The Journey Time

(TDN): Cristal Hotels and Resorts, one of Abu Dhabi’s fastest growing hotel chains, has announced that it has achieved one of the highest month-to-date occupancy rate among Abu Dhabi’s 4-star and 5-star hotels, garnering 84 per cent average occupancy in January 2010. The figure is in line with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority’s (ADTA) 10 per cent growth forecast in hotel guests in the emirate this year. Abu Dhabi accommodated around 1.5 million hotel guests in 2009, which according to ADTA will grow to 2.3 million by 2012 when the emirate’s hotel capacity reaches over 27,000 rooms.

Cristal Hotels and Resorts’ surge to the top of the rankings is a significant achievement as it outperformed more well-established 5-star hotels despite having started operations only in (more…)

(TDN): Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, Asia Pacific’s leading luxury hotel group, recently signed an agreement with Chongqing Guest House Co. Ltd. to manage a hotel in Chongqing that is scheduled to open in late 2011. The 469-room Shangri-La hotel will occupy the first 28 floors of a new 58-storey landmark building, a multi-purpose complex incorporating office space and innovative retail outlets.

Designed by East China Architectural Design Institute, the hotel will be located in the central business district, 45 minutes from Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport and an eight-minute walk from the Chongqing People’s Liberation (more…)

(TDN): Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hospitality company and member of Dubai Holding, has been appointed by Thailand’s Country Group to manage a luxury hotel in the heart of Bangkok. The management agreement was signed by Mr. Gerald Lawless, executive chairman of Jumeirah Group and Mr. Ben Taechaubol, managing director of Country Group, at a ceremony held recently in Bangkok.

The 305-room, five star luxury Jumeirah Bangkok will have a prime location on the legendary Chao Phraya River, close to the Sathorn Bridge and Bangkok’s Central Business (more…)

(TDN): International hotel chain, Room Mate Hotels has selected RateTiger’s channel manager RTSuite Allocator to help manage the distribution of room rates and availability across online hotel sites. The Spanish-owned group has implemented RTSuite across all its 17 properties to accelerate the growth of its internet bookings.

The choice to use RateTiger was made by Kathi Grutzmacher’s, Director of Sales Distribution & e-Marketing. She experienced the product during her times with chains (more…)

(TDN): Inspired by a common passion for unique experiences, Design Hotels and The Auteurs, an international film website, have joined forces to create Hotel Cinematheque.

Every two weeks a Design Hotels member property will be paired with a film based on a common location or theme. Travellers who book the featured hotel during this period, will receive an exclusive promotional code. This allows them to watch (more…)

(TDN): EZYield.com, the originator of online channel management for the worldwide hospitality industry with an automated SaaS platform consisting of channel management, Web booking engine, GDS connectivity and reservation delivery components, today announced that with the integrated multi-property yielding functionality of the EZYield.com system, general managers of the Excel Hotel Group’s properties are reporting greater guest satisfaction results. With the ability for multi-property hospitality groups to consolidate yielding through one interface and have one person yield the entire portfolio, it frees up valuable time for property-based staff to better attend to guests needs.

While a property’s revenue management goals and strategies must include persons at all management (more…)

(TDN):  iBAHN, the worldwide leader in digital entertainment and internet solutions for the hospitality and meeting industries, has signed a deal with Hotel ADA Palace in Madrid, part of Corporacion Hispano, to deliver the most advanced in-room digital entertainment and internet connectivity services on the market.

The installation, which has just been completed, provides all 80 rooms of the Spanish hotel with iBAHN’s high definition digital entertainment solution, ETVi HD, along with fixed and wireless High Speed Internet Access (HSIA). Hotel ADA (more…)

(TDN): Fourteen Shangri-La hotels and resorts were voted by readers of Travel + Leisure onto the 2010 T+L 500 and Island Shangri-La, Hong Kong and Pudong Shangri-La, Shanghai were placed amongst the top 50 hotels in the world. Readers of Conde Nast Traveler U.S. edition voted five Shangri-La luxury hotels onto the 2010 Gold List. Both lists were published in the January 2010 issues.

The T+L 500 includes the 500 best hotels in the world as determined by a survey of the magazine’s readers. Shangri-La was awarded the number one spot in Hong (more…)

(TDN): Tune Hotels.com has partnered Thailand’s Evolution Capital pcl to set up 44 budget hotels across Asia under a franchise deal. Evolution Capital, which is listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand, will invest US$200 million (RM688 million) and run the hotels using the Tune Hotels.com brand name. It plans to set up hotels in Thailand, China, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Evolution Capital, a real estate investment advisory and management firm, is confident of recouping (more…)