Travel desire, demand and bookings across the globe have boosted Accor's Q1 2024 numbers, the firm reporting its hotels in the Middle East, Africa and Australia significantly contributed to Accor’s earnings performance in the quarter … Hotel News Now
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A Labour government would nationalise the U.K. railway system. Is it naive to suggest fares could be made artifically lower than cost to encourage more people to use High Streets and to help the environment? I believe fares here are notably higher than in many European countries.

London-based hotel ownership firm Arora Group through a new partnership with French economy brand B&B Hotels has opened the 119-room, newly converted Colnbrook Hotel London Heathrow Airport as B&B's first U.K. hotel. Hotel News Now
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Ennismore, part of Accor Group, & owner Kasada to open Africa's 1st Mama Shelter hotel, & also Ennismore's 1st in South Africa. In Cape Town, the HMA is for 127 keys & 68 branded residences. Also to feature Mama Play, a new concept w/ bowling and karaoke (together!?). Hotel News Now

Accor CEO laments ‘mess’ of world issues, seeks to elevate hospitality around the globe
One of the longest tenured CEOs in the hotel industry, Accor's Sébastien Bazin, admitted he's discouraged by the lack of leadership from world leaders. Hotel News Now
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Financing in place for first Six Senses hotel in Greece, in Porto Cheli, close to Hydra. CBE Capital signed an agreement for a €95m ($102m) senior-bond loan facility from Greek financial institution Piraeus Bank. Due to open in 2026. Hotel News Now costar.com/article/349317…

El Salvador making news, w/ a very tough prison system, criticism of legal rights largely dismissed by govt., &—and utterly unrelated—a new Hilton will have debt in Bitcoin, w/ minumum investment of $1K via 'Bitcoin layer 2 Liquid Network,' says Cointelegraph Hotel News Now

Proprium sells 35% Motel One hotel stake for €1.25 billion
London-based private equity firm sells its 35% stake in Munich-based Motel One Group for €1.25 billion ($1.36 billion) to the hotel firm’s majority partner One Hotels & Resorts GmbH.
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Hotel101, The Philippines-based hotel-operations division of DoubleDragon Corporation, is planning a $2.3-billion merger with publicly listed JVSPAC Acquisition Corporation, an entity created in January as a “blank check company.” Hotel News Now costar.com/article/212668…

King Street Capital Mngt rumoured new owner of Venice's famed Bauer Hotel, soon to reopen as a Rosewood hotel. In December, it closed its Global Drawdown Fund II, with $2.3bn raised above its initial $2bn aim. Hotel News Now

Ferns Estates acquires 75-room 'luxury' hotel (not named), says Economic Times, in Goa for equivalent of $21m, with adjacent two-acre site to double room count. Project aided by 10-year loan of ₹150 crore from Bajaj Finance. Hotel News Now

After a brief memorial, the cigarette was lit at 5:17. The 2024 Barkley Marathons has begun. #BM100

Creditors at Vienna-based real estate and retail group Signa agree to a plan to transfer assets held by its divisions Signa Prime Selection and Signa Development Selection, which include the 146-room Park Hyatt Vienna, into receivership. Hotel News Now
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Not all property development is a shoe-in. Esquire Developments' non-hotels plan for 21 homes next to an important Nightingale site in my home of Kent, on the Hoo Peninsula near Chattenden Woods and Lodge Hill, rejected following public backlash. Hotel News Now

#Superseabirdsunday No one yet has posted Grey phalarope, so here you are. (Red phalarope to our American friends.) Last October, off the Isles of Scilly.

The Radisson Hotel Collection Berlin could reopen before year's end. It was forced to close in Dec '22 when its 50-ft-tall “AquaDom” lobby aquarium, its visual centre, broke apart. No human lives were lost; more than half of its 1,500 fish were saved …
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The famous Groucho Club on Dean St., London, is to open in 2026 its first #hotel , Grade II-listed, 40-room Bretton Hall near Wakefield, Yorkshire. A venture between owner Artfarm and investor Rushbond Group, it is the club's first dalliance since forming in 1985. Hotel News Now

Bratislava-based owner-operator Best Hotel Properties signs a JV agreement with Luxembourg-based CPI Property Group and assumed ownership of 50% of an eight-hotel portfolio in the Czech Republic managed by CPI subsidiary CPI Hotels … @Hotels_News_Now
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Nosebleed time! U.K. roooooooooars our of recession with +0.2% January boost to GDP, our rapid rise to the top of the economic pyramid spearheaded by online and outdoor retail sales and construction activity, says Office for National Statistics (ONS). Hotel News Now Up from a -0.1% drop in December

From Staines on Sunday, Black-necked grebe in full summer regalia; Slavonian grebe on the change. There was a Black-throated diver present, but it obviously decided to vanish when I tried to find it. Several resplendant Goldeneye.Baldbirder