InterContinental has retained its grip as the world’s largest hotel chain, according to the annual ranking of hotels by accommodation analyst MKG Hospitality.
The British company, which operates brands including Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaze and InterContinental, offers a whopping 647,161 rooms around the world, more than any other hotel chain despite growing slowly over the past year.
In second place in the listing released this week is Wyndham Hotels, which offers 612,735 rooms but is gaining quickly (adding 2.5% more rooms in the last year).
Hotel chain Mandarin Oriental will open its first Paris branch on June 28, the latest of several Asian firms to enter the competitive French luxury hospitality market.
The 138-room hotel is in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honore in central Paris, not far from traditional French rivals such as the Meurice and the Ritz.
French tourism authorities last month launched a rare new hotel classification, crowning eight of the most chic with “palace” status, which goes beyond five stars to reward what they call “French-style excellence.”
Exclusive hotel chain the Dorchester Collection has promised that its new London boutique property will open later this year, the latest in a series of new luxury hotels to hit the British capital.
45 Park Lane is set to officially open in September in London’s well-heeled Mayfair district, although the hotel would ‘soft’ open to guests in August.
With just 45 rooms, the hotel is likely to be one of the smallest luxury properties in the city, although the Dorchester Collection — which also operates London’s Dorchester Hotel, Paris’s Plaza Athenee and the Beverly Hills Hotel in California — seems determined to offer the facilities of a much larger property.
When it comes to hotel apps, not all are created equal, as the excellent travel guide app from Fairmont and the concierge iPad app from InterContinental have shown.
But this week, hotel chain W Hotels pushed the bar a little higher with the release of the W Hotels Worldwide app, embracing travel, music and food all in one.
The free iPhone app offers information on the Starwood-owned brand’s hotels, as one would expect, with photos, maps and weather for each destination.
Luxury hotelier Ian Schrager has launched a new hotel chain in Chicago, promising a “revitalization of the hotel industry.”
Ian Schrager, credited by some as the creator of the boutique hotel with the launch of Morgans Hotel New York in 1984, is already working on his new brand ‘Edition’ with Marriott but launched ‘Public’ May 23.
As the name suggests, Public is designed to be inclusive, rather than exclusive, with the new company saying that it combines elements of luxury and boutique properties with the best of the “limited service” model.
Marriott has won two major awards at the Frequent Traveler Awards, held April 28 in New York.
The chain’s Marriott Rewards scheme picked up the award for Hotel Program of the Year in both the Americas and Europe and Africa, although Priority Club by rival chain InterContinental took the Program of the Year in Middle East and Asia/Oceania.
Air Canada’s Aeroplan, Lufthansa’s Miles & More and Emirates’ Skywards were the big winners in the airline Program of the Year category, taking the Americas, Europe and Africa and Middle East and Asia/Oceania respectively.
