PARSIPPANY, NEW JERSEY New-build Planet Hollywood-branded hotels are being developed in Panama and China by Wyndham Hotel Group, joining the brand’s first franchise project announced earlier this month for Doha, Qatar.
The new hotels, to be managed by Wyndham, will be located in Panama City, Panama, and Boao, China. The trio of projects marks the inaugural expansion of Planet Hollywood Hotels following a September deal granting Wyndham exclusive global hotel franchising and management rights for the brand.
The planned Planet Hollywood Hotel in Panama City will feature 309 guestrooms and oceanfront suites, two restaurants, meeting facilities, an oceanfront business center, a gym, a pool, a rooftop bar and a spa. Panama-based owner RG Hotels expects the hotel to open in the city’s Financial District in 2014. It will join three other Wyndham properties in Panama City: The Veneto, A Wyndham Grand Hotel; Wyndham Garden Hotel Panama City; and the under-development Howard Johnson Panama City.
The proposed 350-key Planet Hollywood Hotel in Boao will become part of an upscale resort complex currently under development in China’s Hainan Island province that will feature multiple hotel, retail and entertainment venues. Facilities will include three restaurants, a bar, an indoor swimming pool, a fitness center, a spa and more than 3,600 sq. m of meeting and event space. The hotel will join the 1,000-key Ramada Hotel & Suites Boao, the 300-key Wyndham Grand Boao Resort and Spa and the 106-key Wyndham Boao Resort.
Planet Hollywood Hotel Entertainment City, Doha, will feature approximately 300 guestrooms, a restaurant, a café, a lounge, meeting facilities, a fitness center, a spa and a pool. Owner Regency Group Holdings expects the hotel to open in 2014. The new hotel will expand Wyndham’s presence in Qatar’s capital city, joining the soon-to-open Wyndham Grand Regency Doha and Ramada Encore Doha, both also owned by Regency Group Holdings, as well as Ramada Plaza Doha.
“When we entered into the agreement to franchise and manage the Planet Hollywood Hotels brand just a few short months ago, we pledged to bring this dynamic, entertainment-based offering to key business and leisure destinations around the world,” says Eric Danziger, Wyndham Hotel Group president and chief executive officer. “To have three properties in the development pipeline so quickly is an incredible testament to the power of the Planet Hollywood brand, as well as Wyndham Hotel Group’s ability to develop hotels and grow brands globally.”
The Planet Hollywood brand was founded in 1989 by Robert Earl, chairman of Planet Hollywood International Inc., Planet Hollywood Resorts International LLC, and Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The brand capitalizes on the global appeal of movies, sports, celebrity and entertainment-based themes. “We elected to work with Wyndham Hotel Group because of the company’s formidable scale and expertise as a global brand-builder, in an effort to further solidify the future of the Planet Hollywood Hotels brand,” Earl says. “I am delighted to see our strategy bearing fruit in such a short period of time and look forward to additional expansion opportunities in key markets.”
