Hotels & resorts For the latest accommodation news, visit
ttglive.com/hotels
Fairmont Gold to addbutlerservice
FAIRMONT GOLD is rolling out a butler service in all hotels which include Fairmont Gold rooms. The luxury brand, described as “a hotel within a hotel”, is a level of rooms offering guests a pampering experience with personal attention. Rooms usually cost $150 on top of the usual
Fairmont price, and are available in 30 Fairmont properties, including Abu Dhabi and Nile City. Corporate Fairmont Gold manager Clarence
McLeod said the butler service would be brought into properties in Canada, America and Bermuda. He added that India was the company’s next focus, with hotels opening in Jaipur and Hyderabad next year. Both will include Fairmont Gold floors, as will new hotels in Kiev, Baku and Manila in 2011. McLeod said the recession had not curbed
expansion plans, with the company also looking at Monte Carlo. “People’s tastes remain the same, and we have focused on meeting those tastes,” he said. “Who doesn’t want to be pampered?”
In brief
■ Sheraton Heathrow adds anti-jet-lag menu The Sheraton Heathrow Hotel has launched a new menu to help travellers overcome jet-lag. Featuring easy-to-digest, high fibre and low-fat room service food, it was devised by the executive head chef. Dishes include pan-fried sea bream and grilled prawns, grilled rib-eye steak, smoky garden salad and spring rolls.
■ Red Sea hotel offers free night – if it rains A new “Rain Refund” scheme from Kempinski Hotel Soma Bay on the Red Sea in Egypt prom- ises that guests will receive a complimentary night’s stay if it rains while they are there.
■ Hyatt brings in rooms for allergy sufferers Hyatt Hotels and Resorts has introduced hypoallergenic rooms at all of its full service properties in the US, Canada and the Caribbean. The rooms are designed for all travellers, but are especially suited to guests with asthma, allergies and other respiratory sensitivities.
ttglive.com
For the very latest hotels and resort news, visit
ttglive.com/hotels
20 29.10.2010
Accor plans daily hotel openings
Sophie Griffiths. HOTEL GIANT Accor is planning a mass expansion that will see it open almost one hotel every day over the next four years. Speaking exclusively to TTG, Jean-Jacques Dessors, chief operating officer for UK and Ireland, said Accor hoped the expansion would establish the group as Europe’s leading franchise and as one of the world’s three leading hotel operators. The group hopes to create 35,000 to 40,000
new rooms a year between now and 2015, which Dessors said equated to around 300 hotels a year, from the firm’s luxury brands such as Sofitel to its budget Etap hotels. He added that the group was particularly focussing on India, China and Brazil. “We are looking everywhere,” he said. “We
have enough brands to comply with all the regions, but a lot of expansion will take place in emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil.” He said the economic downturn had aided
Accor’s expansion plans as it had reminded companies of the group’s cheaper brands. “When we talked to companies after the downturn, some of them would say: ‘The Novotel price is too much, could you offer a budget brand?’
“The downturn helped reaffirm the variety of
our brands, and it is important that we continue to offer a product that suits everybody’s needs, which is why we want to keep expanding.” Earlier this month Accor signed agreements
with franchisees Fairview and Euro Hotels to launch three hotels in London by the end of 2010. One will become a Mercure hotel, and the other two will join the group’s All Seasons network. Dessors said the group was also looking at opening new hotels in the capital under its other brands, including Sofitel, Etap and MGallery.
Agents are key: Jean-Jacques Dessors says travel agents are “key players” in Accor’s business. The group offers a training and incentives programme for them through its E-learning Experience, with incentives ranging from Amazon vouchers to iPads, iPhones and luxury spa weekends. Its STAR (Special Travel Agents Rates) system
provides partner travel agents with special rates for personal stays around the world. Take the course at
ttglive.com/ttgknowledge
sgriffiths@ttglive.com
Sophie Griffiths 020 7921 8010
RUM DEAL: Future Travel’s Carol Smith won a twin-centre Caribbean holiday in a TTG competition with Nisbet Plantation Beach Club, Ottley’s Plantation Inn, St Kitts Tourism Authority, Nevis Tourism Authority and British Airways. Pictured above at a St Kitts rum-tasting party are, from left, St Kitts Tourism Authority’s Lisa Elmes-Bosshard, Carol Smith and Denise Greene, Nisbet Plantation Beach Club & Ottley’s Plantation Inn.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68