Thon hotel ranks high

OSLO, Norway — Expedia® travelers have ranked Oslo’s Thon Hotel Europa among the world’s best hotels on this year’s Expedia Insiders’ Select™ list, according to a press release from the hotel.

The list formally recognises individual hotels worldwide that consistently deliver excellent service, a great overall experience and a notable value. The full list represents only a small percentage of the world’s top hotels from the more than 110,000 hotel properties offered on Expedia.

“Delivering our guests superior service is a top priority at Thon Hotel Europa,” said Christian Arnet, General Manager. “We are pleased that our efforts have been acknowledged by Expedia travelers and look forward to extending our high level of service to even more guests.”

The 2010 Expedia Insiders’ Select™ list is compiled on the basis of more than one million Traveler Opinions hotel reviews collected by Expedia, combined with a value rating and the local market expertise of more than 400 Expedia employees in local markets worldwide, resulting in an easy-to-browse list that provides travelers with a powerful way to find the perfect hotel using the trusted insight of other travelers like them. The list showcases the diverse selection of travel destinations and hotel properties.

Photo: A room at the Thon Hotel Europa in Oslo.

Record Year for Rezidor

In 2009, the group opened 36 hotels and created 4000 jobs, according to a press release. The Rezidor Hotel Group announces yet another record year of openings. In 2009, one of the fastest growing hotel companies worldwide brought 36 hotels, with 7100 rooms into operation across Europe, Middle East and Africa, and created a total of 4000 new jobs in these properties.

With these numbers Rezidor was even able to surpass 2008, with 33 openings with 6500 rooms, the group’s record year so far. And looking at 2007–2009, Rezidor notes an impressive 41 percent cumulative growth in rooms in operation.

“We are proud to have achieved these results together with our owners and developers”, comments Kurt Ritter, President & CEO of Rezidor. “2009 has been a challenging year, but even in tough times Rezidor believes in growth”, continues Ritter. Hereby the Brussels-based group especially focuses on fee-based contracts (87 percent of all opened hotels in 2009), and on a business development in emerging markets like Africa and Russia/CIS, where Rezidor is the leading international player on the hospitality market.

A diversification of the portfolio is a further part of Rezidor’s success, already Europe’s leading Airport Hotel Operator, the group grew the number of airport hotel rooms in operation by eight percent in 2009 and opened flagships like the Radisson Blu Hotel, Hamburg Airport (Germany), which is located directly opposite the terminals. The growth of resort rooms in operation even reached 30 percent in 2009. Rezidor welcomed the first guests in new and leading spa resorts like the Radisson Blu Resort & Spa Dubrovnik (Croatia), the Radisson Blu Resort & Spa Cesme (Turkey) and the Radisson Blu Resort & Thalasso Monastir (Tunisia).

“2009 also saw the launch of our dynamic mid-market brand Park Inn in the Middle East, where we opened the Park Inn Al Khobar (Saudi Arabia) and the Park Inn Muscat (Oman)”, says Kurt Ritter. Rezidor’s very first Park Inn hotel opened in early 2003 in Berlin (Germany) only. Within six years the portfolio has reached more than 130 properties in operation and under development with a total of more than 24,500 rooms.

Rezidor also brought a completely new brand to the hospitality market: In June 2009, the company celebrated the opening of the first Hotel Missoni — a new luxury lifestyle brand developed in cooperation with the iconic Italian fashion house of the same name. Hotel Missoni successfully debuted in Edinburgh (Scotland); the brand’s future locations feature Kuwait, South Africa, Oman and Brazil.

London comes in last

For the first time, the hotel price comparison www.trivago.co.uk has compared European cities on the basis of the popularity of their hotels. Hotels in Dresden received the highest ratings from travellers. Hotels in the classic city break destinations, such as Amsterdam, Copenhagen and London had the worst ratings. The results were brought together in a Reputation Ranking.

The trivago Reputation Ranking is an analysis of the European hotel industry and its touristic popularity. It is based on 2.7 million hotel reviews for 13,000 hotels in 50 European cities. With an average of 81.39 out of 100 Dresden is the number one city in the Reputation Ranking. Closely followed by Bruges with 80.08 points and Bologna with 78.71 points; the city at the river Elbe has some of the most popular hotels in Europe. Hotels in the Austrian city of Salzburg are also highly favoured by travellers. With an average of 78.59 points, Salzburg is in fourth place in the overall European top list. With 78.10 points, Venice just makes it into the top five.

London’s hotels have the worst reputation in Europe

British cities barely make it into the European Reputation Ranking. Hotels in the English capital, London (69.89) is ranked last Birmingham’s hotels second last with 70.90 points. The city of Edinburgh has the best online reputation in the United Kingdom, in 29th place with 75.23 points. The Greek capital – Athens – is in 46th position with 72.69 points, the Danish capital Copenhagen (71.26 place) in 48th place. Not much better are the overall ratings for hotels in Amsterdam (71.56, place 47) and Paris (72.93, place 44).

Read full story at Hospitality.net

Swissôtel to Middle East

ZURICH, Switzerland — Construction is under way on Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts’ first hotel in the Middle East: Swissôtel Makkah in Saudi Arabia. The international hotel chain expects the hotel to open in January 2011.

The new Swissôtel Makkah is going to have 1571 guest rooms, including 88 suites, spread over 53 floors, with half of all the rooms and suites enjoying a view of the Holy Mosque. The centrally located hotel will have four restaurants serving authentic Arabic and European cuisine, an Executive Lounge, two meeting rooms measuring 75m² and a Business Centre available to guests, according to a press release issued by the chain today.

“Since we are at home in so many parts of the world, we are especially pleased that we will now be represented in the Middle East as well,” commented Meinhard Huck, President Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts, conitnuing “We will definitely look into further opportunities for expanding our business in this market in the future”.

The new deluxe hotel in the Holy city is part of the Abraj Al Bait Complex developed by Saudi Binladin Group in the Development of King Abdul Aziz Endowment Project. The Saudi Binladin Group (SBG) is a multinational construction conglomerate and holding company for the assets owned by the Binladin family, founded in 1950 and headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The city of Makkah is located in the west of Saudi Arabia close to Jeddah. It is the birthplace of Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam, making it the Holiest city in the Islamic world. Every year hundreds of thousands of Muslims make the journey to this place of pilgrimage and to the Holy Kaaba. The height of the travel season at Makkah takes place during the annual Hajj pilgrimage and the Holy month of Ramadan when the Holy city welcomes over three million pilgrims for the Hajj alone.

Radisson Blu a Nordic favourite

Radisson Blu continues to command the Nordic region with around two in five business travellers preferring to use the brand and 97 percent recognising the Radisson name in 2009. This is the result of the latest BDRC research – an independent annual survey by the London based agency BDRC, conducted since 2001, according to a press release from the chain.

Since this first year, Radisson (including Radisson and Radisson SAS, now Radisson Blu) has been named the Number one brand and steadily improved its performance each year.

The annual survey, which works with a score combining recognition, preference, usage, loyalty and intent to recommend, covers all aspects of business travelers’ behaviour, as well as several key brand performance indicators measured across over 60 brands, involved interviews with a total of a 1000 Norwegian, Swedish, Finish and Danish business travellers.

“It is very satisfying that business travellers prefer our hotels. But even more important, we see that our guests’ satisfaction has increased every year the last six years. This shows that we are able to anticipate our guests’ needs, and fulfill them”, says Christian Gartmann, Area Vice President, Nordics, for The Rezidor Hotel Group.

Radisson Blu is the First Class and Full Service brand of the Rezidor Hotel Group, which is one of the fastest growing hotel companies in the world. Rezidor has 380 hotels in operation and under development in 59 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa – besides Radisson Blu the company also operates the brands Park Inn, Country Inns & Suites, The Regent and Hotel Missoni.

Thon Hotels + First Hotels = True

OSLO, Norway — Thon Hotels and First Hotels sign cooperation agreement for Scandinavia. The agreement includes cooperation in the areas of sales, distribution and marketing. The aim is to increase the total availability for both chains in the Scandinavian and Benelux hotel market.

According to a press release issued today, the cooperation will start 1 January 2010. The two chains will offer over 104 hotels throughout Scandinavia and Benelux.

The two chains are major players on the Scandinavian hotel scene and have their strength in different geographical areas. They have strong brands, extensive coverage, large sales organizations and quality hotel products.

First Hotels has 46 hotels in Scandinavia, of which 31 hotels are in Sweden, nine in Norway and six in Denmark. The annual turnover for First Hotels is NOK 1.2 billion.

Thon Hotels is the third largest hotel chain in Norway, with 53 hotels and two more planned for the autumn 2009. Annual turnover is at NOK 2.4 billion. Thon Hotels also has a number of hotels in the Benelux region, also to be included in the cooperation.

The cooperation will primarily focus on sales, distribution and marketing. This will benefit the customers in terms of a larger range of hotel products in a significantly larger geographical area. There are also plans for cooperation between the two chains’ loyalty programmes, thereby enabling the guests to earn and spend bonus points in both chains.

Both Thon Hotels and First Hotels will maintain full ownership and control over their brands under the agreement.

Photo: Mr. Morten Thorvaldsen, CEO, Thon Hotels.

Scandic buys Oslo hotel

Scandic continues to grow, now adding another hotel in Oslo. Today an agreement was signed between Fornebu Hotell AS and Scandic, confirming that the new hotel in the Fornebu business park will be a Scandic.

“The hotel has a fantastic outlook, both across the Oslo Fjord and to the future, with its location in this fast-expanding part of Oslo. With our own expansion in Norway continuing over the next few years, signing this long-term agreement for Scandic Fornebu means adding another hotel with excellent prospects and a strategic location to our growing inventory,” comments Frank Fiskers, President & CEO of Scandic in a press release today.

Fornebu business park will be home to the head offices of some of the largest companies in Norway with a total of almost 10,000 office workers. Fornebu Hotell AS is owned by IT Fornebu Eiendom and Utstillingsplassen Eiendom, a Hamar-based property company. The Narud Stokke Wiig firm of architects will design the spectacular hotel, which will have a floorspace of 17,000 m², 300 rooms, a restaurant and bar, a spa and gym and top-notch conference facilities for up to 1000 people. It is located on the shore of Rolfsbukta bay, with views across the Oslo Fjord, putting it only ten minutes away from central Oslo, with excellent communications.

“As chairman of Fornebu Hotell AS, I’m proud and pleased that we have secured a leading hotel operator like Scandic to run the hotel, which will be the most important of Fornebu’s portfolio of major real estate. As chairman of IT Fornebu, I’m also happy that we will now be adding the last building along the seafront, completing this part of the commercial development of the Fornebu peninsula,” explains Erik Løfsnes.

The construction of Scandic Fornebu will start in mid-2010, with the hotel due to open in spring 2012.

Top photo: Frank Fiskers, President & Chief Executive Officer, Scandic Hotels. Photographer: bsmart

Dismal German forecast

Forecasts from the May 2009 Hotel Market Forecast report from STR Global, the leading provider of market information to the world’s hotel industry, indicate that average daily rate declines during the next 24 months across Germany’s major cities will be the main cause of the industry’s sluggish performance. Just as positive recent data from Germany’s Ifo business climate index on the prospects for the German economy is tempered with on-going fears of further job losses, limited improvements in hotel occupancy during the next two years are offset by the rate declines. See the chart below. Even in those cities such as Hamburg and Munich where there are expectations of modest increases in occupancy of up to two percent and three percent in 2010, respectively, the forecasted decreases in room rate are six to seven percent.

Given the fast changing economic climate, the Hotel Market Forecast from STR Global is updated each month.

“It is vital to look regularly at how the local economic conditions are affecting our industry”, said James Chappell, managing director of STR Global in a press release. “The Hotel Market Forecast gives subscribers essential, regular visibility on what is likely to happen, which is increasingly relevant in these turbulent times”.

Hotel Market Forecast Report May 2009 (selected German cities)

Occupancy (% change)

	2009		2010
	Minimum	Maximum	Minimum	Maximum
Berlin	-10	-12	-2	-4
Cologne	-4	-6	-2	-4
Dusseldorf	-8	-10	-2	1
Frankfurt	-2	-4	-1	1
Hamburg	-3	-5	o	2
Munich	-6	-8	1	3
Stuttgart	-7	-9	-1	1

Average Room Rate (% change)

	2009		2010
	Minimum	Maximum	Minimum	Maximum
Berlin	-6	-8	-3	-5
Cologne	-2	-4	-9	-11
Dusseldorf	-19	-22	-1	-3
Frankfurt	-1	1	-2	-4
Hamburg	-4	-6	-5	-7
Munich	-5	-7	-4	-6
Stuttgart	-4	-6	-2	-4

The Hotel Market Forecast product was launched earlier this year and the seven German markets detailed above are part of the 42 markets and sub-markets across Europe covered by the reports. The forecasts are based upon the most recent available economic data and STR Global’s historic market data from previous business cycles. The advanced model is run in conjunction with e-forecasting.com, an international economic research and consulting firm, and considers about 300 economic indicators, including gross domestic product, the price of oil, exchange rates, consumer confidence and business sentiment. It also takes into account local drivers of a particular market. “We have been looking at these models for several years now and with each market having a unique model to predict future performance that includes the impact of destination brand and major local events, the reports enable subscribers to keep an eye on specific upcoming conditions,” explained Chappell. The Hotel Market Forecast reports are made more useful by two additional features. Firstly the reports will show how close the forecast was to what actually happened, so that trends can be better understood and charted. And secondly, 18 months of historical hotel performance data allows the forecast to be set in context.

Scandic Julia renovation

Scandic Julia will undergo a full-scale renovation and extension, during which the hotel will be closed for 18 months starting from 1 December 2009. The result will be a hotel catering for the modern lifestyle and the conscious guest seeking smart solutions.

Following the renovation, a modern hotel will open in central Turku during the spring of 2011. According to a press release the new Scandic Julia will feature 155 inspiring and air-conditioned rooms, state-of-the-art conference facilities, and a restaurant. The hotel guests will also have a Scandic gym, two saunas and a garage at their disposal.

“It is important that we strengthen our position in Turku, one of Finland’s top three hotel destinations, to enhance Scandic’s market position and brand in Finland. I’m certain that the renovation of Scandic Julia, turning it into a smart and modern hotel, is one thing that will do just that,” says Frank Fiskers, President and CEO of Scandic in the press release.

Operated at Eerikinkatu 4 by Scandic, the property is mainly owned by Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company. The main contractor in the renovation project is Palmberg Turku Oy, while Haroma & Partners Oy from Turku is the main architect. The hotel’s interior will follow Scandic’s design and environmental concepts. The value of the investment is approximately EUR 14 million.

“It is very positive that we are able to bring Scandic Julia’s standards to the present-day level by expanding the hotel with 37 rooms and by updating the hotel’s technology and service options. The renewed Scandic Julia will make an excellent addition to our offerings in Turku, where we already operate Scandic Plaza with 117 rooms, opened in 2000,” says Aarne Hallama, Vice President of Scandic Finland.

During the renovation, Scandics guests in Turku will be served by Scandic Plaza.

Photo: Frank Fiskers, President & Chief Executive Officer, Scandic Hotels. Photographer: bsmart

Polish certified Spa pros

On Tuesday 23 June the first Polish spa professionals were awarded with the Certificate of Spa Supervision, awarded by the International Spa Association (USA). This certificate confirms the knowledge in Spa Supervision and at the same time opens the doors to a new career path.

There was a lot a lot of interest in ISPA courses in Poland, but there were also fears about language abilities and culture differences between USA and the Polish spa market, but according to the suggestion of the graduates, it was not so hard, and general rules about spa business are very similar to those followed in Poland.

“I am very proud to be among seven spa professionals who received the ISPA CSS Certificate in our Country,” says Jolanta Lukasik from Thalgo Poland, continuing “It is a great honour for us, but also gives very good experience in our career, and I think I will come back to the books very often.”

“With this certificate my chances on the labour market should grow very fast,” says Beata Kepinska hopefully. Up until now she’s had no experience in the spa industry, but, she adds, “During my last interviews I mentioned my positive results with ISPA, and it seems this information could be the key.”

The spa business is one of very few to develop rapidly, in spite of the financial slow-down. New spas are emerging very fast, but the personnel training still needs improvement, which is why Concept Media, the Polish International Spa Association partner, decided to introduce ISPA courses in Poland. In addition to Certified Spa Supervisor, Polish professionals can also improve their know-how in Spa sales & marketing. Concept Media also promotes ISPA membership for Polish hotels and spa venues, as a great information source and first quality educational opportunity.

The first Polish ISPA course was supported by Thalgo Poland, as this market leader was also the first to acknowledge the importance of high-class education in the spa business.

The second round of ISPA exams is scheduled for December 2009.

Based on a press release from Concept Media.

Top photo: Polish ISPA graduates, summer 2009.

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