- Hyatt plans to grow its Americas brand portfolio with 140 additional hotels in its pipeline for opening by 2022
- Marriott signs for St Regis Almasa in Egypt's new administrative capital
- The US hotel industry is set for a flat RevPAR performance in 2020
- Best Western boosts its African portfolio… and there's more growth to come in 2020
- News briefs - bitesize updates of latest industry news and developments
Hyatt plans to grow its Americas brand portfolio with 140 additional hotels in its pipeline for opening by 2022
Hyatt Hotels Corporation has plans to grow its Americas brand portfolio with the expected opening of more than 50 full service and select service hotels in 2020 and the addition of more than 140 additional hotels to its pipeline of hotels expected to open by 2022. This growth is set to fuel Hyatt's regional brand presence. The newly executed deals for properties - under management and franchise agreements - will join 585 Hyatt hotels that are currently open and operating in the Americas. The region continues to be "a top priority" for Hyatt and prospective developers due to business demand in several strong regional markets like California, Texas, New York, Canada and Mexico. Notably, Hyatt's newest brands - Alila, Destination Hotels, Joie de Vivre, and Thompson Hotels - are experiencing strong growth. New openings and executed managed and franchised deals, include: the 225-room Thompson Washington DC, which marked the Thompson Hotels brand's introduction to the nation's capital in Jan-2020; a 130-room Alila hotel in Encinitas, California, which will mark the Alila brand's first new-build hotel in the Americas in early 2021; the 80-room Quirk Hotel Charlottesville; and a 161-room Joie de Vivre hotel and 226-room hotel within the Destination Hotels brand, located in Oceanside, California, opening in late 2020.
Marriott signs for St Regis Almasa in Egypt's new administrative capital
Marriott International has signed an agreement to open a St Regis property in the new administrative capital of Egypt, just outside of Cairo in the second quarter of this year. The St Regis Almasa will occupy the existing Almasa Royal Palace luxury hotel at the entrance of the up-and-coming city that is slated to become the administrative and financial hub of Egypt. The property is located adjacent to a 42,000-square-foot convention centre that hosts official government conventions and events, as well as official foreign presidents' visits. The hotel consists of 270 rooms, 90 suites, 60 apartments and 14 villas. Other facilities include outdoor and indoor swimming pools, a gym, spa, club house and 20 food and beverage outlets.
The US hotel industry is set for a flat RevPAR performance in 2020
For the first time since 2009, the US hotel industry is projected for a non-growth year in revenue per available room (RevPAR), according to STR and Tourism Economics' first forecast of 2020. The signs were there in 2019, which was recorded as the industry's worst year since the recession for RevPAR growth, which came in at an uninspiring 0.9% after nine years of increases of basically 3% or higher. The forecasts no change in RevPAR in 2020, and a small +0.5% growth for 2021. The previous version of the US hotel forecast released in Nov-2019 called for RevPAR increases of +0.5% in 2020 and +0.7% in 2021. All chain scale segments are likely to report occupancy decreases in 2020, according to STR, the worst of which coming from upscale properties (-0.9%). Luxury chains are projected to post the largest gains in ADR (+1.2%) and RevPAR (+0.9%).
Best Western boosts its African portfolio… and there's more growth to come in 2020
Best Western Hotels & Resorts has recently introduced three new properties in Kenya, adding 210 additional rooms to its portfolio in Africa. These comprise the 101-room Best Western Plus Westlands (opened in Dec-2019) located in the heart of Nairobi's upmarket entertainment and vibrant Westlands district; the 44-room Best Western Kisumu (also opened in Dec-2019); and the soon-to-open 71-room (including seven suites) Best Western Azure Airport, situated inside an ultra-modern quintessential shopping mall to the south of Nairobi, close to the Wilson airport. The brand expects to open three more hotels in 2020, welcoming Best Western Plus Pearl Addis in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Best Western Plus SOAHO in Douala, Cameroon and our first Vib hotel on the continent in Cape Town, South Africa.
News briefs
- The Government of The Bahamas and Airbnb have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) establishing a framework of mutual collaboration and cooperation on areas of common interest, including marketing promotion and good faith engagement. Airbnb will continue work to help stimulate inclusive, sustainable tourism throughout the archipelago.
- American Airlines reportedly plans to remove the ability for passengers to earn or convert AAdvantage miles at Hilton, Best Western or Choice Hotels, effective 01-Apr-2020, according to a story by The Points Guy.
- Managed by Hawkeye Hotels, the Four Points by Sheraton Peoria has formally opened. The 323-key property is located a short drive from Peoria Civic Center, Caterpillar Visitors Center, and Peoria Riverfront Museum, around six miles from General Wayne A Downing Peoria International airport.
- Hotelbeds has announced a preferred agreement with Dotz, a leading Brazilian points redemption programme. As part of the agreement Dotz's 40 million Brazilian subscribers are now able to reserve hotel properties available in Hotelbeds' Brazilian portfolio.
- Accor has opened the 351-room ibis Styles Dubai Airport hotel near Dubai International airport. The hotel offers a shuttle bus for pick-up and drop-off services to and from the airport's Terminal 1 and 3.
- JetBlue Travel Products has relaunched JetBlue Vacations, with new additions including Very Important Perks (VIP) and the Insider Experience. VIP is a programme that partners with certain hotels to offer passengers benefits such as room and restaurant discounts, free airport transfers and a guaranteed late checkout, while the Insider Experience offers to place passengers in the charge of local experts throughout their journey at no additional charge. The Insider Experience will also include benefits as free airport transfers and is currently available in JetBlue Vacation packages for Aruba and Punta Cana. Insider will later become available at Cancun in Feb-2020, with other destinations to follow later in 2020.
- A dual-branded Marriott Hotels and Residence Inn by Marriott property opened in downtown Lexington, Kentucky in Jan-2020. Located on the 100 block of West Main Street, the hotels are owned by City Center Hotels, a joint venture between The Webb Companies and Greer Companies and managed by NorthStar Hospitality. The new properties together offer a combined 337 guest rooms, sharing amenities such as a rooftop relaxation pool, a fitness centre, meeting space and a rooftop restaurant and bar.
- Millennium Hotels and Resorts and Johnson Controls have announced a technology alliance to drive energy savings and operational cost reduction by applying latest energy efficiency product technology and digitalisation concepts. he partnership will address the hoteliers entire asset portfolio of existing and new hotels to create a "scalable, sustainable and smart enterprise solution approach".
- ONOMO Hotels has continued its development in Southern Africa with the opening of a new hotel in Maputo, Mozambique in Dec-2019, bringing up its network in Southern Africa to seven hotels, among which five are in South Africa and one in Rwanda. The 165-room ONOMO Hotel Maputo is located on Avenida 25 de Setembro, in the heart of downtown Maputo.
- Sabre Corporation has signed a strategic long-term global partnership with OYO Hotels & Homes, connecting it to almost 900,000 travel agents globally through Sabre's GDS connectivity solution, helping to potentially generate increased bookings and open up additional revenue opportunities for its asset owners worldwide.
- Perth Airport has requested Expressions of Interest (EoI) from experienced hotel operators for a hotel development on the airport estate. The proposed development is located on Dunreath Drive, next to Redcliffe rain station on the Forrestfield Airport Link, one of up to three hotel offerings expected to be developed on the airport estate.
- Real Hospitality Group has selected developer of business intelligence and data integration software ProfitSword to obtain a real-time overview of its financial performance across the breadth of its organisation.