ROSEWOOD TO GREECE: Rosewood Hotels & Resorts has marked its entry into Greece with the announcement of Rosewood Blue Palace in Crete. Following the reimagination of the former Blue Palace in Crete, the hotel will reopen in 2025 as a Rosewood-branded hotel. The hotel is owned by Phāea (Golf Residences S.A.). Located between the fishing village of Plaka and the port of Elounda, the seaside hotel will have 154 rooms and suites, of which 85 will include private pools. The interiors will be renovated by Grecian firm K-Studio, with Greek-born, London-based interior designer Afroditi Krassa designing the resort’s six dining venues. The resort will feature a spa, a fitness center, a movement studio and three outdoor pools with panoramic ocean views. The reimagination and reopening of Rosewood Blue Palace will be the latest entrant to Rosewood’s European portfolio, which includes properties in locations such as London, Vienna, Tuscany, Paris, Madrid and Munich.
THE RITZ-CARLTON OPENS IN PORTLAND: The Ritz-Carlton has opened in Portland, Ore. The 35-story, 251-key luxury hotel is the first Ritz-Carlton hotel in the Pacific Northwest. Located in downtown Portland, The Ritz-Carlton, Portland is housed in a 460-foot crystalline tower designed by GBD Architects. The hotel’s interiors have been designed by ROAM Interior Design. The hotel features 207 rooms and 44 suites along with The Ritz-Carlton Club on the 20th floor, a spa with five treatment rooms and an infinity pool offering panoramic views of the Cascade Mountains, a signature restaurant, lobby bar and more than 17,000 square feet of meeting and event space. The Ritz-Carlton currently operates over 110 hotels across 35 countries.
AHLA, INCENTIFIND PARTNER: The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) has partnered with IncentiFind to help AHLA’s over 30,000 members to find $70 billion of sustainability-related savings. The partnership will allow AHLA members to avail of special pricing on IncentiFind’s VERIFY Report, which identifies rebates and savings for asset enhancements. IncentiFind is a green building incentive database that provides more than half a million incentives, which include tax credits, grants, fee waivers, rebates and bill credits. This partnership is AHLA’s latest step to promote sustainability in the hotel industry under the Responsible Stay initiative.
LOEWS HOLLYWOOD, UNITE HERE JOIN HANDS: Loews Hollywood and Unite Here Local 11 have reached a tentative agreement following a summer of strikes. The Loews Hollywood has signed an agreement with the union workers, joining the Westin Bonaventure and the Biltmore Los Angeles, according to a statement. Unite Here Local 11 is the union of over 32,000 workers in hotels, restaurants, sports arenas, airports and convention centers across Southern California and Arizona. After the contract is ratified, close to 300 workers at the Loews Hollywood will enjoy unprecedented wage hikes at par with the cost of housing in Southern California; affordable family healthcare; humane work pressure and safe staffing; improved pension increases; and other improvements such as equal justice which will provide access to union jobs for previously incarcerated individuals and ban the use of e-verify in hiring.
MY PLACE HOTELS ADDS IN QUAD CITIES: My Place Hotels of America has expanded its presence in Quad Cities with the opening of My Place Hotel-East Moline in East Moline, Ill. This is the 69th opened and operating property in the U.S. and the second hotel in the Quad Cities region. The upper midscale extended stay hotel is managed by Golder Hospitality. The hotel has 64 rooms designed following the Gen 2 My Place prototype. All rooms feature a refrigerator, cooktop, coffee maker and microwave. Currently, there are around 70 My Place Hotels open in 29 states and over 120 hotels in the pipeline.