Trust no one: Billionaire real estate developer Jeffrey Soffer triggered an investigation that led to the prosecution of a Colombian-born con man who pretended to be a rich Saudi “sultan” and a diplomat. Soffer initially believed Anthony Gignac when he posed as a Saudi prince and expressed interest in paying US$440 million for 30% ownership of one of Soffer’s hotels. The criminal complaint doesn’t identify Soffer or the hotel by name, but unidentified sources told the Miami Herald that the unnamed hotelier in the complaint is Soffer and the hotel is the Fontainebleau resort in Miami Beach.
A tough sell: The attempted auction of Delhi’s iconic 5-star hotel Taj Mahal (known as Taj Mansingh after the road on which it is located) keeps unfolding for the capital’s civic body, New Delhi Municipal Council. The council’s second attempt to auction the property a month after the one first failed, has attracted only two bids, one less than the minimum three required to take the auction process ahead. Apart from Indian Hotels Company which is the current operator, tobacco-to-FMCG conglomerate ITC also submitted bids Monday.
More from The Business Standard
Airbnb names new China prez: Airbnb has named Chinese entrepreneur Tao Peng its president in China. Peng has founded a number of companies in the travel space including Breadtrip, a social application for recording and sharing trips, back in 2012, and more recently CityHome, a service for short-terms rentals across China. According to reports, the accommodation platform invested US$5 million in CityHome in recent weeks, with Nathan Blecharczyk, Airbnb co-founder and chief strategy officer quoted as saying CityHome would improve Airbnb’s “operational efficiency.”
Scandic signs in Helsinki: Scandic has signed a long-term lease agreement with Finnish private equity fund CapMan to take over a 178-room hotel in Helsinki. In conjunction with this, the parties have also agreed to extend leases for an additional four hotels with a total of 979 rooms. The new hotel is located in Helsinki’s Pasila area. It has 178 rooms, seven meeting rooms with capacity for a total of almost 300 people, two restaurants and a gym. Scandic will take over the hotel from its current operator in 2020.
Fibra Inn acquires in Cancun: Deutsche Bank Mexico/Fibra Inn, a Mexican real estate investment trust, is entering the beach hotel segment with the signing a purchase option for a property in Riviera Maya. The company signed an exclusive purchase option to acquire the 441-room Secrets Silversands Riviera Cancun resort. The total investment will be US$160 million plus an estimated US$20 million that will be used for the room expansion and various investments in the property.
Booking Holdings acquires HotelsCombined: Booking Holdings has entered into an agreement to acquire hotel metasearch site, HotelsCombined. Based in Sydney, Australia with a strong presence in APAC and thousands of active affiliates worldwide, HotelsCombined will report into Booking Holdings’ leading travel metasearch brand, Kayak.
New president for Mosaic: San Rafael, California-based Mosaic Hotel Group a subsidiary of Palisades Hospitality Group appointed Edmund Sulzman president. He will be responsible for overseeing the hotel group’s current portfolio of six boutique hotels, as well as spearheading developments and upcoming hotel launches in California and Mexico. Sulzman joined Mosaic Hotel Group from Trust Hospitality in Miami, where as senior vice president of operations he opened and operated hotels throughout the U.S. and Caribbean.
London – occupancy up but rates down: STR’s preliminary June 2018 data for London, England, indicates higher occupancy but lower rates.
Based on daily data from June, London reported the following in year-over-year comparisons:
- Supply: +1.9%
- Demand: +4.1%
- Occupancy: +2.2% to 86.1%
- ADR: -0.6% to GBP160.84
- RevPAR: +1.6% to GBP138.46
June was London’s first month with a year-over-year occupancy increase since May 2017. On the other hand, June was the fourth month in a row with an ADR decrease after 16 straight positive months in the metric.