Industry News, November 2010

London’s hotels are on track to smash occupancy levels next year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ UK hotels forecast. The firm expects occupancy growth of 4.1% in the city in 2011, taking occupancy up to 85%.

Users of Wyboston Lakes’ Waterfront Conference Centre are now benefiting from the recent completion of more than £300,000 worth of improvements. Wyboston was the only specialist conference centre in the whole of the East of England region to reach the finals of the recent Enjoy England awards 2010 run by East of England Tourism.

ETC Venues has announced that the Paddington Waterside Development will join its portfolio of venues when it opens March 2011. The venue has capacity for 500 guests and will be situated next door to Marks & Spencer’s Paddington headquarters.

The Plough & Harrow Hotel in Edgbaston, Birmingham is undergoing a £500 000 facelift. Work has already commenced on the refurbishment of this landmark hotel on the Hagley Rd, in the centre of Birmingham. Acquired at the end of February 2010 by TTM Partnership the program is being lead by Robert Smith a former Director of privately owned group Paten Hotels and now managing director of Complete Hotels Services. The initial work has seen investment in the main bedroom block of 36 rooms, including the addition of free internet, LCD TV’s, beds and soft furnishings, and the public areas while the second stage will concentrate on the 6 conference rooms, restaurant and the 8 bedroom in the main building.

Von Essen Hotels acquired The Llangoed Hall Hotel in Brecon – this 23-bedroom hotel, 4 star deluxe hotel fits perfectly into the von Essen collection.

Regus has teamed up with PR expert Lynne Franks to open a series of meeting spaces for women. The B.hive flagship has opened in Covent Garden. A further 3 will open in Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester.

The third and final phase of Manchester Central Convention Complex’s £30m redevelopment has been completed ahead of schedule. The new extension includes 2000 sqm of flexible space for up to 800 delegates.

Macdonald Hotels & Resorts has unveiled the Macdonald Windsor Hotel. The contemporary townhouse in central Windsor boasts 120 luxury bedrooms and has the capacity to host large conferences and events for up to 150 delegates in the Castle Suite, and up to 70 in the St Georges Suite. Two executive boardrooms and two syndicate rooms are also available.

Leicester hotel and restaurant Maiyango has teamed up with new Christian community centre St Martin’s House to launch a conferencing facility. The centre, which is within the former Leicester Grammar School building next to Leicester Cathedral, will offer high quality conferencing and events space for up to 150 guests when it opens in January.

Dorchester Collection has opened Coworth Park, a five star country house hotel and spa, bordering on Windsor Great Park, near Ascot.  The luxury 70 room hotel is set in 240 acres of Royal Berkshire parkland. There are 30 bedrooms and suites in The Mansion House and a further 28 in the renovated stable block.

The Maiden’s Tower is a new self-contained event venue at historic Leeds Castle in Kent. The 16th century tower, set on the castle island and surrounded by a moat, has been fully refurbished. It now offers a peaceful and private setting for meetings in its two conference rooms, the Gallery and the Tudor Hall, able to accommodate up to 100 delegates theatre style. There are 40 bedrooms on-site.

Blue Fin Venue is a new event space on London’s South Bank, next to the Tate Modern. The striking building, managed by Sodexo Prestige, is clad in 2000 aluminium fins and has views across the Thames. The venue has 9 meeting rooms accommodating up to 40 people, a lecture theatre for up to 96 guests and a wine tasting room. Other spaces available include a double storey glass reception space, known as the Wintergarden, the landscaped Roof Garden terrace, which can accommodate up to 250 people and the Blue Sky Lounge, which overlooks St Paul’s Cathedral and can host up to 150 people.

Leeds United FC has opened its new Centenary Pavilion at Elland Road, which is now the largest conference and exhibition space in the city. The Pavilion offers pillar-free space for up to 1600 people theatre style and 1250 for a dinner.

Excel London as added an additional £8m to upgrade phase one of its development plan. They have already installed LED lighting, digital signage and refurbished the waterfront cafe’s. The additional £8m will be spent on standardising the event space across the board – adding a fire alarm, PA voice activation system, a building management system and CCTV.

 
A 200 bed conference facility and improvements to the existing facilities will be key parts of the University of Birmingham’s £300m plan for construction and refurbishment works at its Victorian Campus in Edgbaston. Plans are in the early stages and if they get the go ahead work should be completed over the next 5 to 10 years.

 
Q hotels have invested a further £935,000 into its portfolio following on from the £1m investment earlier this year. Earlier investments have included the refurbishment of 22 bedrooms at The Oxford Belfry and a £750,000 refurbishment of The Petersfield Suite at The Midland in Manchester.
 

Sol Melia has acquired a building in Holborn, near Trafalgar square. The Spanish chain plans to open its second London hotel in 2012 offering 173 bedrooms and 730sqm of event space.

An extensive front of house renovation has helped The Brighton Centre secure the 2012 Liberal Democrat autumn party conference. The event is expected to bring 8000 delegates and £10m to the local economy.

Southport Conferences offers a dedicated delegate bike loan scheme, aimed at reducing the number of business visitors using cars.

International

The first European Forum on Sustainability in the Events Industry (ESFMI) was held in Bruges this June. The key message to come out of the forum was that sustainability and corporate social responsibility is here to stay. Development of a new online Global Sustainability Management system has been designed for meeting planners to measure, report and benchmark.

Barcelona’s international airport has been named Europe’s Best Airport amongst the continent’s top facilities handling at last 25 million passengers. The Airport Council International (ACI), which represents 400 airports, announced the results during the 20th ACI Assembly held in Milan earlier this summer. Barcelona won the ‘over 25 million passengers’ category for its magnificent new facilities, officially opened last year. One of the reasons for Barcelona’s top position was the quality of its service for disability groups, says Spanish airports operator AENA. Other aspects that were highly valued at Barcelona Airport were the security systems, the shopping and leisure offer, and 100 million Euro environmental measures like its solar energy plan –which includes the installation of 696 solar panels.

Next Spring Barcelona’s trade fair plans to open two new halls with a total of 40,000 m2 at its Gran Via facilities to make a total of 240,000 m2, on ground located between Barcelona and Hospitalet, close to the city airport. Barcelona is the second largest trade fair in Europe and the new halls (numbered 5 and 7) will ensure Barcelona’s place at the world’s top table of trade fairs.

A multi-functional theatre and event hall will open in Budapest’s 13th district next March. An unusual feature of RaM Colosseum will be the variable height of the theatre’s auditorium, which enables the facility to hold performances, conferences and gala dinners. The theatre can host up to 630 people and there is a restaurant for 200, a grill terrace for 100 and an underground garage.

The Tivoli Congress Centre has opened in the heart of Copenhagen, adjacent to the new 402 room Tivoli Hotel. The centre has a congress hall accommodating up to 2500 delegates, two tiered seating auditoriums with capacity of 200 & 400 respectively. There are also 20 conference and meeting rooms for groups of 6 – 180.

 
Hampton by Hilton has opened its first hotel in continental Europe. The Hampton by Hilton Berlin City West is located in the heart of western Berlin and offers 214 bedrooms and four meeting rooms.

 
The nhow hotel (NH Hoteles) is opening this month in the centre of Berlin. It has 304 rooms and a conference centre, comprising of 7 function rooms, the largest of which holds 600 people in theatre style.

 
The Conrad Quinta Do Lago, with 158 rooms, extensive meeting space and a spa is due to open soon just outside Lagos in the Algarve, Portugal.

 
Shangri-La Hotel in Paris is due to open on the 17th December 2010. The luxury hotel and restored property will offer 81 bedrooms of which 40% will have unobstructed views over The Eiffel Tower. Other facilities include a restaurant, pool, fitness area and 900m2 of event space.

Sol Melia has invested in its Melia Colbert Boutique Hotel in Paris. Upgrades have been made to all 39 bedrooms and to The Grand Suite which has views over Notre Dame.