Pass the Doritos: In a collaboration with Lord Jones, makers of cannabis and CBD infused products, The Standard Hollywood in early 2018, subject to approval from California authorities, will house a retail store on the ground floor offering cannabis infused products for hotel guests and locals.
Wanda a seller: Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group is offering to sell its large-scale projects, including hotels, in Britain, the U.S. and Australia to a single buyer for an estimated US$5 billion, as Beijing tightens control over companies’ offshore investments. It is the latest move by Wanda, owned by billionaire Wang Jianlin, to offload assets as the central government ramps up pressure on the company to curb offshore expansion and reduce its debt levels.
More from South China Morning Post
Fattal in Eilat: Fattal Hotels, along with partners Ontario and Emma hotels, will build its first new hotel in Eilat, Israel in over 15 years. The 182-room hotel will be a fourth high-rise hotel with 13 floors. Total investment for building the hotel will be NIS 140 million ($US40 million).
Wyndham dual brand: Wyndham Hotel Group signed one of the largest hotel developments in the Brickell district of Miami to its managed hotel portfolio: a 445-room, dual-branded hotel with a combination of the Wyndham Grand and TRYP by Wyndham brands. The hotel, expected to open in late 2019, is the first U.S. development for Galwan, one of the largest residential and hotel developers in Brazil.
Trump slump: New research shows that average room rates have fallen by as much as 63% at all but one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 13 hotels. Hardest hit was Trump Las Vegas. The average cost of a two-night stay in a standard double room during January 2017, just before Trump’s inauguration, was priced at US$841 according to analysis by FairFX, the currency provider. A two-night stay in January 2018, one year later, can be had for just US$313.
Holiday Inn and Suites Geelong: IHG has entered into a 20-year management agreement with Franzé Developments to open and operate Holiday Inn and Suites Geelong, the largest hotel in the city. Opening in 2020, the 190-room property will be the first new hotel in Geelong in more than twenty years. It’s also IHG’s first Holiday Inn hotel in Australia to include a ‘suites’ offering, with 40 suites intended for the longer stay segment.
Premier Inn upping rooms, halving size: Premier Inn, the UK’s largest hotel brand, is set to double the number of rooms at some of its properties – by halving them in size. The prototype plans will be tested in Roath, Cardiff, to transform a hotel with 70 rooms into 140. An application to a Cardiff council shows that rooms will be created on both sides of a corridor and some will be internally facing with no windows.
BCD and Concur: BCD Travel’s clients who use Concur Travel will now gain access to the same hotel choices already available to travelers who book hotels using a BCD agent or the TripSource app and website, BCD’s traveler engagement platform. The integration will also help fix the problem of inconsistent content across booking channels.
U.S. industry data, STR: The U.S. hotel industry reported positive results in the three key performance metrics during October, according to data from STR. In a year-over-year comparison with October 2016, the industry posted the following: Occupancy: +1.6% to 69.6%; Average daily rate (ADR): +2.5% to US$130.20; RevPAR: +4.1% to US$90.56.