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Four Points by Sheraton has announced the launch of its first Four Points by Sheraton hotel in North China.

Technically it is the Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian Hotel & Serviced Apartments. Following the successes of other Four Points hotels which opened in Greater China including in cities like Shenzhen, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Changshu, Lhasa and Taipei.

Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian Hotel & Serviced Apartments will be in the same style.

The Four Points in Beijing is located in the heart of Beijing’s technology district — Haidian District —  a 5-10 minutes drive away from major government and business organizations, research centers, Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park, and major universities.

The Asia Pacific’s largest Shopping Mall — Golden Resources — is within walking distance with more than 1,000 shops, restaurants and movie theater.

Four Points by Sheraton Beijing, Haidian Hotel & Serviced Apartments has 355 guestrooms and 177 serviced apartments.

The hotel is equipped with 1,054 square meters of meeting and banquet space for groups up to 850 people, including a 720-seat pillar-less natural light Grand Ballroom and 7 other function rooms all equipped with state-of-the-art technology making it very much a MICE hotel.

The hotel also has an indoor heated swimming pool, fitness center and a full-service spa.
Source: eTravel Blackboard

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Hotel MGM Grand Macau

Helena Fernandes, deputy head of Macau’s tourist office, told a news conference that Macau wants to attract more international visitors to reduce its reliance on Greater China. It hopes to do that partly by moving upmarket.

Tourism in Macau has been affected by a massive expansion of its gambling industry.

Revenues in Macau’s $15 billion gaming industry overtook those of Las Vegas in late 2006. Macau now has 29 casinos and more are on the way.

Last year almost 30 million people visited Macau, a year-on-year rise of more than one-fifth, but less than one-tenth came from outside of mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan, and most did not stay overnight.

Tourism and gambling revenues make up more than half of Macau’s GDP.

The push to look past China was partially sparked by new restrictions on mainlanders visiting Macau, introduced last month to try and slow the territory’s galloping economy and over concerns too many Chinese officials were frittering money away in Macanese casinos.

Helena Fernandes said, ‘Obviously from a strategic point of view we feel this is a very good moment for us to not just pursue quantity but also to give a very good look at the quality of what we’re providing.’
Source: Yahoo News Asia

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Futian Shangri La

Futian Shangri-La, Shenzhen, a new five-star, US$200 million, flagship Shangri-La hotel, has opened in the heart of Futian, the business district of Shenzhen.

The hotel is a few minutes’ walk from Shenzhen’s mass transit railway system, which links directly to Hong Kong via the Huanggang border crossing and Futian port. It also offers easy access to Shenzhen International Bao’an Airport and the Shekou ferry terminal.

The new hotel is in a a 40-storey building with 498 guestrooms, 50 suites and 53 serviced apartments.

Among the facilities available in the rooms are an iPod dock, a 37-inch LCD television in the room with a 15-inch version in the bathroom, wired and wireless Internet connectivity, and DVD and CD players.

As a MICE hotel, Futian Shangri-La has a 1,800-square-metre grand ballroom with a high ceiling of 9.5 metres and a hydraulic built-in stage. Also available is an auditorium, a junior ballroom, a boardroom and a range of 10 function rooms.

Hong Kong-based Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts currently owns and/or manages 55 hotels under the Shangri-La and Traders brands.
Source: China NewsWire

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Beijing’s summer tourism season has been slow, and hotels and travel agencies say many potential visitors are being put off by tightened visa rules and scarce tickets to Olympic events.

Anthony Ha, general manager of the newly opened Marriott Courtyard Beijing Northeast (seen in the illustration) said, ‘We are not full at the moment, and we have rooms to fill. There’s not much time left, and we have a way to go.’

The city’s hotel industry, which has more than doubled its five- and four-star hotels offerings to 160 since Beijing was awarded the Olympics seven years ago.

A report last month from the Beijing Tourism Bureau that showed five-star hotels were 77% booked, and four stars were at 44%.

The average price of a five-star hotel in Beijing ranged from $560 to $1,150 per nightalthough some rates were reported as high as $2,000 per night during the Olympics. The four-star average was $325.

According to the bureau the number of foreign visitors to Beijing in May dropped by 12.5% from a year ago.

The shortfall in visitors coincides with new visa regulations that make it tougher for tourists and business executives to enter China.

Si Cunxia, sales manager of Travel China travel agency said, ‘A lot of the hotels overestimated their occupancy rate for July and August.’
Source: Associated Press

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

The Beijing Olympic Games are sparking fierce competition among hotel groups.

The US-based Hilton Hotels, which has five properties in China, hopes to have two more open by the end of July.
Marriott International has opened three hotels in the capital under the JW Marriott, Courtyard and Ritz-Carlton brands and increased its Beijing portfolio to seven. It is preparing to open two more, a Renaissance and a Marriott, in July.
InterContinental Hotels Group says eight more of its hotels will open this year in Beijing. The group already has nine hotels in Beijing.

Besides the new openings, many existing upscale hotels in Beijing, including New World Jing Guang Hotel, China World Hotel Beijing and Shangri-La Hotel Beijing, have redecorating and or expansion work scheduled for completion before the Games begin on August 8.

Lin Yuan, director of sales and marketing with Novotel Beijing Sanyuan said, ‘The Olympics is absolutely a golden opportunity, nobody would like to miss promoting themselves.’

There will be about 50,200 athletes, international workers, journalists, sponsors and their business clients who will be accommodated by 112 local hotels.

However, no hotel group is banking on just the Olympics. Sustainable economic growth is their goal.

The Beijing Tourism Bureau believes the number of overseas guests will grow at around 30 to 60% annually, rising to a peak in 2010, and the average occupancy rate will increase to more than 72% in 2009. A lot of hoteliers are praying that the Bureau’s projections come to fruition.
Source: China Daily

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Having just imbibed a coffee and scoffed a chocolate slice in the Accor hotel it is possible to attest that the food is quite the article. This is in Bangkok as France-based hotelier Accor multiplies its Pullman brand throughout the Asia-Pacific, Thailand’s Pullman Bangkok King Power is the model for the region.

As the writer paid for the coffee and tabnab what is written here is without fear or favor or bribe from hotel PR.

Accor has big Asia-Pacific expansion plans for its newest high-end hotel brand, and Pullman Bangkok King Power, the French hotel giant’s first Pullman hotel in Asia, opened its doors in October 2007. The favorable response from clients so far has ensured it will be the benchmark for an array of Asia-based Pullman hotels on the horizon, Accor says. This despite the fact that, in the opinion of the writer, it is a little out of the main stream but very close to the AUA where I do my Thai lessons. With little success.

By the end of 2008, the Pullman network will consist of 56 hotels and more than 13,000 rooms in 23 countries in Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and South America. Five new Pullman hotels will be launched in China by 2010.

Accor Asia-Pacific Chairman and COO Michael Issenberg, said, ‘In the Asia-Pacific region, the Pullman brand will expand rapidly in the next 12 months, particularly in China. Further extensive development is planned throughout the region over the coming years.’

Pullman Bangkok King Power’s experience in Asia will be a development model. The daft name come from the fact that King Power is a major company which plainly is the owner while Accor does the management. Judging by King Power’s performance at the new airport where all sorts of jiggery-pokery have been alleged this is no bad thing.

If the Pullman’s in China are up to this standard (and they will be) then they will be a great success.

The Pullman name derives from the opulent Pullman railway carriages that changed the face of overnight railway travel in America — and later in the UK and Europe from the 1860s. Pullman, specifically designed for business travelers, is the upscale portfolio brand of Accor.
Source: MB Publishing

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

There are still plenty of hotel rooms available for the Beijing Olympics. Director of Beijing’s Tourism Bureau Zhang Huiguang (seen in our illustration) says the crunch that was predicted doesn’t seem to be happening.

She said that about 500,000 foreigners were expected for the games which is in line with earlier predications.

She said only 77% of capacity at Beijing’s five-star hotels have been booked during the Aug. 8-24 Olympic Games and the four-star hotel rate is only 44%. And it’s even lower for three-and two-stars.

There seems to be a logical contradiction here. If the numbers of visitors expected comes up to expectations how can the hotels be so under-utilized? Has someone made a miscalculation?

One reason for the low books could, perhaps, be China’s crack down on visa procedures.

This makes it more difficult to plan travel to the Olympics and, essentially, makes it a one stop journey. Another reason, perhaps, is the immense amount of negative publicity caused by the Tibetan demonstrations. Added to which was worldwide continuing reporting on air pollution problems.

Finally, the sheer total cost of seeing the Olympics may have deterred many potential tourists.
Source: The Canadian Press

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts has opened Swissôtel Foshan, its fourth hotel in China.

The hotel is the first international hotel in the city. It is both a business and a tourist hotel.

The Zumiao Commercial District and the Fenjiang Financial District are in the immediate vicinity of the hotel, and the cities of Guangzhou and Shunde are only a short drive away.

The hotel is 208 metres tall, which makes it the highest building in Foshan and the 234 hotel rooms and suites are located on the top 15 floors. Each room has high-speed internet, and a spacious work area.

The Swissôtel Foshan provides six meeting, conference and function rooms and the grand ballroom can accommodate up to 800 people which qualifies it as a MICE hotel. There is a sauna, steam bath and swimming pool in the hotel’s spa and fitness centre.

Torsten Pinter, Swissôtel Foshan’s General Manager said, ‘Foshan and the surrounding area have a number of historical sights to offer. For example, the Zumiao Ancestral Temple built in 1078, and the Nan Feng ceramic workshops in Chancheng, which have a tradition dating back to the time of the Ming dynasty Emperor Zhengde, are well worth a visit.’

’Furthermore, in 2006 a new museum was built dedicated to Bruce Lee, who was born in Foshan.’

All hotel staff are trained in Bruce Lee martial arts and customers are warned to behave.

No. Sorry. That came out wrong.

All hotel staff are trained in the concepts of Swiss hospitality but guests can ALSO visit the Bruce Lee museum. That sounds better.
Source: Easier Travel

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

The latest foreign firm to expand in China amid the country’s economic boom is luxury hotel group, Marriott International. It hopes to open 24 more hotels in China over the next three years.

Marriott Hotels which launched its first hotel in China in 1989, says with the pending Olympic Games, it will add over 1,000 rooms in Beijing. The U.S hotel group also has its eye on the MICE (meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition) market, which is rapidly growing across China.

Three new hotels trading under the names of Marriott, Renaissance and Courtyard by Marriott will be opened in the capital this year.

The big plans for the 24 new hotels will, of course, depend totally on what happens to the price of oil. If it goes up to $200 a barrel — which is possible but perhaps not totally likely — there will be a very quick revision of plans. If it were to stabilize at, say, $120 a barrel — again possible but not likely — then the hotels will boom. Our illustration is the impressive Marriott Guangzhou.
Source: BizChina

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

In June, 2008, Xi’an will have a new hotel, Kempinski Hotel Xi’an; a part of Kempinski Hotels.

Kempinski Hotel Xi’an is very much a MICE hotel and is the official site of the bi-annual Euro-Asia Economic Forum.

It has state-of-art audio visual equipment and technology in its 1,400 sqm pillarless (very, very important attribute) ballroom, which can take up to 1,100 persons in theater style seating with separate room for the simultaneous interpretation.

Ten additional meeting rooms are available for small to medium size meetings and functions including the one-of-a-kind circular Rotunda conference room on the 5th floor which would be ideal for a meeting of equals like knights around a round table.

Because it is a new hotel it, but of course, has broadband internet connection, voice mail telephone, and a satellite TV channel in all 355 guestrooms and suites.

Later a spa and fitness center will be added plus a Paulaner Bräuhaus where you can rid of all that fitness immediately you have finished in the spa.

Kempinski Hotels is a luxury hotel group founded in 1897. Kempinski Hotels is the trading name for Kempinski Aktiengesellschaft which is an independent German delisted AG involved in a number of hotel and hospitality related businesses.

Normally we would never use as an illustration the picture at the top of the page of the staff looking pleased with themselves but this one is an exception. It is so genuine it bursts with enthusiasm.
Source: PR Kempinski

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Kempinski has opened the Kempinski Hotel Suzhou. Is set in a large estate which has the 27-hole Jinji Lake International Golf Course and a state guesthouse of five villas.

The hotel is surrounded by the scenery of Dushu and Jinji Lake. It is located 150 km from Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport and 90 km from Hongqiao Airport.

Hirsch Bedner Associates was commissioned for the interior design of the hotel.

The hotel has 381 rooms and 77 suites on 21 storeys, most of them overlooking either the lakes or the golf course. Wireless LAN is available everywhere.

This is a MICE hotel in that the meetings and banqueting facilities include one of the largest grand ballrooms in Suzhou covering 1,850 m2 and catering for up to 1,600 guests.

There are also eight meeting rooms starting from 100 m2 in size, and a state-of-the-art business centre.

There is, of course, a health center and an indoor swimming pool. Unusually — perhaps uniquely — it has indoor tennis and squash courts. The extensive spa facilities set to open towards the end of 2008 will include jacuzzi, sauna and steam rooms.
Source: Asia Travel Tips

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Hainan today styles itself on Hawaii and aims to become a luxury destination with several high-end resorts opening up for business.

April alone saw the Ritz-Carlton and Singapore-listed Banyan Tree opening resorts. The Mandarin Oriental follows in late 2008.

All of this hotel activity marks a huge change for Hainan, which until recently was known in China as a place for cheap-and-cheerful package tours, and little known abroad except in Russia, South Korea and Japan.

The Banyan Tree Sanya’s general manager, Peter Pedersen said, ‘Sanya is one of the real new tropical destinations in Asia, and in China in particular it is the only tropical island. It’s becoming more and more in demand for both the local market and the international tourist market. It makes a perfect spot. The resort’s pool villas are RMB5,000 ($716) a night.

Hoteliers say the market is ripe for the move upscale.

Michel Goget, general manager of the Ritz-Carlton Sanya said, ‘It’s going to enhance the image of Sanya as not only being a good touristic destination but also now to capture elite travelers. Not only from the mainland, but from the world.’

While most tourists to Hainan are mainland Chinese — 18 million last year against just 750,000 overseas visitors — the government is working hard to attract affluent foreigners.

Provincial tourism bureau head Zhang Qi said last month that the goal is to ‘within five years, attract 20 famous international hotel management groups, and make the number of five star, international-standard resorts rise to 60 or more.’

This may be a hope too far especially if the price of air travel zooms. Then there is the problem of visas. In Thailand and most other places in Asia you do not need them. You do for China. Sanya has a large airport but flights are limited mainly to domestic destinations.

Tourists say they love the scenery, the sea, the weather and the beaches. But, at the moment, that is all there is.

Still, the potentially huge Chinese market is a major draw for the resorts, which hope to leverage on the millions of people who have benefited from the country’s economic boom and are increasingly adopting Western lifestyles and aspirations.

Banyan Tree’s Pedersen said, ‘Some of the estimates I’ve seen suggest 450 million middle class Chinese in 10 years from now. I think Sanya has a huge potential.’ Which needs some work on the infrastructure if that potential is to be realized.
Source: Reuters

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

In Shanghai, its French Concession, the old trading quarter run by colonial France, remains a charming low-rise neighborhood of tree-lined avenues.

Here a few small, intimate hotels have opened over the past 18 months. One is the Mansion Hotel, a gracious and spacious 1930s villa.

This was once the clubhouse of Du Yue Sheng, aka ‘Big Ears Du’, one of the city’s wealthiest and most notorious gangsters.

He was a triad king who had his base in the French Concession where he bought houses and police chiefs with equal ease. He lived for many years in the mansion which later became the Donghu Hotel on Donghu Lu, and amongst his many businesses ran a bank which owned the Central Plaza building on Yanan Lu near the Bund. He had a number of wives, many concubines and links into the highest levels of Chinese politics, particularly the Nationalists led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

(You can read the full story of this interesting if not over-savory character in Tales of Old Shanghai which I strongly commend to you.)

In The Mansion hotel the fittings are of that period with rosewood cabinets, Art Nouveau lights and Shanghai-style 1930s winged armchairs.

The Mansion Hotel is about a 20-minute taxi ride from The Bund and a 15-minute drive from The People’s Square in the heart of the city. It is opposite a splendid onion-domed Russian Orthodox Church, now a library, and is close to little boutiques and cafes along Xinle and Shaanxi Roads.

There are 30 bedrooms and have all the modern gizmos which are essential to traveling life. Big flat screen TVs, printers, faxes and scanners are standard fittings in each room.

Each room is also equipped with free Wifi and also offers free broadband access. ‘Big Ears Du’ would have approved. He was ever an excellent communicator.
Source: The Independent on Sunday

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

The Lexington Collection of Hotels, Plaza Hotels, and Resorts Worldwide has opened the Lexington Plaza Zhuhai Zobon Hotel. The Lexington Plaza Zhuhai Zobon Hotel starts life with a five star rating by the Chinese National Tourism Bureau.

Located in Middle Lover’s Road — that appears to be a literal translation — in Zhuai province, the new hotel has 157 rooms.

It is unique with a black façade, which represents the contemporary architectural style of the region. It covers 16,000 square meters of prime real estate and has a 12-story structure and annex. There is, but of course, a health club and a beautiful indoor swimming pool.

The Lexington Plaza Zhuhai Zobon Hotel is a two-minute drive to Jiuzhou Port and 45 minutes to Zhuhai Airport, an hour from Hong Kong and Shenzhen and ten minutes to the island of Macau by ferry.
Source: Hotel Executive

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Otis, probably the most famous elevator company in the world, has won a $23 million contract to provide high-speed elevators at China’s Guangzhou International Financial Center, a hotel and office building that will be among the tallest in the world.

Otis will install a mix of its ‘Skyway’ double-deck elevators with speeds up to 1,378 feet per minute, and its ‘Elevonic’ high-speed gearless elevators capable of up to 1,575 feet per minute

When completed for the 2010 Asia Games in Guangzhou, China, the tower will reach a height of 1,417 feet and be among the tallest buildings in the world. The 103-story building is designed for offices on lower floors with the luxury hotel, as yet unnamed, above the 70th floor for a luxury hotel.

Otis bills itself as the world’s largest manufacturer and maintainer of ‘people-moving products’ including elevators, escalators, and moving walkways.

Elisha Graves Otis, as seen in our splendid illustration, sold his first safety elevators in 1853. Otis’s invention increased public confidence in elevators, and therefore allowed for the mass construction of a new trend of building: the skyscraper.

The company pioneered the development of the safety elevator, invented by Otis, which used a special mechanism to lock the elevator car in place should the hoisting ropes fail.

Otis made skyscrapers possible by providing safe mechanical transport to upper floors. The company he founded became known as the Otis Elevator Company, the largest elevator company in the world.
Source: Hartford Business

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

A major hotelier in Australia gets in touch to explain that the prices charged during the weeks of the Olympic Games are more than justified. Because, pretty much no matter what they charge, the hotels at the high end of the market will lose money on the deal.

Points me to the Arthur Andersen survey which has the snappy heading:

Sydney Hotels Suffer Decreased Food & Beverage Revenue and
Displacement of Loyal Guests During Olympics But Double Average Room Rate

The problem is that hotels — in Australia and Beijing — make a substantial about of their profit from F&B food and beverage.

An Olympic Games guest has an early breakfast (probably included in the price of the room) and then disappears to the Games to return late at night with sleep the major attraction.

During the period all the MICE events (and the includes all weddings which are a nice little earner) are suspended — indeed, at the Beijing Games they are banned — so the typical convention visitor who dines and drinks and stays near and in the hotel is not on the list.

And, indeed, to be on the safe side there appears to be a buffer period each side of the Games when MICE business — meeting, incentives, conventions, exhibitions plus weddings — stops dead in its tracks just to be on the safe side.

Result? Adding it all up the big hotels lose money during the Games. They did in Australia in 2000. And the hotel executive giving th information is absolutely certain the same will happen in Beijing.
Source: Hotel On Line

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

Accor, Europe’s largest hotelier,will open five Pullman hotels in China by 2010, part of plans to grow its three-month-old Pullman brand globally.

The Pullman brand, which was launched last December and targets mainly business travellers, will tap Asia’s fastest growing business travel and conference markets, Accor Asia Pacific Chairman Michael Issenberg said in the statement.

Accor said last May that it expected to double revenue from Asia in three or four years by ramping up a plan to expand across China, aiming to have as many as 160 hotels in operation or under development across the country by 2010, compared with 103 at that time.

The first Pullman hotel in China was opened in Dongguan, a city in southern Guangdong province, while another four will be opened in cities including Beijing and northern Tianjin.

Pullman derives its name from the opulent Pullman railway carriages that redefined overnight railway travel in the United States, and later in Europe in the 1860’s. They were started by George Pullman.

In 1867 Pullman introduced his first hotel on wheels, the President, a sleeper with an attached kitchen and dining car. The food rivaled the best restaurants of the day and the service was impeccable.

A year later in 1868, he launched the Delmonico, the world’s first sleeping car devoted to fine cuisine. The Delmonico menu was prepared by chefs from New York’s famed Delmonico’s Restaurant.

Traditionally, all Pullman head porters were called George in memory of the founder. There is no suggestion that this tradition will be followed in the hotels.
Source: Reuters

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com

The Mandarin Oriental, Sanya is set to open for business in the second half of 2008, with 297 guest rooms each with expansive views over the South China Sea.

Many of the larger-than-average size rooms feature private gardens with timber decks and direct access to the beach.

The rooms will have more technology than the average guest will know how to ute.

The press release refers to ‘the decadent Pavilion room category’ — which is probably where they do not host visiting journalists. They are already decadent enough.

Private villas have their own private deck areas, private outdoor lap pools, gardens and relaxation gazebos.

The Mandarin Oriental, Sanya will be the first hotel managed by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group to open in China.

Anent which I have a splendid story. Mandarin advertises using famous guests. One of them is Barry Humphries. What is not mentioned in the advertising is that the first time he stayed at The Mandarin in Hong Kong he was thrown out into the street. The writer was there.

Barry Humphries was doing his cabaret act and as a prelude he wandered around the tables dressed as Sir Les Patterson, Minister of the Artz. That is with wine slobbering from his mouth, very odd stains on his trousers and a daft leer. A posse of waiters formed, grabbed him and hurled him out into the cold night.

He had to telephone the then manager, Peter Gautschi, to come and escort him back into the hotel so he could complete his act.
Source: Asia Travel Tips and experience.

author Gareth Powell, source www.chinaeconomicreview.com