Kingdom Keen On Kenya | Fairmont Hotels & Resorts might well be scurrying to find its atlas after Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI) took the chain’s presence in Africa from zero hotels to five in an instant. In partnership with IFA, KHI has acquired Lonrho Africa’s portfolio in Kenya for US$35 million and will spend another US$25 million on renovation work. The five hotels that will be taking the Fairmont brand from the middle of next year are the 167-room Norfolk Hotel in the capital Nairobi; the 115-room Mount Kenya Safari Club, in Nanyuki; the 60-room The Ark, which is in the Aberdare Mountains; the 46-room Aberdare Country Club, on the slopes of Kamatongu Hill; and the 50 tents of the Mara Safari Club, which are pitched at the foot of the Aitong Hills.

Jurys Selected For A Takeover Approach | Jurys Doyle Hotel Group opened the week by issuing a short statement in which it said that the company had received an unsolicited, preliminary approach from a party it declined to name. Jurys Doyle closed the week with another statement saying that neither the Beatty nor the Doyle family had given its support to the approach. The newspapers filled the time in between with reports that the consortium Precinct, which last summer completed the takeover of Jurys Doyle’s compatriot the Gresham Hotel Group, was the mystery bidder. The press notes that Precinct, or any prospective purchaser for that matter, would certainly have to be moneyed; the company could cost as much as €1 billion.

A Third Dakota Hotel For The UK | Reports suggest that what would be the third hotel in the Dakota portfolio in the UK is set for the Eurocentral industrial complex in Lanarkshire, Scotland. The 92-room property is due to open in autumn 2006, by which time the second link in the ‘super-budget’ chain – a 132-room hotel – should have opened in South Queensferry, near Edinburgh. Hotelier Ken McCulloch and Chicago-based PRM Realty Group launched the chain in June 2004 with the opening of the Dakota Nottingham.

That's Why Rezidor's Gone To Iceland | Rezidor SAS Hospitality has been hard at work in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik converting an office building that dates from 1919 into a hotel. The paying guest will be able to savour the fruits of the company’s labour – the 70-room Radisson SAS 1919 Hotel – from next month. Scandinavia has also drawn to its midst the vacation ownership company Interval International. The company was in the town of Naantali in southwestern Finland to sign up the Sunborn Vacation Club. This mixed-use resort comprises the Sunborn Princess Yacht Hotel, which is moored alongside the Naantali Spa Hotel, which stands on dry land.

Interior Decorates Oman With A Golden Tulip | The breeze across Oman will fill a third Golden Tulip flag after Interior Hotels signed the franchise agreement on the Golden Tulip Nizwa, which stands near the town of Nizwa. The 120-room hotel joins the 60-room Golden Tulip Khasab Hotel Resort and the 177-room Golden Tulip Seeb Muscat. Meanwhile, Hilton International is looking forward to 1 November, the day when it will be opening the 50-suite Qasr Al Sharq in the Saudi city of Jeddah. The luxury property will head a list of 11 hotels that the company will be opening in the Middle East.

Easter Comes Too Early For NH Hoteles | As the chocolate eggs were passed round the table, the members of the board at NH Hoteles worried as they peeled away the foil not so much that they would have to loosen their belts as tighten them. For the Easter confection was being munched in March this year and not in April as it was last, and as the company rightly feared, the timing of the holiday had an effect on the results for the first quarter to 31 March 2005. NH Hoteles recorded a net loss for the quarter of €6.4 million, compared to a profit of €1.5 million in the same period a year ago. RevPAR across the company’s portfolio of European hotels was essentially flat, at €43.35, with a strong performance in hotels in Switzerland, Austria and Hungary helping to offset the 4.1% slump in RevPAR, to €48.09, across comparable Spanish properties.

CostaTerra Looks Forward To A Summer Of Construction | CostaTerra will embark this July on its five-year mission to build a resort covering some 200 hectares of land on the Portuguese coast to the west of the town of Grândola. Among the facilities proposed for the project, which is set to cost at least €450 million, are three five-star aparthotels, 204 luxury villas and an 18-hole golf course. Accor will be hoping that the wind will carry debris thrown up by the work well away from the Sofitel Lisboa in Lisbon; the 171-room hotel has just been renovated. Spain’s Paradores de Turismo will be hoping any dust does not settle near the Spanish city of Zaragoza as the company will be creating quite enough of its own. The state-run hotel chain reportedly wants to convert a seventeenth-century monastery in Vera de Moncayo into a hotel and have the property open by 2008.

Sol Meliá Reports On Its First Quarter | Sol Meliá saw EBITDA for its first quarter to March rise 15.7% to €70.8 million and revenues 9.9% up on the comparable period of a year ago, at €262.2 million. An early Easter caused RevPAR in the company’s European City Division to fall by 1.0%, but this decline was offset by a 9.2% rise in the European Resort Division. Total RevPAR across the company’s owned and leased hotels rose by 7.2% to finish on €44.8.

Copos' Consortium Takes A Stake In Bucharest's Athénée Palace Hilton | Reports from southeastern Europe suggest that a consortium led by Romania’s deputy prime minister George Copos has paid around US$30 million for a 52% stake in the 272-room Athénée Palace Hilton, which stands in the Romanian capital Bucharest. The vendor, which retains the other 48%, is the Athénée Phenix Group. In neighbouring Bulgaria those disgorged from the ski lift in the resort of Pamporovo will soon be having their extremities warmed by the sight of a five-star hotel. The 114-room property, which is due to open at the end of 2006, is the brainchild of native tourist firm Studenetz 2001.

Karrington Investigates The Possibilities In Prague | US company Karrington Holdings Corp. announced in March that the European hotel industry was one of five sectors it was interested in as a means of broadening its asset base. So the company despatched its founder and Chief Executive R. Revell Murphy to the Czech capital Prague. There he met with bankers and investors to discuss the possibility of his company’s acquiring a group of existing hotels, and it would seem from reports that Mr Murphy is close to purchasing at least two hotels in the city.

The International Hotel Conference: Book Now | The International Hotel Conference opens at the Le Meridien Beach Plaza Hotel in Monaco on 12 September. The conference might be four months away, but would you want to be the one left on the tarmac while your colleagues jet off to spend three days in the company of a host of quality speakers? So avoid disappointment and book now; after all, an early booking discount of €200 is in place until 31 May. HVS International’s London office will be represented by its Managing Director Russell Kett and Director Dominique Bourdais. Further details are available on the website .

Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 05/05/05-12/05/

  • Jurys Doyle Hotel Group - The company's confirmation that a takeover approach had been received was sufficient to send the share price soaring.
  • NH Hoteles - Although Spanish property firm Fadesa denied that it was interested in buying NH Hoteles, the rumour was enough to raise the hotel company's share price.
  • Sol Meliá - Deutsche Bank raised its rating from 'Sell' To 'Hold' in the belief that this could be the year when Sol Meliá launches a programme of asset disposal.

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