IHCL Signs 300-Room Taj in Ayodhya

Sands China's Londoner Macao casino resort suites are bookable by the general public for dates from February 5 onward. Londoner Grand replaces the original Sheraton Macao. The regular rooms at the renovated property are available as of March 1 onward.

Accor announced the signing of the Grand Mercure Shanghai Century Park, their newest addition to the Grand Mercure Hotels & Resorts portfolio in Greater China. The hotel is located in the Pudong District, adjacent to the Shanghai New International Expo Center. It is set to open in March 2025, welcoming guests with an upgraded Grand Mercure brand experience. Accor has nearly 30 Grand Mercure hotels open and operating in Greater China, accounting for over a third of the premium brand's global portfolio, along with more than 50 of the hotels in development. Other key new openings in 2025 will include Grand Mercure Shenyang Oriental and Grand Mercure Wuxi Huishan. The Grand Mercure Shanghai Century Park has 326 guestrooms, including 57 suites. There are two restaurants and a bar, a fitness center, a swimming pool, a ballroom, multiple meeting rooms and an executive lounge. The hotel is at the entrance to Pudong Thumb Plaza.

Construction has begun on the Radisson Blu Mirage Resort Fiji following the securing of funding from the Fiji National Provident Fund and BSP. Nearly 80% of the apartments that will be part of the resort have already been sold, with about 30 apartments remaining for those seeking to invest in Fiji's property market. Radisson Blu Mirage Resort Fiji will offer five-star amenities when completed.

Century Properties Group unveiled The Hotel Residences at Acqua, a premium development offering fully furnished, hotel-grade condo suites in Mandaluyong Cityin the Philippines. The project is described as providing residents with hotel-inspired living in a prime location with access to Makati CBD and EDSA. Amenities include a gym, pool, function rooms and a waterfront clubhouse with various facilities.

Star Entertainment Group has begun the fire sale to try to get another month or two to give them more time to beg for funding or tax breaks. Star said they will sell off the Star Sydney Event Center and other associated spaces at the Star Sydney to Foundation Theatres as part of an A$60 million deal. Star filed with the ASX that they executed an exclusivity arrangement and binding term sheet setting out key terms to divest the event center, subject to finalizing long-form transaction documents and some customary conditions, including government and regulatory consents. Foundation Theatres will pay the A$60 million exclusivity fee into escrow on or before January 31, 2025 which will be released to Star as consideration once the disposal is finalized. Foundation Theatres has already had the Sydney Lyric sublease since 2011, working closely with Star.

Hotel 101 welcomed the Year of the Wood Snake with a major announcement of its global expansion plans. The company remains committed to listing the company on Nasdaq in the United States. They also announced developments within the Philippines, including new hotels in Davao, Cebu and Mactan Airport, alongside international projects in Madrid, Spain and in Niseko, Japan.

Indian Hotels Company announced the signing of a Taj hotel in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh. The development with the Solitaire Group is a brownfield project. The hotel is expected to open in 2026, spanning across 7.2 acres. The 300 key Taj Ayodhya, a unit of The Solitaire Group, will also feature 29 luxury villas, an all-day diner, two specialty restaurants along with the J Wellness Circle spa, a gym, a swimming pool and a kids' club. For events and celebrations, the hotel will offer expansive banqueting space spanning over 34,000 square feet. The hotel will be located near the Lucknow-Ayodhya Highway, approximately 20 minutes from Ram Mandir. IHCL has a multi-brand presence in Rishikesh, Haridwar, Vrindavan, Prayagraj and Varanasi. They also said they are investing in the expansion of the Taj Ganges for the addition of 100 rooms which will be operational in the coming months. With the addition of the Taj Ayodhya, IHCL will have 31 hotels in Uttar Pradesh including 18 under development.

ITC Hotels, falling -5% on their trading debut after being demerged from the parent company, said they are strengthening their ties with Bengal. The group has six operating hotels in the state and expects to double that in the next two to three years. The new hotels are expected to come up in Siliguri, Kalimpong, Santiniketan and near Kolkata, mostly being managed hotels. ITC Hotels plans to up the managed hotels percentage in their portfolio to 66% from the current 50%.

OYO's flex space startup Innov8 has successfully concluded INR 110 crore of a primary funding round. The company diluted a 10% stake for the capital infusion, with the offering oversubscribed by 2.7 times. The fundraising was facilitated by InCred, priced at a valuation of INNR 1000 crore. The round was led by prominent family offices, including those of Manking Pharma, Gauri Khan, Rupa Group and Jagruti Dalmia, with those investors accounting for 55% of the total funds raised. Innov8 recently announced it plans to double its coworking centers in India to 100 in this current calendar year. The capital raised will support inorganic growth opportunities such as acquisitions, technology upgrades, partnerships and expansion into niche segments. Innov8 recently launched two state-of-the-art centers in Mumbai at Navi Mumbai and Andheri, with each center spanning over 1 lakh square feet with a total seating capacity of 3,000, marking Innov8's largest facilities to date. They want to expand their presence in existing Tier 1 cities, including Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad. Innov8 also plans to add 4 million square feet of managed office space in India in the coming three years.