VacantReady

Today I stumbled upon a terrific hotel blog from a luxury property in Tanzania called Onsea House Arusha. This is one of the best examples of a hotel blog I have seen in a long time and Dirk, the author from Onsea House Country Inn & Guest Cottage does a wonderful job offering interesting, supportive and engaging information about Tanzania as a destination.

In a recent post, Onsea House revealed some interesting information about expansion plans from German-born Kempinski Hotels, which will include such locations as Comores Islands, Egypt, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, Madagascar, Sudan, Nigeria, Mauritius, Mauritania, Burundi and many more.

Just before Africa’s largest travel show Indaba in Durban, South Africa, Kempinski top management revealed ambitious plans for the group during the 2008 Arabian Travel Market (ATM) which took place at the Dubai International Conference and Exhibition Centre from May 6 to 9.

“Kempinski Hotels has announced its intention to become a clear market leader in Africa, leading global tourism’s foray into the rapidly evolving continent with an unrivalled portfolio of diverse luxury properties - from spectacular city hotels and beach resorts to exotic eco forest retreats and game park lodges.’

>> Check out the entire article on the Onsea House blog...

0 comments | Permalink | Middle East & Africa • Bloggers • Development

Andrew Morrison over at UrbanDiner.ca covers Vancouver’s restaurant food scene, but he has a pretty good eye on the hotel trade as well. Thanks to Urban Diner, I discovered that yet another hotel property will open its doors to guests in the downtown core.

Construction on the ParaYso Hotel (para-Why-so?) is expected to kick-off in the summer of 2009. Local hospitality entrepreneur Graham Alexander has finalized a land deal at 620 Seymore street for $5.5M, and he plans to develop a small hotel property at the downtown location.

“The Company plans to build a Hotel with a roof top bar lounge, of up to 91 nicely designed interior suites, and energy efficient Hotel. The interiors will be exquisite but will be for the 20th century where beauty, green and energy are of high concerns. The development is lead by Graham Alexander, a developer of hotels in Mayan Riviera Mexico and Chilliwack, B.C., Canada.”

[via Yahoo! - & no doubt the PR writer meant 21st century]

The ParaYso Hotel will be located near the financial district, within one block of the new Canada Line shuttle from the Vancouver International Airport and a few blocks from the new convention centre. The hotel lies adjacent to the Steve Nash Sports Gym, Gotham Restaurant, and the Shore Club restaurant.

The 600 block of Seymore Street in Vancouver is not exactly the most upscale strip downtown, and incidentally, the hotel’s location sits almost exactly on the spot where two men were gunned down in a targeted gangland shooting in January of this year.

I’m sure developments like the ParaYso Hotel are exactly what Seymore needs as part of a long-term strategy to rejuvenate the area. The newly renovated Moda Hotel to the South on Seymore, and the Delta Suites to the North of the ParaYso will certainly benefit from more hotel critical mass.

And hey, who doesn’t love roof-top lounges? Watch out Loden—yours isn’t going to be the only one in town.

0 comments | Permalink | Canada • Vancouver • Development

Hospitality and tourism operators in the Middle East will be delighted to know that the World Tourism Organization’s “Tourism 2020 Vision” estimates that international travel to the Middle East will grow at a significantly faster rate than other competing global destinations.

The WTO suggests that in the year 2020, Middle Eastern destinations will receive 68.5 million arrivals (vs. 46.4M in 2007), representing a growth rate of 7.1 percent over the period 1995-2019. The global average for the same year is expected to be 4.1 percent. This is certainly good news for tourism operators in a region marked by incredible growth in the hotel industry, with no immediate signs of abatement.

While the current growth in hotel supply in the Middle East is built on a promise for the future, current hotel industry results in financial performance indicate that the region is on the right track.

ArabianBusiness.com magazine published some impressive Q1 hotel industry statistics yesterday for 2008, confirming the Middle Eastern region’s position as the current world’s top performer in average rate and occupancy.

The study, compiled by industry analysts at Deloitte, reveal a chart-topping average rate of $181 USD, and an overall occupancy of 74.3 percent. Absolute RevPAR (revenue per available room) in the region for Q1 grew 19 percent year over year.

Looking ahead, Rob O’Hanlon, Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure Partner for Deloitte Middle East said: “With the strongest occupancy and average room rates in the world, hotel performance in the Middle East is off to a very good start in 2008.  If the rest of 2008 follows the pattern already set for the first quarter, hoteliers could enjoy a remarkable five-year run of double-digit growth.”

Naturally these results are averaged over a number of distinct and varied hotel markets in the region, with some areas performing significantly better than others. According to Deloitte, the hotel industry in the Middle East has been characterised by two distinct overall segments in 2008:

One segment has shown strong absolute RevPAR and growth in average room rates with a decrease in occupancy due to the influx of new supply. Obvious examples of this market segment include Dubai and Doha.

A second segment in the Middle East is achieving a much lower absolute RevPAR but is experiencing high RevPAR growth, driven by increases in both occupancy and average room rates. Amman and destinations in Egypt are examples of this segment.

Hospitality consultancy HVS International released a fresh study titled Middle East Hotel Survey 2008 (PDF), which offers a gold-mine of interesting statistics about the regional hotel trade.

According to HVS, approximately 253 hotels will be entering the market in the next fours years, adding an additional 120,000 guestrooms to current supply—not including the massive but unconfirmed ”Dubailand” project in the UAE.

“The UAE accounts for nearly 75% of the new supply, followed by Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Oman. Approximately 25,000 rooms are set to enter the Dubai market in 2008, 20,000 in 2009, 25,000 in 2010 and 20,000 in 2011.

The most active operators in the region in terms of brand expansion are Accor, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International, Rotana Hotels, and Mövenpick Hotels and Resorts.”

Egypt Hotel Stats—Since our blog HQ is in Cairo, I wanted to share a few local stats compiled by HVS for 2007:

Last year, many markets in Egypt saw occupancy rise by ten percentage points or more. A notable exception was Cairo (City Centre), which saw an increase in guestroom supply. Sharm El Sheikh recorded a rise in occupancy of ten points, Hurghada 11, and Cairo (Heliopolis) 12 points in 2007.

Both Cairo (City Centre) and Cairo (Heliopolis) increased their average rates significantly, by 38 percent and 39 percent respectively over last year (I still think that Cairo is currently undervalued in average rate compared to other destinations!).

And the best news for local hotel owners? Cairo (Pyramids) and Cairo (Heliopolis) experienced growth of 52 percent and 45 percent respectively in GOPPAR (gross operating profit per available room), and Cairo (City Centre) grew their GOPPAR by 14% year over year.

Linkage
Dubai skyline thanks to flickr member [Qba from Poland]

0 comments | Permalink | Middle East & Africa

Last week I received an email from Debbie Collins letting me know about the launch of the Opus Montreal’s new Koko Restaurant + Bar, set to open its doors this Saturday, May 10, 2008.

The anticipated restaurant located in Montreal’s newest boutique property plans to “blend urban glamour with modern Asian cuisine in a theatrical, 9000 square foot setting”. Sounds like Vancouver’s thriving Asian-Chic culture is taking over Canada’s hippest city…

Opus Montreal’s Koko Restaurant, the Video:

Executive Chef Don Letendre of Vancouver’s renowned Opus Hotel kitchen has created a pan-Asian menu, served in the Japanese izakaya “sharing-style”. Letendre’s culinary experience in Tokyo, including cooking at popular Soba Ni Umazake Yoshimura, left an indelible impression and influenced his style of clean and innovative cuisine.

Says Letendre, “My experience in Japan taught me about balance between cooking, tasting, and seeing, and gave me a foundation for my senses. It helped me to trust in my hands.”

“Koko adds an exciting new element to the dining scene in Montreal,” says John deC. Evans, President of Opus Hotels. “Much as its setting integrates the classic aspects of Joseph-Arthur Godin’s 1914 art nouveau structure with its adjoining contemporary concrete and glass structure, Koko blends an array of Far Eastern flavours and textures with Western culinary techniques to bring an international dining and socializing experience never before scene in this city.” To set the mood, resident DJs spin with international talent to bring the latest electro-house rhythms from East and West.

Nice Hotel Marketing, Opus

I love the Opus’ promo video-release for Koko. Cheap and cheerful, and effective. 

The folks at Vancouver’s Opus Hotel were early adopters in leveraging social media to connect with their guests when they introduced their popular Blog. The site was very well received by guests and the hotelier community under Opus VP Daniel Craig’s terrific writing. Daniel has since left the company to pursue fame and fortune in the literary world, but you can still read his hilarious hotel dispatches at his new blog.

I receive lots of boring industry press releases (usually unsolicited) in my inbox, and virtually all of them hit my trash folder unread. Not this one though, because Debbie did her homework. She knew a little about me (like, my name for starters), and she presented her info in a way that she knew would be meaningful to me.  And it worked.

Through our interactions, I was made to feel that that Opus Hotels would also make an effort to connect with me in a personalized manner.

Opus is a pretty cool boutique brand in Canada—one of the few in my mind who offer a chic, “happening” vibe. This is a rare experience indeed for a Canadian hotel (c’mon fellow Canadians, you know it’s true). I’ve been a fan of the Opus in Vancouver for years.

Next time I am in Montreal I will be first in line to check out the Opus Montreal—and you can be sure that I’ll try Koko Restaurant + Bar. Thinking about it right now is making me dread hitting the streets of Cairo in my never-ending search for decent cuisine (c’mon fellow Caireans—you know it’s true).

Linkage
Opus Montreal [Vacant Ready]
Recent Feature [Montreal Real Estate Blog] - thx 4 the link!

0 comments | Permalink | Canada • Montreal • Celebration

I don’t read many personal blogs, but there are two or three I follow for a fun break from boring trade feeds once in a while.

My favorite “personal” hotel industry perspective has to be a blog called Feather or Foam written by the ‘Queen of Clean’ herself. The QofC resides in Cork, Ireland, and she’s a self-styled “Hotel Management Type Thingy”.

QofC often writes about her daily life in the resort where she works, and some of these posts are hilarious.

Here’s a personal fave, titled “Gimme Gimme Gimme”:

“Why can’t I have a discount”?

(Because you’re a flatulent greedy bitch that’s why)

“Because Company policy does not allow extra discounts on top of special rates for tour operators”

“But the special rates are only for the room, not the facilities”

(You already get nearly 50% off, how fucking greedy can you get?)

“Sorry, I really cannot change Company policy”

(Actually I can, but you have really put my back up, you have been clicking your knobbly fingers at the waiters since you walked in the door, who do you think you are, you sell rooms, that’s all, you sell holidays and shit)

“But I bring you lots of business don’t I?”

(Yes you do, and so do a lot of other operators/agents, stop making a fool of yourself, and go home, I am not giving you the steam off my.... anxious nods from a co worker trying to tell me that my 11 O’clock appointment is here)!

“Well, I really cannot understand why you won’t bend the rules a little, I mean you could give me lodge for a night or two, you’re not full, and I have some colleagues coming over for a couple of days...they are very interested in seeing the standard of accommodation, just as a goodwill gesture? Some of these people are very influential, they will love it here and they would be willing to do wonderful PR for the Resort....”

Response: [insert expletives en-masse here] ....click here to read the Queen of Clean’s response!

Ouch!

1 comments | Permalink | Bloggers • Lifestyle