Best Holiday Lettings

Tag: intercontinental hotels group

  • The 506-key Crowne Plaza Madinah opens in Saudi Arabia

    InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the most important international hotel group in Saudi Arabia both by variety of rooms and selection of hotels, has opened Crowne Plaza Madinah today. The outlet marks the primary Crowne Plaza hotel inside the Holy City.

    Crowne Plaza Madinah is found inside the centre of Madinah with 506 stylish rooms and suites on offer to guests, including 259 twin standard rooms and 49 king standard rooms. Just steps away is Masjid Nabawi, the second one holiest site in Islam and one of many largest mosques on the earth, making the hotel ideal for religious travellers.

    The hotel is decided to become a hub for events, meetings and conferences with state-of-the-art facilities on the disposal of corporate travellers. The hotel includes a multi-functional business centre, five fully-equipped meeting rooms and free internet access within the hotel.

    Crowne Plaza Madinah also presents plenty of cuisines to fit every palate. Al Rawdha, the hotel’s all-day-dining restaurant, will feature delicacies from the center East, Indonesia and India, while Orchid Café will present a mix of traditional and international specialities. Gastronomic delights await diners at Fish Market, which treats guests to a spectacular seafood dining experience.

    Mostafa Blanco, General Manager of Crowne Plaza Madinah, commented: “With the only of the perfect locations inside the Holy City of Madinah, we’re confident that Crowne Plaza Madinah is the easiest destination, not just for religious travellers, but in addition for business and leisure guests. Our ideal location, combined with fantastic facilities and the neatest service that the hospitality industry has to supply, signifies that we’re offering guests the best package. We glance forward to a hectic opening.”

    Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Officer, India, Middle East and Africa for IHG, added: “We have an extended history within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, having opened our first hotel inside the country in 1975, and we’re happy with our commitment to the rustic. This can be our fourth Crowne Plaza in Saudi Arabia and we’re confident that, like its sister hotels, this can enjoy resounding success.”

    IHG is currently the biggest international hotel company in Saudi Arabia, both by choice of hotels (23) and by choice of rooms (5,600). Crowne Plaza Madinah is the fourth IHG hotel inside the Holy Cities of Madinah and Makkah, alongside three InterContinental hotels: InterContinental Dar Al Iman, InterContinental Dar Al Hijra and InterContinental Dar Al Tawhid.

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  • IHG opens fourth Crowne Plaza in Oman

    IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) is continuous to bolster its presence in Oman with the outlet of Crowne Plaza Duqm today. The brand new hotel will join IHG’s three existing Crowne Plaza hotels in Oman’s major cities – Muscat, Sohar and Salalah – in addition to InterContinental Muscat.

    The beachfront hotel is found near the rapidly expanding port and dry dock at Duqm.  With the launch of activity at Duqm Commercial Port earlier this month and the predicted opening of Duqm International Airport in 2014, the hotel is determined to capture the growing corporate travel market.

    Crowne Plaza Duqm’s 213 spacious rooms including 21 suites all offer direct sea views. Guests can benefit from the hotel’s outdoor pool area, fully equipped fitness centre and five restaurants and lounges. There’s plenty to do outside the hotel, too, attributable to its picturesque location on Duqm beachfront; explore beautiful natural beaches, wander down Duqm Corniche, or discover the geological rock gardens, all inside the nearby area.

    In addition to the hotel’s leisure facilities, Crowne Plaza Duqm offers state-of-the-art business and meeting facilities including a 780 m2 Event Centre, consisting of two ballrooms and one boardroom. The development Centre also comprises a business centre and 4 separate meeting rooms.

    Crowne Plaza Duqm presents a number of cuisines to fit every palate. Souq is the hotel’s all-day-dining restaurant, while Frontier will cater to the sports fan trying to compensate for the entire latest sporting action. Gastronomic delights await diners at Al Safi, which treats guests to a spectacular seafood dining experience. At Splash, the poolside snack bar, guests can enjoy a refreshing drink from the relaxation in their sun lounger.

    Ali Salih, General Manager of Crowne Plaza Duqm, commented: “Duqm is fast becoming a hotspot for travel and business within Oman.  With the hotel’s location at the beachfront combined with its premium business facilities we’re confident that Crowne Plaza Duqm is an enticing offering for business and leisure guests alike. We glance forward to a successful opening period.”

    Pascal Gauvin, Chief Operating Office, India, Middle East and Africa for IHG, added: “Thanks to its center around growing its travel tourism industry, Oman is still crucial marketplace for us inside the Middle East.  With the brand new opening of Crowne Plaza Duqm, we now operate hotels spanning from Muscat all the way down to Salalah.  We’re delighted to now be open in Duqm because it continues its exciting expansion.”

    IHG opened InterContinental Muscat in 1997, the city’s first five-star hotel.  The crowd also now operates four Crowne Plaza hotels in Duqm, Muscat, Sohar and Salalah, with InterContinental Muscat Hills and Holiday Inn Muscat Airport within the development pipeline.

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  • News: Lam takes sales role with Fairmont Hotels

    Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, which counts notable hotels like Shanghai’s legendary Fairmont Peace Hotel and the recently opened Fairmont Makati as a part of its storied hotel portfolio, has named Carmen Lam as vp, hotel sales and marketing, Asia Pacific.

    Lam, who would be based in Shanghai, joins Fairmont during this newly created role to offer sales and marketing direction to Fairmont’s hotels in Asia Pacific and support to the luxurious operator’s burgeoning pipeline of regional development.

    “We’re quickly growing our footprint in Asia and are very fortunate to be adding a frontrunner of Carmen’s calibre to our regional management team,” said, Jeff Doane, Fairmont’s vice chairman, hotel sales and marketing.

    “With her wealth of hotel related experience and firm understanding of the regional marketplace, she’s ideally positioned to lead our sales, marketing and branding activity throughout Asia.”

    With six hotels open and operating in Asia, including three in China, Lam will specialise in maximizing results and driving performance for this dynamic mixture of resort and town centre properties.

    She’ll even be chargeable for executing Fairmont’s regional sales strategy, regional brand management, and awareness and marketing activity for brand spanking new hotels including announced Fairmont projects in Jakarta, Bali and several other cities in China.

    Lam arrives at Fairmont having previously served as senior vice chairman, leisure & brand sales and marketing for Hong Kong/Macau-based Melco Crown Entertainment.

    Over the process a career that has spanned greater than 20 years, Lam has also held a chain of management positions with leading brands in Asia including roles with Shangri-La Hotels and InterContinental Hotels Group.

  • News: New appointment for Fairmont Hotels

    Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has named Carmen Lam as vp, hotel sales and marketing, Asia Pacific. Lam, who would be based in Shanghai, joins Fairmont on this newly created role to offer sales and marketing direction to Fairmont’s impressive hotels in Asia Pacific and support to the luxurious operator’s burgeoning pipeline of regional development.

    “We’re quickly growing our footprint in Asia and are very fortunate to be adding a pacesetter of Carmen’s caliber to our regional management team,” said, Jeff Doane, Fairmont’s vp, hotel sales and marketing. “With her wealth of hotel related experience and firm understanding of the regional marketplace, she’s ideally positioned to lead our sales, marketing and branding activity throughout Asia.”

    With six hotels open and operating in Asia, including three in China, Lam will focus on maximizing results and driving performance for this dynamic mixture of resort and town center properties. She’ll even be answerable for executing Fairmont’s regional sales strategy, regional brand management, and awareness and marketing activity for brand new hotels including announced Fairmont projects in Jakarta, Bali and several other cities in China.

    Lam arrives at Fairmont having previously served as senior vp, leisure & brand sales and marketing for Hong Kong/Macau-based Melco Crown Entertainment. Over the process a career that has spanned greater than 20 years, Lam has also held a sequence of management positions with leading brands in Asia including roles with Shangri-La Hotels and InterContinental Hotels Group.

    Lam holds an Executive MBA from Canada’s Richard Ivey School of economic – University of Western, a Bachelor of industrial Administration from the University of Hawaii and an Executive Leadership designation from Cornell University. Lam can be pursuing a Doctorate on the School of Hotel and Tourism Management on the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

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  • News: InterContinental Hotels tap into China

    InterContinental Hotels Group has begun adding its entire portfolio of four,600 properties world wide to China travel retailer Ctrip.com International via a reservations system connection designed and implemented by DerbySoft.

    “We are happy to have a successful reference to IHG through DerbySoft, and Chinese customers can easily reserve more global hotels through Ctrip,” said Maria Maohua Sun, Ctrip’s Senior Vice chairman and Head of Hotel Business Division. Online travel bookings in China overall are expected to arrive nearly $14.4 billion this year, in step with PhocusWright. 

    With 160 operating properties and 30% of its global pipeline in China, IHG recognized the necessity to directly connect its central reservations system (CRS) to China’s largest travel portal allowing online booking of its properties for both outbound and inbound Chinese travelers.  As a result of DerbySoft connection to IHG’s CRS, Ctrip users could be ready to view real time availability and receive an instant booking confirmation.

    “Having worked with DerbySoft since 2007 on numerous technology projects, we were extremely confident of their ability to assist us with this complex direct connection,” said IHG Vp of Distribution and Intermediary Sales Andrew Rubinacci. DerbySoft was the primary technology provider to attach a world hotel company’s CRS to Booking.com, the Amsterdam-based division of Priceline.com Inc. (PCLN), when it connected IHG to Booking.com in 2008. 

    The XML-based connection between IHG and Ctrip, facilitated by DerbySoft, went live this week. Over a better several weeks, DerbySoft will continue rolling out IHG’s 4,600 properties onto the Ctrip system. “We are proud to have created this new reservations connection between these two major industry players,” said DerbySoft Vice chairman of Connectivity Keith Cotton. “Our distributed technology platform, which gives extremely flexible and unique solutions to deal with different business rules of both partners, includes servers strategically positioned all over the world to supply reduced latency and exceptional system response times for both Ctrip and IHG..” 

      DerbySoft builds highly customized electronic “pipelines” that transmit accurate room availability, rates, and inventory (ARI) from the hotel companies’ CRSs to 3rd-party online booking channels, and in turn deliver the reservations made at the travel booking websites back to the hotel companies’ central reservations systems.