Hotels & resorts

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Flybe to sell hotel rooms with HRS

Banderas and Iberostar President Don Miguel Fluxa

Iberostar seeks Banderas boost

HOLLYWOOD HEARTTHROB Antonio Banderas has teamed up with Iberostar to boost the hotel chain’s luxury image and help renew confidence in Mexico, where it has eight properties. TheMask of Zorro star visited the five-star

Grand Hotel Paraiso, Riviera Maya, last week for the launch of a three-year partnership with the brand.

It starts with a series of television ads, to be

aired in Spain and the US before appearing in the UK, that see Banderas galloping a black stallion along the Paraiso beach on the whim of an Iberostar guest. Banderas said: “People are feeling insecure following the swine flu here, but not everything is as the media have reported. People should not be scared to come, this is the message we want to convey and Iberostar is taking the bull by the horns.”

He told TTG: “I spend almost half my life, or

more, in hotels. Mexico has a very special place in my heart, I have spent over three years here filming. The time will come when I can come for a vacation.” The Grand Hotel Paraiso, which is the flagship for Iberostar’s adult-only all-suite brand and central to the new TV, print, and billboard campaign, saw occupancy drop to 20% during the swine flu crisis. Occupancy has improved dramatically since then but the economic downturn has meant cheaper hotels in the chain are performing better. Iberostar is also starting a ¤50 million renova- tion of its Spanish properties and looking to launch a boutique brand in Buenos Aires next year.

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16.04.2010

Sophie Griffiths.

HOTEL BOOKING service HRS.com is aiming to sign up more UK airlines to offer a “seamless” way of booking rooms through their websites that it claims will not fall under Atol regulations. The first UK carrier to sign up is Flybe, which has set up flybehotels.com with HRS to allow agents and customers to book up to 250,000 properties through the airline’s site. Jon West, HRS.com director of UK & Ireland, said the firm was also in talks with other UK airlines, following deals with Lufthansa and Germanwings. “There are no definite names at the moment,” he said. “But we have had conversations with other British airlines. We just have to wait for the current contracts which the airlines have with other hotel operators to run their courses.” The CAA’s consultation paper on Atol reform

included plans to bring click-throughs from air- line websites under the scope of the regulation. But West said a key selling point of the system was that Flybe and other UK carriers would not need Atol protection because the hotel stay would be booked as a separate transaction. Another reason for the exemption would be that customers only paid for their stay when they left the hotel, meaning the transaction would not be completed until they left. West added that this was a key selling point in

attracting other airlines. “This will appeal to other British airlines. Atol protection is not needed because guests are able to cancel on arrival, so the full transaction of a hotel stay is not complete until departure.” To celebrate the launch, every 10th person who books a hotel stay for May 2010 before the end of April, will be awarded with £50 cashback.

India set for role in Hyatt masterplan

HYATT HOTELS is planning to expand into 15 new Indian destinations in the next five years, saying the country will be “one of the greatest hotel markets” for the next decade.

The new destinations will include Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune, and it will open more properties in Delhi, Goa, Kolkata and Mum- bai, where it already has a presence. Hyatt Regency Pune, Hyatt Regency Chennai,

and Grand Hyatt Goa will open this year, and the chain will also open a Hyatt Place in India, the first of the brand to be opened outside the US.

“India represents one of the greatest hotel

markets over the next decade – one that will play a key role in driving Hyatt’s long-term growth,” said Hyatt chief executive Mark Hoplamazian. About 25% of Hyatt’s worldwide expansion of 120 properties is earmarked for India. Of three properties due to open this year, those in Chennai and Pune will be aimed mainly at business travellers but the Grand Hyatt Goa will target the leisure market. The 314-room hotel will be part of Aldeia de Goa, a high-end resort overlooking the Zuari River a few miles before it encounters the Ara- bian Sea.

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