Spanish hotel group Sol Melia is to open a landmark hotel in London ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games, it announced this past week.

The ME London hotel will open in London’s Aldwych, close to Holborn, Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden, in a landmark building previously occupied by the BBC and Marconi Company.

The hotel is slated to open in 2012 with 172 rooms designed by British architect Norman Foster, the man behind Hong Kong International Airport, Beijing Capital’s International Terminal and London’s “Gherkin” building.

New hotel group B Hotels & Resorts unveiled its flagship Fort Lauderdale property September 23, ahead of its December opening date.

The company, which promises “fresh, innovative and unpretentious” hotels in the upper-upscale category, plans to open a series of hotels, resorts and boutique properties in the US and internationally over the coming years.

The first property on the Fort Lauderdale coast in Florida, which is set to start accepting reservations in October, offers 240 rooms and a range of signature services that will eventually be rolled out to all hotels and resorts, including “B Nourished,” “B Active,” “B Indulged,” “B Adventurous,” and “B Green.”

Hip boutique hotel chain Andaz opened its fifth property on Fifth Avenue on July 5, in the former headquarters of fashion chain Tommy Hilfiger.

The hotel is the third opening this year for rapidly-expanding Andaz, which says that it wants to make guests feel like they’ve been welcomed into a friend’s home, rather than a hotel.

Like other Andaz properties, the 184-room Andaz Fifth Avenue doesn’t feature a reception desk, instead preferring to check people in over a drink in the lounge or whilst walking to their room.

The Spanish design firm Designhouses, have recently completed the Hotel Viura, located in the Spanish wine region of Rioja Alavesa.

Named after the most widely planted white grape variety in Rioja, Viura is a new hotel with 26 guestrooms and seven suites, two bars and a restaurant.

Located just a short walk from the Trocadero and opposite the Eiffel Tower, the Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan Hotel is Paris’s newest luxury boutique hotel.

Conceived by the famous designer Francois Champsaur, the 48-key boutique hotel features ten suites, five with unrestricted Eiffel Tower views.

The signature Eiffel Suite is a 430-square-foot one-bedroom suite located on the sixth floor.