Puerto Rico: JLL arranged the sale of a beachfront casino hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to an unidentified Chinese buyer for US$184 million. The 527-key San Juan Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino sold for more than $350,000 per key, according to market sources.
Intertur: KKR, Alua Hotels & Resorts and Duna Capital acquired four hotels in the Balearic islands totaling 1,119 rooms. The hotels, in Mallorca and Ibiza, will be managed by Alua and marketed under the Alua brand starting in 2018. A purchase price was not disclosed.
Deutsche Hospitality: Thomas Willms will join the supervisory board of Steigenberger Hotels AG in June as chief operating officer. He will be responsible for operations and sales and marketing for Deutsche Hospitality’s Steigenberger, Jaz in the City and IntercityHotel brands. Willms previously was SVP in Central and Eastern Europe at Starwood Hotels & Resorts.
SureStay: Best Western Hotels & Resorts’ SureStay Hotel Group will open its first Asian hotel in downtown Bangkok in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Groceries: A grocery delivery service is being piloted at eight Hawthorn Suites extended-stay hotels in the Chicago area, Philadelphia, Connecticut, North Carolina and Orlando, Florida. Delivery is being managed by retail delivery service Instacart and online grocer Peapod.
IHG: An InterContinental hotel will open at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport in Minnesota in summer 2018. The 12-story, 291-room hotel is a partnership between Graves Hospitality and Intercontinental Real Estate Corporation.
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Mandarin Oriental: Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group signed a management contract to manage and brand a 310-room hotel in Santiago, Chile. The company will take over management in August and rename it the Hotel Santiago. It will reopen after a renovation in stages starting in August 2018.
Le Pirate: Indonesian brand Le Pirate International is teaming up with Bill Barnett’s C9 Hotelworks to develop the beach club poshtel concept elsewhere in Asia through licensing and branding with other developers. It’s focusing on the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.
Chinese travelers: Travel technology company Sabre released a report outlining the behavior and motivation of Chinese travelers. Among the findings: Nine out of 10 now have the means and hope to travel more frequently compared with five years ago; and 78% want the help of travel service providers. Nearly as many (74%) seek the flexibility to plan independently.
Belmond: Belmond acquired the Belmond Las Casitas in Colca Canyon, Peru, a 20-room property. Separately, it launched the Belmond Andean Explorer, which it says is South America’s first luxury sleeper train.