Ennismore, the lifestyle hospitality company led by Accor, in partnership with Siamese Asset, announced the signing of TRIBE Bangkok Sukhumvit 39. The hotel will be the first TRIBE hotel in Thailand when it opens in the fourth quarter of this year. The hotel will be centrally positioned in one of Bangkok’s most vibrant and fashionable lifestyle neighborhoods. The design-driven hotel will open with 272 rooms and serviced apartments. The Social Hub at the heart of the hotel will feature a café and flexible spaces for work or social interaction. The hotel will also house an all-day dining restaurant and rooftop bar along with a gym, swimming pool and Onsen. Ennismore has already signed 50 TRIBE hotels and is aiming for rapid expansion with up to 100 addresses to open globally within the next five years, including in Phuket, Manila, and Singapore, by 2025.
Thai property developer Boutique Corporation has partnered with Oakwood and launched Oakwood Studios Sukhumvit Bangkok. The 177-room hotel is valued at 1.25 billion baht and has 60% of its rooms targeted at longer-stay customers and 40% for shorter-stay. The hotel is Oakwood’s second property in Asia with a studio design with the target customer base being young millennials and Southeast Asian travelers.
InterContinental Hayman Island Resorts in Australia announced the opening of a new extension – 12 new free-standing Beachfront Pavilions. The property first opened in 2019 following an extensive $135 million refurbishment of the former One&Only property. The new InterContinental Hayman Island Beachfront Pavilions sit apart from the main wings of the resort, edging closer to the rim of Hayman Bay. The pavilions are strictly for adults only even though the actual resort is famously family-friendly. Each Beachfront Pavilion has its own spacious bedroom, separated from the generously sized living room and a covered outdoor balcony extended to a private heated plunge pool.
IHG has 41 hotels with 7,136 keys across five brands in India. They are banking on the Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands to drive its growth in the country. Those two brands make up over 68% of IHG’s portfolio in India and will remain the driver of growth as economics work in their favor. IHG said the outflow of capital to build those hotels is much lower than with the big hotels. IHG’s portfolio includes 15 Holiday Inn hotels that have 2,818 rooms and 13 Holiday Inn Express hotels with 1,774 rooms. They also have 10 Crowne Plaza hotels with 2,332 rooms, two InterContinental hotels with 164 rooms, and one Six Senses hotel with 48 rooms. IHG said the average occupancy at its hotels in the first half of 2022 was close to 67%, 2% higher than in 2019. They are projecting nearly 74% occupancy in the second half of this year. IHG is planning to also bring brands like Regent, Vignette, and Kimpton to India. Expansion plans in South-West Asia include 46 properties under development in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.
The Holiday Inn Express hotel, situated at Terminal 3 at Indira Gandhi International Airport, is up for sale at an asking price of Rs 230 crore. The 93 room hotel is controlled by Devraya Hospitalities, a fully-owned subsidiary of Radius Developers. IHG manages the hotel with the term of the management contract of 15 years, which began in December 2015. There is a 20-year license agreement with Delhi International Airport Ltd that ends in June 2030. The hotel is located on the fifth floor of Terminal 3 and has seven aqua pods, all-day dining with a bar, as well as a business and fitness center.
Indian Hotels Company announced the signing of a new Ginger hotel in Gangtok, Sikkim. The hotel is a fully fitted lease in partnership with Sonam and Dorjee Bhutia. The signing is in line with IHCL’s commitment to the Northeastern part of India. IHCL now has three of its brands – Taj, Vivanta and Ginger present in Sikkim. The 87-room hotel will also feature all-day diner Qmin, a bar and a fitness center. The hotel will also have conference rooms, IHCL said the Brownfield project is slated to open in 2023.
The Pride Group of Hotels said they are scaling up their operations in North India with the launch of additional new properties by the end of 2022. The new portfolio includes hotels and resorts in Agra, Rishikesh, Haldwani, Jim Corbett, Gurugram, Nainital, Dehradun and Jaipur. The Pride Amber Vilas Resort & Convention Centre Jaipur has been extensively refurbished and is reopening this month with a lavish convention center and artistic lawns. Pride Suites Gurugram will be the first property under the brand Pride Suites, making Prides entry into the premium service apartment space. Pride Hotels Ltd has a presence in around 44 locations with 4,400 rooms, 89 restaurants, 116 banquets and conference halls.
Sherpa Hospitality Group announced the launch of its new brand, Mountain Lodges of Nepal. An evolution of the former Yeti Mountain Home and Ker & Downey Nepal, the collection of 15 family-owned premium lodges offers treks along the Great Himalaya Trails. It consists of seven lodges in the Everest region and eight in Annapurna. The evolution includes upgrading existing lodges to offer a premium international hospitality experience, adding new restaurants, building brand new lodges and adding one-of-a-kind mountain experiences. Phakding Lodge is the first newly transformed lodge to be unveiled since MLN brand’s debut, situated along the Dudh Koshi river at 8,533 feet above sea level. Deboche Lodge in the Everest region will be a new hotel by MLN, built from the ground up, expected to open by the first quarter of 2023.
South Korea’s Lotte Group began construction on a VND20 trillion complex in Thu Thiem New Urban Area in HMC in Vietnam. The complex will function as a financial, commercial and service hub and a multi-functional residential area, covering more than 74,500 square meters. The smart city will feature five basements and 60 floors of hotels and residential and commercial spaces. This is the start of Lotte Group expanding its reach in Vietnam.
Pan Pacific Hotels Group announced the reorganization of its global operational leadership team. It is organized into five regional clusters, each headed by a VP of operations. Jeremy Aniere has been appointed as VP of operations for Singapore, except for Pan Pacific Orchard. In addition to his role as GM of Pan Pacific Singapore, Jeremy will drive the operational processes, standards and performance of eight Singapore properties under the Pan Pacific Hotels Group. Marcel Holman has been appointed as VP of operations for China, Indonesia and Japan and GM for Pan Pacific Orchard, opening in 1H2023. He will oversee the operational performance of 13 properties under the group, including those in development. Richard Tan was appointed VP of operations for Dhaka and Nairobi. This expands his current purview as VP of operations for Malaysia and Indo-China. Margaret Paul has been appointed VP of pre-opening, overseeing the group’s pipeline of hotels, resorts and serviced suites. She has also been appointed VP of operations for Oceania, overseeing six properties the group currently operates in Australia. Anne Golden has been appointed as VP of operations for the UK and North America, overseeing six regional properties. She is also the GM of Pan Pacific London.
