HVS HWE Pipes Inchydoney Aboard The Dolce Frégate | How fortunate it is that the Dolce Frégate should stand in a vineyard, for there is much to raise a glass to. Cheers HVS Hodges Ward Elliott for advising the Dolce International/AEW Partners joint venture in the sale of the hotel and two adjoining golf courses. HVS HWE has sold 20 hotels in Europe this year. Sláinte mhaith Inchydoney Partnership for paying an undisclosed sum for the 133-room, four-star hotel in St-Cyr-sur-Mer, southeastern France. The Irish private equity fund certainly has a nose for a Dolce: this is the third hotel with that label that the company has bought in the last 18 months.

Hotel Des Bergues Is Refinanced | Kingdom Holding Company (KHC) has refinanced the 103-room Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues, in Geneva, for SR375 million (US$100.5 million). In September KHC refinanced another Four Seasons hotel – the 245-room George V in Paris – and made proceeds of SR285 million (US$76.2 million). KHC has an ongoing policy of extracting value from its hotel portfolio.

Le Mélézin Resort Is Refinanced | Europe Arab Bank has provided the €20 million that Canyon Equity needed to refinance Le Mélézin, the luxury resort in Courchevel 1850, in the French Alps. Amanresorts will continue to manage the resort and its 31-room hotel. Canyon Equity, part of the Canyon Group of Companies, of California, acquired Le Mélézin last year for an undisclosed sum.

Switzerland And Oman Both Appoint A Viceroy |Switzerland and Oman are to be the first countries outside the Americas to have a taste of the luxurious Viceroy brand. Kor Hotel Group, the owner of the brand, has formed a joint venture with Orascom Hotels & Development, of Egypt. They will deliver the 175-unit Viceroy Andermatt to Switzerland and the 200-unit Viceroy Sifah to Oman. Both hotels are set to be finished in 2011. The Swiss hotel is one of six that Orascom is building in Andermatt, the Omani hotel one of four five-star hotels at that particular development.

Mövenpick To Open Three Hotels In Abu Dhabi | Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts got its first taste of Abu Dhabi earlier this year when Tamouh Investments fed the Swiss company the promise of a 445-room hotel on Al Reem Island. This preliminary nibble having proved satisfactory, Mövenpick has taken a bigger mouthful of the emirate, with Aldar Properties this time holding the spoon. The pair are to develop the 500-room Mövenpick Hotel Yas Island, which is to open in 2010, and are planning the development of two other hotels elsewhere in Abu Dhabi.

On Safari With Fairmont In Kenya | In 2005 Kingdom Hotel Investments, in partnership with IFA, paid Lonrho Africa US$35 million for five hotels in Kenya. An identical amount was invested in the renovation of three of the properties. The first to emerge from the work and wrap itself in the flag of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is the Mara Safari Club. The resort has its 50 tents pitched at the foot of the Aitong Hills. Hunters of Fairmont game in Kenya will be delighted in the coming months to spot the re-emergence of the 165-room Norfolk Hotel, in Nairobi, and the 120-room Mount Kenya Safari Club in Nanyuki.

A New Holiday Inn For South Africa | Kliptown is famous now not only as the oldest suburb of the township of Soweto but also as the location of a new Holiday Inn hotel in South Africa. Johannesburg Property Company built the 48-room, four-star Holiday Inn Soweto at its mixed-use development Walter Sisulu Square at a cost of a reported R23.4 million (US$3.6 million). The consortium Freedom Square Hotel is the owner of the Holiday Inn and Zatic Hotels & Resorts its operator.

A First InterContinental For Georgia | The first InterContinental hotel in the republic of Georgia goes to the capital Tbilisi. It will open in early 2010. The 155 rooms and 15 serviced apartments of the InterContinental Tbilisi will be housed in a building that was formerly occupied by the Ministry of Agriculture. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is to work with Georgian Properties and French developer THED International on the transformation of the building. Meanwhile, IHG’s first hotel of any description in Denmark is to be the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers. The company has signed a franchise agreement with CPH Hotel Management on the 365-room hotel. The Crowne Plaza will open in late summer 2009 at the 130,000 m² commercial development Copenhagen Towers.

Painting Portugal Orange | Once, a third of the world map was painted pink. Different times, though, call for a different colour. The orange of easyHotel is replacing the faded pink and at the current rate of progress the ‘super budget’ hotel chain could well eclipse the coverage of the British Empire. Portugal is the latest European country to step up for a lick of the brush. Best Ecran has secured the master franchise in its native land and it will open four hotels over the next three years. Easyhotel has since June signed similar agreements with P_Orange in Austria and i.gen hotels in Germany. The UK, Switzerland and Hungary are already flecked with orange and Dubai and India have no doubts about their colour scheme.

Delancey Drives Hotel Development At Brooklands | Delancey popped down the DaimlerChrysler dealership in Weybridge, Surrey, and returned home to London with more than two acres of land at the Brooklands motor racing circuit. Delancey, a specialist investment advisor, also secured permission to build a 120-room hotel on the land it bought from DaimlerChrysler Retail. Work is set to begin next spring and the hotel should be ready in 2010.

The Legacy Of Snowdonia | Legacy Hotels and Resorts is to manage the former Quality Hotel Snowdonia, in Llanberis, North Wales. The company, which now has seven hotels in the UK under its management, signed a five-year deal worth £750,000 with the hotel’s owner Coronet Holidays. The 106-room hotel reverts to the name Royal Victoria Hotel, to which must be added the Legacy prefix. Another hotel in the UK to have changed its name is the Citilodge in Nottingham. We must now address it as the Days Hotel Nottingham. Butterfly Hotels acquired the 90-room hotel in April for an undisclosed sum. Butterfly Hotels is no stranger to the brands of the Wyndham Hotel Group; four of its six other hotels in the UK have the Ramada brand.

NH Hoteles Reports Its Nine-Month Figures | Italy won the award for best support act (RevPAR growth category) in the big picture Nine Months At NH Hoteles. By the end of September 2007, RevPAR at the company’s Italian hotels had risen by 15.9% on the previous year’s comparable to €75.5. RevPAR across Europe as a whole of close to €55.9 was an improvement of roughly 5.2%. NH Hoteles’ nine-month revenue was up 43.8%, to nearly €1.1 billion, and EBITDA was up 65.5%, to €197.8 million.

Rezidor Reports Its Nine-Month Figures | Rezidor Hotel Group has published its figures for the nine months to 30 September 2007. In that time the company made a profit after tax of roughly €29.0 million, an increase of 43.7% on the previous year’s comparable, and revenue of €571.9 million, an increase of 9.6%. RevPAR at leased and managed hotels in Europe of the Radisson SAS brand rose 8.5% (like for like) to €84.4. To this portfolio please welcome the 195-room Radisson SAS Waterfront Hotel in St Helier, Jersey. And keep the applause coming, as entering the UK as hotel number 15 in the Park Inn series is an 111-room property in Sheffield. The Park Inn Sheffield's leased and managed European colleagues produced RevPAR of €51.30, a like-for-like increase of 8.7% on the previous year’s comparable.

Absolute Share Price Performance Over the Past Week 25 October-1 November 2007

  • NH Hoteles - The share price responded to the company's latest set of figures.
  • InterContinental Hotels Group - The share price strengthened after last week's news of the worldwide Holiday Inn revamp.
  • Accor - The Paris market was depressed by concerns over a weakening dollar and rising oil prices. There were worries about Accor's exposure to the dollar.

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