Australian hotels hit by price crash

By Bridget Carter

AUSTRALIA'S top hotels lost out on an estimated $270 million in revenue last year on the back of falling room rates and lower occupancies. 
The room rates of Australia's 500 biggest hotels fell by an average $9 per night, according to hotel research group STR Global.
The slide came as hotels, such as the Mirvac-controlled Cairns Sebel hotel, were quietly offered for sale late last year, while others have been tipped into receivership in the aftermath of the industry downturn, The Australia reports.
In the past two weeks, listed hotel operators have blamed room rate reductions for the millions of dollars wiped from their bottom lines while reporting half year results.

Room rates of Australia's 500 biggest hotels fell by an average $9 per night. Source: The Australian

 

Industry sources said some hotels slashed rates as a knee-jerk reaction to the economic downturn - even though Australia already has some of the cheapest five-star hotel room rates in the Western world.
According to figures from STR Global, if you took into account an average occupancy rate of between 70 and 75 per cent between 2008 and 2009, and an average $9 room rate reduction over the year, hotel operators in Australian cities would have missed out on an average $739,000 per day, or $270m for the year.
Of that, 65 per cent of the losses could be attributed to a reduction in room rates, while 35 per cent was attributable to a fall in occupancy. The numbers came from 498 of the country's largest hotels.
Hotel room rates a year ago suffered around the country, particularly in tourist destinations such as Cairns and Port Douglas.
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The Australian

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Hotel operations are blaming room reduction rates for an explanation of why millions of dollars have been wiped from the bottom line in half year results. This shows a down turn in the industry altogether room rates went down for a reason in my opinion if the hadn’t maybe results would have been the same and occupancy levels less. It may have been just a ‘’knee jerk reaction’’ to reduce the room rates by buy so much but that is for good reason if these hotel operators thought that it would affect the profit why didn’t they speak up before the results were in clearly they had been thinking it for a while. I believe that they a just assuming they ‘’missed out’’ on profit even if room rates are to blame if not it would have been something else like occupancy or staff wages as the industry is in down turn.

 

The major brands taking on the hotel industry

By Anthony Dennis

EVERYONE it seems these days reckons they can run a hotel, and not just every anonymous correspondent on TripAdvisor. 
Now Ikea, the self-assembly Swedish furniture brand that made the Allen key one of the world’s most universal tools, has announced plans to open 100 budget hotels across Europe.
Of course, it’s not the first time that a major, non-traditional hotel industry brand has diversified, sometimes unsuccessfully, in to hospitality. Some of the most notable examples are airlines, such as the Japan’s ANA and JAL and the Scandinavian carrier SAS.
Then there are designer brands such as the Spanish shoe-maker, Camper and the fashion designer, Versace, who operate hotels under their label names. So, based on the above theory that anyone nowadays can establish and run a hotel chain these days, here’s the Doc’s own take on potential branding possibilities and scenarios.

 

A range of major brands have branched out into tthe hotel  industry. Picture: Thinkstock 

Ikea
Welcome to Hotel Ikea, where we keep rates low by asking our guests to make their own bed.  That’s right - please take several minutes, or as long as you IQ demands, to carefully read the instructions on how to self-assemble your bed, as well as side tables, wardrobe, coffee table etc. Should you experience difficulties with self-assembly please do not contact reception as we can never work it out either.

Republic of Ecuador
The proud peoples of Ecuador, and our newest citizen, Senor Julio Assange, hereby invite you to enjoy your stay at Hotel Asylum (aka Hotel Last Resort). You’ll be accommodated in the complete comfort of spare closets at our embassy.
Twenty-four hour security is assured by the local police force who are always just out the front door. Please note that while we can get you in to Hotel Asylum, we can’t always necessarily get you out and therefore check-out times and dates can vary significantly. Oh, and apologies in advance, too for the shower – it tends to WikiLeak.

Qantas
Welcome to Hotel Qantas. Please be aware that the management is currently involved in an ongoing make-or-break industrial dispute with housekeeping that may see you tossed out of your room in the middle of the night, just as regrettably occurred to our airline passengers last year (my, how time flies).
But please do be assured that you’re the reason we run this hotel and that we plan to spend the next year, and millions of dollars in marketing funds, sucking up to you to make amends.

The Commonwealth of Australia
On the behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia, and the Federal Opposition, we welcome you to Resort Oz, Nauru and wish you a pleasant stay. Do accept our apologies that accommodation at your preferred destination of Australia was unavailable at the time of your arrival.
Please make yourself comfortable in your new island budget resort suite and do forgive the ongoing, urgent renovations. We’re sure that once you’re settled in you’ll never want to leave. In fact, under any future Abbott Government, you may never be allowed to leave. As for Nauru’s tourist attractions please do alert staff at reception immediately should you find one.

Telstra
“This is the operator of Hotel Telstra, bringing you the service you’ve come to love from our telephonic division. So we can assist you with your call please say the service you would like us to provide.” ROOM SERVICE. “You have selected ‘room service’. If correct say, ‘yes’…YES.
“So we can help provide you with your request please say which type of room service you would like. Is that room service, as in a drink delivered to your room, as in food delivered to your room, as in a room service trolley collected from your room?” FOOD DELIVERED TO MY ROOM.
“You have selected “food delivered to your room.” If correct say, ‘yes.’ YES! “Please say what you want to order.” CLUB SANDWICH! “You have selected ‘club sandwich’. If correct say, ‘yes’…” YES. “Thank you. So that we can assist with your call…” And so on and so on.

 news.com.au

Click here to see the original article 

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The Australian article showing how diverse brands are becoming with ikea now starting up a hotel chain, do you think people will be confused at this new venture because they have already made it clear only the brand names will be matching although surely the furniture will be ikea inspired. It makes it seem like anybody can open up a hotel chain these days, I don’t  believe that self-assembly of furniture will be required however as most agree that the they should be a bit more atmosphere as it is owned by one of the biggest retail chains. In my opinion it is a good move for ikea as it has worked for other well known brands like Versace that has a palazzo Versace in the gold coast obviously also showing how the brands status changes status of the hotel the ikea hotels are good for a safe place to stay and a good breakfast and the palazzo Versace is 5 star quality accommodation.    

Eat it and weep: The world's most expensive meals

IT'S the sort of food most of us only ever dream about devouring once we've won the lottery or become millionaires.

But for a lucky few rich enough to do so, dining on luxury dishes like these are just in a day’s scoffing.
BBC Travel has come up with a list of the world’s most expensive dishes, and if the cost doesn’t make you lose your appetite alone, then nothing will.
First on the list is the Golden Phoenix Cupcake - made two days in advance by Dubai’s Bloomsbury’s café.
Costing a mere 3676 dirhams, or $957, the world’s most expensive cupcake is made from 23-carat edible gold sheets, organic strawberries and plenty of edible gold dusting.


At $957, the Golden Phoenix Cupcake is the worlds most expensive. Picture: Bloomsbury's/YouTube 

While still in Dubai and if you’ve got money to burn, stop in at the famous Burj Al Arab hotel and try its famous ‘27.321’ cocktail.
Costing 27,321 dirhams, or $7120, the drink is named after the hotel floor its served on and its height, and includes 55-year-old Macallan single malt natural colour whisky from Scotland.
Still feeling like something sweet? Then fly to New York’s Serendipity 3 where you can indulge in Frrrozen Haute Chocolate. It will set you back a mere $18,713 or $17,913 but does have 28 different kinds of cocoa and is also served with an 18-carat gold and diamond bracelet.
Or if you’re feeling more frugal you could always try its Le Burger Extravagant made with Japanese waygu beef, infused with 10-herb white truffle butter, and only costing $293 (US) or $280.

Angelito Araneta Jr of Karat Chef has created his extravagant Sushi Del Oriente. Picture: Facebook/karat Chef

 

Fancy something lighter? Take a nibble on Sushi Del Oriente - nigiri sushi wrapped in 24-carat gold leaves and five 0.20-carat African diamonds - served up by celeb chef Angelito Araneta Jr of Karat Chef.
Or if that doesn’t tickle your fancy hop on your private jet and fly to London to slurp on Kai Mayfair restaurant’s Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup costing £108 or $162. Want to know what’s in it? Only shark’s fin, abalone, Japanese flower mushroom, sea cucumber, dried scallops, chicken, Hunan ham (a cured ham), pork and ginseng, according to BBC travel.

A bottle of Penfolds 2004 Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon will set you back a mere: $168,000. Picture: Supplied

 

For those not fussed on travelling overseas, you could always indulge in some good Aussie wine.
Australian fine wine Penfolds unveiled a red wine that will set you back just that $168,000. But you’ll want to be quick there’s only 12 of the 2004 Kalimna Block 42 cabernet sauvignon bottled.
or try an extravagant meal a bit closer to home by indulging in Silks’ braised abalone with webbing from duck’s feet at a cost of $1380 per kilogram at Crown’s high-end Cantonese restaurant Silks in Melbourne.
Alternatively there’s the $425 caviar service at Astral restaurant, Sydney, which includes 50 grams of farmed sevruga with traditional garnishes and blini.

Click here to see the original article

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This is article shows us how people are taking luxury to the next level becoming a little eccentric at the Burj Al Arab hotel selling cupcakes that is literally golden this tasty treat will set you back an astonishing $957. The whole experience at the Burj Al Arab is about being over the top as the hotel itself is on a man-made island in my opinion a little over the top however that may be because I’m fairly certain that unless I win the lotto me and many others will never get to experience this but I would believe that if I had $957 to spare I would find better use for it. The hotel was built off course to put in Dubai to put it on the map for tourist but in my opinion having only available to multi-millionaires is not a big enough catchment for the landmark to become as famous as other well know man-made wonders of the world like the Eiffel tower or Sydney opera house. 

News & Articles Interview with Christopher Heard, Celebrity Biographer-Interviewer

Source: Luxury Travel Magazine

By Christine Gray



 









Luxury Travel Magazine interview with celebrity biographer and interviewer, Christopher Heard, who will be publishing a book entitled "The Suite Life - The Magic and Mystery of Hotel Living" about why A-List celebrities gravitate towards hotel life.



You've been a celebrity biographer, so how did it come about that you wrote a book about Hotels?

Throughout my career as a celebrity biographer and interviewer on television I had the occasion to be in many fantastic hotels the world over talking to movie stars and many of them were hotel residents themselves, so in a very real way the research and writing of the book is fifteen years in the making.

It has been a lifelong dream of mine to live the life of an author in a big old hotel – and for the last couple of years I have been doing exactly that. It was while living at The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto that I finally and most appropriately got to write the book I have always wanted to write The Suite Life – The Magic and Mystery of Hotel Living (my previous eight books were biographies of movie stars and filmmakers).

Why did you choose to focus on The Fairmont Royal York hotel in Toronto?

In Toronto, when looking for a location to shoot and interview, I was invariably set up in The Fairmont Royal York because of my level of comfort there and how extraordinarily good the staff are at helping to organize such things.

I live and have had a lifelong professional and personal relationship with the magnificent Fairmont Royal York in Toronto. It seems that I have always felt drawn to the Royal York, always felt very comfortable here – it wasn't until later in life that I found out this pull was almost cosmic in nature as I was literally conceived in this very hotel. So when the harmonic convergence of events saw to it that I could not only live my dream of living in a big old hotel, but double the dream by writing a book about hotel living and hotel culture, there was no other hotel I could have possibly imagined doing it in but the Fairmont Royal York, one of the greatest of the classic hotels in the world.

What celebrities did you interview for this book?

Part of what I wanted to explore with the book was why, down through the eras, writers and artists and musicians gravitated towards hotel life, to do that I spoke with a number of high profile people who themselves were also long term hotel residents.

One such interview involved action star Jackie Chan. Chan was shooting his film The Tuxedo in the Royal York Hotel so I spent an afternoon with him in a suite – our conversation involved my asking him to demonstrate how he choreographs his fight scenes and I volunteered myself as his opponent in the demonstration. It went well for a few minutes then I took a wrong step forward at the wrong time and was on the receiving end of a solid punch to the head. Jackie Chan was very upset as was his assistant and the film company liaison but I kept assuring them that I was delighted – who else could boast of being slugged by Jackie Chan during an interview? It was a unique moment, but one a many hundreds of thousands of them that have unfolded within these walls.

Warren Beatty, who lived in the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles for ten years, told me that he liked the order and neatness and lack of clutter of hotels and also liked the fact that when inside the hotel his privacy was not just protected but respected as well.

Both Johnny Depp  and Keanu Reeves  lived in the notorious Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood, Depp for four years, Keanu on and off for more than sixteen years (Reeves has never owned a private residence in Los Angeles). Johnny Depp, who I have written two previous books on, loved the convenience of hotel living and told me he loved the big old Chateau Marmont because it felt like he was living in a big house belonging to a relative. Keanu Reeves echoed the sentiment when telling me that because he is on location so often that he is really only comfortable living in hotels, the rhythm of hotel living is all he knows and he referred to the Chateau Marmont as "an old friend."


Click here to read the entire article

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The life inside luxury hotels? Secret of celebrities? Nobody can refuse the attractiveness of knowing a celebrity’s life in those top-end hotels. Christopher Heard – a celebrity biographer & interviewer, shares his ultimate experience with celebrities who stay in The Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, Canada. In his book called The Suit Life – The Magic and Mystery of Hotel Living, he writes about his exclusive interview with many stars from Jackie Chan, Warren Beatty to Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves and their very own thought and experience of hotel living. The book is also about the reason why Fairmont Royal York is always chosen by Heard himself and the celebrities. It’s a perfect treat for the curious heads who want to have a sneak peek into the most luxurious life of high profile celebrities in The Fairmont Royal York.

IKEA to build its own budget hotel chain

Click here to see the orginal article 

Source: Reuters

IKEA, best known as the world's largest furniture retailer, plans to build a Budget hotel chain across Europe, following a trend for cheap-but-cool accommodation driven by low air fares and increasingly price-conscious business travelers.
The 100 hotels, which will not feature IKEA's eponymous flat-pack furniture nor its brand name, represent the company's biggest real estate development to date.

Demand for stylish yet affordable rooms from austerity-hit business guests and leisure travellers is high and growing, according to Harald Muller, senior executive at the property unit of Inter IKEA, the company that owns the IKEA brand and concept.
"'Budget designer hotels' is today the fastest developing hotel segment." he said.

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Motel One, citizenM and B&B Hotels are all part of a new breed challenging established budget brands such as Travelodge, Whitbread's Premier Inn and Accor's Formule 1.
IKEA's first hotel will most likely open in Germany in 2014 and the chain will be run by an international hotel operator, Muller said.
"There is no IKEA furniture in it," Muller said. "It is not an IKEA hotel. It's a continuation of our normal investment activities in real estate."
Inter IKEA already owns a few hotels and has more in the works, but the new project would be its first chain and will top its 26-acre home, office and hotel scheme around the Olympic park in London.
Inter IKEA is identifying and buying sites for future hotels in the chain which will be launched in Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Britain and Eastern European countries like Poland.
Inter IKEA's property assets total around 750 million euros ($A878 million) but it has the financial muscle to be a larger developer.
In its fiscal 2010/11 year, IKEA Group, which operates most IKEA stores under franchise from Inter IKEA, raised net profit by 10 percent to a record 2.97 billion euros on revenues of 25.17 billion euros, another all-time high.

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This article sourced from the age explores ‘IKEA’ best known for its furniture retailing to now create its own hotel chain across Europe. They plan to extend up to over 100 hotels across Europe.
The article demonstrates that adequate amount of research and planning has gone into the hotel chain. The spokesmen even mention that “There is no IKEA furniture in the hotel rooms” Making this seem more of an opportunity of investment with the capital gained from the successful house hold retailer IKEA. I am personally very excited to see the hotel chain take off in Europe and hopefully make its way to the Asia Pacific.