Luxury hotel chain Waldorf Astoria has announced a partnership with high-end fashion brand Salvatore Ferragamo to produce a new range of guest amenities.

The kits, which will be available exclusively from Waldorf Astoria properties, are Salvatore Ferragamo’s first venture into beauty and grooming and are comprised of Eau de Toilette, amenities and bath products.

Featuring exclusively Italian ingredients, the set of products will be distributed under the name ‘Tuscan Soul’.

Urban Tails Dubai has become the world’s first seven-star resort for pets when it opened doors this summer.

Being branded as the ultimate luxury pet destination, this hotel has been custom built for four legged friends.

They offer suites for 70 dogs and 40 cats and promises to take perfect care of them while their owners are away.

Asian hotel operator Minor has launched a new luxury brand to be rolled out across Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and Africa.

Avani Hotels & Resorts launched last week and is intended to draw heavily on the Minor’s Asian roots, offering a ‘grounded personality’ and ‘a simple sense of style’ — Avani stems from the Sanskrit word for “earth.”

The first outpost for the new brand will open by the end of the year in Sri Lanka as the Avani Bentota Resort & Spa, a beachfront resort in the south of the country.

The Radisson Blu Aqua hotel in Chicago‘s soaring Aqua skyscraper is to open November 1, the company’s parent Carlson has announced.

Radisson Blu‘s Chicago property, which will be the brand’s first in the US, will feature 334 rooms and suites on the first 18 floors of the 81-storey Aqua Tower.

The hotel marks something of a landmark for Radisson Blu, which is well established in Europe but yet to crack the US market, dominated by upscale competitors such as Hilton and Crowne Plaza.

Disney has taken its first leap into the hotel industry proper with the opening of a standalone resort and spa in Hawaii.

Aulani, which opened this week in Ko Olina close to the Marriott Ko Olina, is the entertainment behemoth’s first hotel outside of its famous theme parks and is designed as an alternative family vacation experience.

On the coast of Oahu island, the resort and spa stretches across 21 acres and will eventually contain some 840 rooms split across a hotel and villas.

The number of boutique hotels in London is set to soar over the next few years, a new report has predicted.

London, which will host the 2012 Olympic Games next year, could see the number of design-led hotel rooms double by 2013, adding some 2,544 rooms to the market.

Hotel consultancy HVS London predicted this week that another 18 boutique properties will open their doors in the capital through 2013.