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  • W New Orleans – French quarter sold for $25.5 million

    Chesapeake Lodging Trust announced today that it has purchased the W New Orleans – French Quarter from Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc for $25.5 million. The Trust has entered right into a long-term management contract with Starwood to continue to function the Hotel.

    “We are very excited to expand our Starwood relationship with our third W hotel and fourth Starwood-branded hotel, including the Le Meridien San Francisco,” stated James L. Francis, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Trust. “This Hotel is in a superior location and is in exceptional condition following Starwood’s recently completed comprehensive renovation program. With the Hotel’s first four diamond rating in its history, we believe this is often the ideal asset for Chesapeake to go into the rebounding New Orleans marketplace.”

    The W New Orleans – French Quarter is found on Chartres Street, just steps from Jackson Square and the numerous retail and jazz clubs of the French Quarter. The valuables features 97 well-appointed guestrooms, including four carriage house studio suites. The renovation program ended in the addition of a brand new SWEAT state-of-the-art gymnasium, and SoBou, a modern Creole cuisine restaurant that was named some of the top 10 new restaurants by Esquire Magazine.

    The renovation program was influenced by the wealthy history and culture of recent Orleans. There are two distinct guestroom themes; Jazz, with vibrant golden yellow walls and a floor-to-ceiling brass image modeled after a horn and Tarot, which was inspired by the recent Orleans’ voodoo queen, Marie Laveau. Rooms feature a 40” LCD flat screen, signature W brand bedding, iPod docking station and Bliss bath amenities.

    “From the hot Front room lobby to the enormous outdoor, tree-lined courtyard with its heated pool, the W New Orleans – French Quarter is the ideal place to enjoy all that New Orleans has to give,” continued Mr. Francis. “This is another outstanding addition to our growing portfolio of high-quality lodging assets.”

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  • London readying itself for German invasion

    Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund go nose to nose at Wembley Stadium at 7:45pm on Saturday 25th May 2013 in a mouth-watering all-German final of the UEFA Champions League. After stylishly seeing off the challenges of Spanish favourites Barcelona and Real Madrid within the semi-finals, both Bundesliga clubs do battle in the house of English football as Wembley hosts a record second European Cup final in three years.

    With over 40,000 Germans living in London, the arriving of Germany’s two best football sides to the capital – with hoards of travelling fans in tow – might be pretty much as good occasion as any to have one big party. Fans who’ve missed out on tickets to a very powerful football fixture of the season needn’t despair – for London’s German bars and pubs have raised their game with quite a number football-themed parties and events. Travellers coming from outside London to wait the match at Wembley or to enjoy any of any other celebrations can book their accommodation on LondonTown.com, where there’s an outstanding collection of cheap London hotels.

    For Bayern fans one destination stands proud: Octoberfest Pub on Fulham Road – the official Bayern Munich UK fan club since 2005. The massive venue has two massive screen projectors and 3 plasma TVs that show every Bayern game of the season. Ocbtoberfest Pub was featured on Sky Sports and could welcome two German film crews in the course of the big game and the after-party, and guarantees the fitting Bayern Munich atmosphere in London.

    Making the foremost of its prime Thames-side location, Bierschenke in Aldwych is offering three different options for German football fans: free entry to the most bar to monitor the match on HD screens with seats on a primary-come first-served basis; tickets to look at the sport on HMS President with a German buffet and boat after-party; or a spin-off gathering at sister pub The Lion, often known as the Kings Cross Social Club.

    Bierschenke can be open from 2pm on Saturday for all of the pre-match hype and an early arrival is usually recommended. Tickets for HMS President cost £20 and include a German buffet (6pm-9pm), an after-party until 2am and a comprehensive number of German beers comparable to Krombacher, Konig Ludwig Weissbier and Augustiner Helles (well liked by Bayern fans). The boat is docked at Blackfriars Bridge and should be open from 4pm. For £15, the King’s Cross Social Club event features a German barbecue (with schnitzel, sausages and salad), guaranteed entry and a celebration until 2am. Beers include Krombacher, DAB and Koelsch (a Dortmund favourite).

    South of the river in Lambeth, London’s first German gastropub – Zeitgeist on the Jolly Gardeners – will open early (with out a entry charges) to deal with the large choice of fans arriving in buses from Germany to look at the sport. The pub is expecting a “mad” day and Zeitgeist is bound to be a well-liked spot with its 24 German beers on tap in addition to 30 bottled German brews. Fans can feast on German favourites which include schnitzel, schweinerbraten and leberkaes – before toasting victory (or downing their sorrows) with a tumbler of German Schnapps.

    London’s two Bavarian Beerhouse venues – on Old Street and Tower Hill – could be doing a roaring trade, offering spectators the possibility to look at the Champions League Final in a standard Bavarian setting: authentic German beer cellars, complete with steins of German lager and generous plates of schweinshaxen, sausages and sauerkraut served by charming Frauleins in Dirndl and accompanied by a Lederhosen-clad Oompah band.

    What more are you able to desire to get into the spirit as German’s two biggest football sides come to London to participate inside the biggest club game of the sector football calendar For additional info at the Champions League Final and other major sports in London in 2013 please visit the events section on LondonTown.com.

  • News: Holiday Genie and Travelport seal long-standing partnership

    Travelport, a number one provider of critical transaction processing solutions and information for the worldwide travel industry, today announces a brand new long-term technology agreement with Holiday Genie, a number one UK independent online travel agency.

    The new agreement builds upon 15 years’ technology partnership between Travelport and Holiday Genie, among the UK’s fastest expanding independent online travel agencies. Holiday Genie will use Travelport’s leading-edge search and e-pricing tools, in addition to migrating to the Universal API, opening up access to a greater diversity of hotel and ancillary travel content.

    “Holiday Genie’s expansion has meant we’d like a technology provider who can deliver high-performance, high-accuracy search”, Faisal Butt, Managing Director, explained. “We’ve get back to Travelport all over again as we all know we will anticipate some of the best platform and intelligent content our customers expect.”

    “Our continued relationship with Holiday Genie demonstrates Travelport’s leadership in supporting the web travel agent community”, Simon Ferguson, UK & Ireland Regional Director at Travelport, added. “Our goal is to drive them to the following level of expansion through wider range of content, superior search and pricing tools, and access to Travelport’s unique open platform.”

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  • Staycation trend boosts UK economy by £12 billion

    Despite the dismal weather and tight household budgets, 2013 goes to be a record year for the Staycation trend, as 65% of Britons favor to take their summer holiday at home this year. This can be a significant increase at the past two years, when 41% and 35% of Britons respectively took a domestic break. With the common trip costing Britons £399.28 this year, (£34.19 reduction from last year), this investment will boost the united kingdom tourism industry by £12 billion (up £3.3bn from last year). These findings has been revealed today in a brand new holiday index by Travelodge.

    The hotel chain’s fifth annual holiday report surveyed 3,000 British adults to research their summer holiday intentions and revealed that 42% of those Staycationers are taking a week’s holiday within the UK this summer, 15% are indulging in a two week break on British shores and a 3rd (33%) are splitting their holidays over three short domestic breaks that allows you to visit a chain of locations.     

    Other key findings revealed that the town break has overtaken the ancient seaside holiday as our favorite Staycation break. Listed here are the highest five premiere kinds of Staycation breaks that Britons are taking this year.

    City Break (31%)
    Rural / Countryside break (27%)
    Seaside (22%)
    Visiting family (18%)
    Visiting an historic site (15%) 

    The holiday report also revealed that for the primary time in five years, Cornwall has lost its crown because the nation’s top Staycation destination and dropped to fourth position. Jumping up the poll to the number 1 and two positions are capital cities, London and Edinburgh. The Lake District fell from second position to 3rd place this year.

    Grant Hearn, Travelodge CEO said: “The Staycation trend accelerating to record levels and boosting our economy by £12 billion this year, is an extraordinarily welcome sign, and hopefully it truly is the beginning of our 2012 Olympics legacy gain.

    “During 2012, our capital city was showcased in its true glory to all corners of the united kingdom and the area, and it’s an outstanding result that London was crowned because the top Staycation destination for 2013.”

    “However we won’t rest on our laurels, as one in all Britain’s biggest business sectors, the chance to grow remains great. We aren’t yet just about unlocking the actual potential of our industry. British tourism has to be treated like a significant business sector and the govt must move our industry from the ineffective Department of Culture Media & Sports to the dep. for Business, Innovation & Skills. Loss of immediate action is costing jobs, growth and investment.” 

    The 2013 holiday report has also revealed right here key findings:

    ·                      This year as a result dismal weather, 15% of Britons were looking forward to the sun to return out before they booked their Staycation break.

    ·                      Just over a fifth of adults (21%) have needed to wait until May to book their summer break as a result of money constraints.

    ·                      a 3rd (33%) of respondents stated that it can be cheaper to holiday within the UK than abroad plus it truly is better value for money. The typical foreign holiday cost quoted within the report was £1,010.00.

    ·                      Over a 3rd of Britons (35%) believe it is very important holiday within the UK so that you can preserve our heritage and support British tourism.

    ·                      Over 1 / 4 of Britons (27%) stated that a vacation is probably the few things that they do not want to scale back on

    ·                      One in ten (11%) of Britons have reported they’ve not been ready to afford a vacation in the course of the economic uncertainty.

    ·                      21% of Britons have created a UK bucket list.

    ·                      a 3rd of Britons (33%) research and book their Staycation break online.

    The report also revealed a brand new holiday trend for intergenerational family holidays as this year a 3rd (32%) of Britons will use their Staycation break to gather a couple of generation in their family.

  • New hotel search engine LagiSatu launches this month

    A modern-day search engine only for travellers launches this month with a promise to overtake long haul for good.

    LagiSatu.com is a comprehensive meta search engine for hotels that’s designed to assist business and leisure travellers to locate the appropriate hotel deals available online with only a single click. It compares prices on greater than 250,000 hotels in over 180 countries world wide, with more hotels and destinations being added daily. Partners include the various biggest names in global travel: LateRooms.com, Agoda, eBookers, Expedia, Hotelclub and lots of more.

    LagiSatu.com was developed by a Malaysian – Austrian team, headed by Faeez Fadhlillah and Juergen Gallistl. Speaking on the launch of the quest engine, Faeez Fadhlillah said, “LagiSatu.com removes the effort of sifting through endless hotel websites and attempting to find the most productive rooms for the bottom prices, offering travellers around the globe some way within which to streamline their results and find their perfect destination for less. We envisage our new search engine as a saving grace for those that are seeking the most cost effective hotel deals. It completely removes the trouble of comparing multiple websites manually and gives inbound and outbound travellers with the ideal hotel rates at a single click.”

    Headquarted in Malaysia, LagiSatu is the 1st meta engine fascinated with travel to be based within the South East Asian nation. Its launch comes at a thriving time for the rustic, where online travel is anticipated to blow up within the next year.

    The engine works by querying the databases of selected hotel providers after which compiling a listing of accessible hotels for respective places and dates. It offers the user the choice to make a decision how their results should appear for the final word in convenience. Sorting by price allows those on the cheap to ascertain the truly cheapest rates, sorting by distance ensures that those making onward travel arrangements would be with reference to transport links, and sorting by user ratings will guarantee the hotels ranked the top might be displayed first, offering ultimate flexibility for all those seeking accommodation. There’s even a different technique to include hotels approved by HalalStars, allowing Muslim travellers to guage the religious amenities which every hotel provides.

    LagiSatu users planning a visit may also look into their destination before they register using the engine’s suggested reading. It provides details which include how much of a saving is being made, the gap from the hotel to the closest city centre, and an inventory of local amenities and attractions. References and user ratings imported from TripAdvisor and HolidayCheck.

    LagiSatu.com is currently available in Malay, English, Indonesian and Chinese, and available languages will soon include Thai and Filipino, signalling the beginning of a complete new chapter for South East Asia’s travel industry. The success and expansion within this sector have been unprecedented lately, with growth of the web travel market expected to be around 40% in Malaysia alone. The innovative new hotel search hopes to tap into the growing market with its flexible and pioneering site.

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