Top Stories
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Hotel industry copes with recovery that hasn’t reached some areas
RoomsKen Edwards is seeing recovery in the secondary and tertiary markets in which he owns and operates. But the pace of progress is slower than he would like. Whereas in the past economic growth roared back with increases of 3% to 4%, recent expansion has trudged along at 1% to 1.5%, he said. “I believe that [...]
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No one will ever miss the hotel phone
DigitalAt least the public payphone is dying a public death, right in front of everyone, in the streets. The one in that hotel room is still there, sitting on that bed-side table along with the quaint paper pad and alarm clock, atrophying from disuse, used only as a glorified intercom to order room service and [...]
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The annual Hotels.com Club Sandwich Index calls out Geneva for $31 meal
RoomsHotel guests in Geneva will need to fork out almost £20, on average, for a single club sandwich, new research has revealed. The Swiss city topped the annual Club Sandwich Index (CSI), published today by the website Hotels.com, which claims to provide holidaymakers with a rough indication of the cost of visiting a variety of [...]
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Free Tibet protesters continue attack on InterContinental’s plan for Lhasa hotel
DestinationsCampaigners protested outside the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane in London yesterday at plans to open a five-star hotel in Tibet. InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) looks after around 4,500 hotels in more than 100 countries and is planning on opening a five-star resort in Lhasa, the administrative capital of Tibet, in 2014. But members of [...]
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Oyster hotel review site fires staff and hopes for asset sale
DigitalOyster fired most of its staff, and is hoping to hang on with lower overhead costs until it can find a white-knight buyer. Skift broke the news June 1 that the hotel review site had put itself up for sale, and ValleyWag reported today that Oyster had fired most of the edit staff. A handful [...]
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As Iraq’s troubles continue, Kurdish region building a $2 billion resort
DestinationsEmaar Properties PJSC of Dubai and Kurdish company Faruk Group Holding will soon sign a contract valued at more than $2 billion to develop a resort in Iraq’s oil-rich Kurdish region in the north, a government official said. The Dukan tourist city project will be built in Sulaymaniyah near the border with Iran, Herish Muharam [...]
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The state of staff satisfaction and salaries at hotels across the Middle East
DestinationsOver the years, the Hotelier Middle East Salary Survey has generally uncovered a workforce that feels underpaid and concerned about the future. This year, a few streaks of light may suggest a new dawn for sentiment and salaries. The hands of history are still developing the Middle East’s hospitality industry, revealing a polarised picture of [...]
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Global hotel groups ditch real estate to focus on branding revenues
RoomsHotel branding and franchising is quite different today than in the 1950s, when Kemmons Wilson began franchising the Holiday Inn brand across the United States to ensure quality and consistency throughout a family’s summer road trip. The strength of a hotel brand—its importance and what it means to traveling consumers—has ebbed and flowed since. Many [...]
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Las Vegas convention season is good: Hotel room rates and occupancy up in April
DestinationsTourism officials say they counted 3.34 million visitors to Las Vegas in April, up a slight 0.5 percent from the same month in 2012. A Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority report released Monday showed that that hotel room rates increased almost 7 percent — from a little more than $108 in April 2012 to [...]
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Dubai’s economic rebound hinged on hotel and restaurant activity
DestinationsDubai’s gross domestic product expanded the most in five years in 2012 as the emirate, whose economy collapsed after the global credit crisis, rebounded on hotel and restaurant activities. The emirate’s economy grew 4.4 percent last year, compared with 3.6 percent in 2011 and 3.5 percent in 2010, according to Dubai Statistics Center data. The [...]
