanish group AC Hotels – AC Hotels by Marriott – is launching with 15 per cent off room rates until January 2012 for reserv- ations made seven to 14 days in advance at any of the 85 rebranded hotels in Spain, Italy and Portugal.
• MELIA Hotels International is the new name for the former Spanish hospitality group Sol Melia, and marks the beginning of a its new global growth plan for 2012-2014.
THE full-service, upscale Double Tree brand has become Double Tree by Hilton in a move to strengthen the brand, make it more high profile among travellers and more attractive too as they will be able to earn HHonors points. In a tandem move, major expansion across Europe is now on the cards. “The ‘by Hilton’ endorsement
gives it an instant level of credibility,” says Rob Palleschi, global head of Double Tree by Hilton. The re-naming will be consistent globally across its 250 hotels in 20 countries, the bulk of which are in the US. Of the 38 Double Tree’s outside
the US, 20 of them are in Europe (eight in the UK) and Europe is the main thrust of its expansion plans, with 15 already in the pipeline for the region. “The UK and Europe is a combined priority for us,” says
Palleschi. “The UK target is to have 25 in the next three years and 50 across the whole region in the same period.“ Properties in London, Istanbul, Bratislava, Bucharest, Lincoln and across Turkey are opening this year. Double Trees compete with Marriotts and Sheratons in the main, vying for the road warriors with contemporary properties including restaurants, lounges, room service, health clubs, businesss centres and meeting space. The average global rate is US$120, rising in city centres. “We see the hotel experience
as a reward and each guest is welcomed with a chocolate chip cookie and that puts a smile on their face. Our care culture helps the harried traveller and it works as we have high repeat business,” says Palleschi.
A BUOYANT BOUTIQUE SECTOR
THE HOTEL market is becoming increasingly polarised, with large, corporate hotels on one side and boutique hotels – offering something interesting and different – on the other. That was the conclusion of HVS London director, Tim Smith, when speaking at the inaugural Boutique Hotel Summit in June, hosted by London's St Ermin's hotel. He conceded, however, that global hotel operators can successfully move into the boutique sector as long as they concentrate on delivering great design, good service and
individuality. Smith cited two London properties as examples: the Berners Hotel in the West End – which Marriott has bought as part of its Edition brand in a joint venture with Ian Schrager – and the Hotel Indigo in Paddington. ”It was previously an unbranded
hotel that many operators tried, and failed, to convert successfully. The boutique concept has lent itself to the building's various room sizes and split levels. It is now something extraordinary and is trading at a good average room rate. You would never know it was part of InterContinental.”
➔ Double growth
ACTE UPDATE
RON DILEO EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASSOCIATION OF CORPORATE TRAVEL EXECUTIVES (ACTE)
TRAVELLERS making their own choices to improve their life on the road is not new, but the difference today is just how easy it is as a result of new applications available with mobile technology. In the past, buyers and travel managers were able to block this sort of direct access in the interest of corporate policy, but no more is that the case. The walled gardens that were created as a result have ironically created a now coveted garden where travellers can see through the crystal walls and grab what they want. I’ve heard of buyers who champion IT initiatives working to block company mobile phones from having the ability to download travel apps that enable this type of behaviour, but that is a flawed approach – just take a look at the number of people who carry two mobile devices, a company one and a personal one. If the apps you carry make you the smartest person in the airport, then you don't want to miss out. And now that all of your favourite suppliers can conveniently reach the wallet of business travellers, this brings about a whole new service boulevard of choice that connects revenue “premiumisation” with the person willing to pay. As a result, I believe we will see suppliers shift their focus away from competing as a commodity and focus more on their ability to compete on service. This does not mean that corporate discount programmes will go away. In fact, as ancillary revenue from travellers increases toward critical mass, it allows suppliers to provide an even more competitive unbundled price – one which will be necessary in order to align preferred suppliers and their loyal customers that are part of each corporate programme. Meanwhile, if service improves,
then so does a business traveller’s quality of life, the profitability of our industry strengthens, and buyers aren’t left picking up the tab. For years buyers have been saying
they only want to pay for what they feel is necessary, which has driven the industry to the unbundled nature of today. We have now achieved that end and have actually achieved another travel industry perfect storm, but this time it's in a good way.
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