KKR sells Minneapolis Radisson Blu. Massachusetts REIT Hospitality Properties Trust, a longtime partner of Radisson Hotel Group, acquired the 360-room Radisson Blu Minneapolis Downtown from private equity giant KKR. HPT also agreed to invest more than US$50 million in Radisson properties in the U.S. Upgrades are slated for Radisson hotels in Salt Lake City, Seattle, Nashville and Phoenix, and Country Inn & Suites by Radisson hotels in Minnesota, Washington, North Carolina and California. KKR in 2014 acquired the Minneapolis property and converted it to a Radisson Blu following a renovation. The hotel is the ninth property owned by HPT and managed by Radisson.
Scandic reorganizes executive ranks. Stockholm-based Scandic Hotels announced a corporate reorganization to strengthen its digitalization, branding and marketing. The company recruited Ann Hellenius as chief information officer. She previously was CIO at Bankgirot and the city of Stockholm. Scandic also recruited Niklas Angergård as chief customer officer. Previously, Angergård was CMO at Finnish software company Tieto. He also has experience in brand strategy, marketing and customer satisfaction from Klarna, Telia and SAS. The company promoted Jan Lundborg to chief commercial optimization officer from vice president for revenue management and distribution. He managed the group’s revenue management functions since 2009. Sandic CEO and president Even Frydenberg said the new organization enables the company to strength its position and take advantage of market opportunities and in the increasingly digital travel industry.
Jumeirah to add third brand. Dubai-based luxury hotel chain Jumeirah Hotels and Resorts eventually will add one more hotel brand to its stable, CEO José Silva said in an interview with Gulf News. As the company enters its next phase of expansion, Silva said the company plans to create three separate identities, complementing the Jumeirah brand and the recently introduced Zabeel House with a third, ultra-luxury hotel offering. The third brand could be an extension of the Burj Al Arab hotel that opened in 1999 and commands the highest room rate in the city. Separately, Jumeirah named Michael Ellis chief culinary officer, a new position. Ellis was global director for Europe, Asia and the Americas at Michelin Restaurant and Hotel Guides since 2011 and oversaw an expansion in which the tire company added six new titles in the past three years. The new position is part an initiative to refresh and elevate the hotel’s restaurants, according to Silva.
Singapore REIT expands in Osaka. Singapore REIT Ascendas Hospitality Trust agreed to acquire three hotels in Osaka from Japanese developer ES-CON for 10.29 billion Japanese yen (US$93.2 million). The acquisition of the three hotels: Hotel WBF Kitasemba West, Hotel WBF Kitasemba East and Hotel WBF Honmachi, will deepen the REIT’s presence in Japan’s third-largest city, Ascendas said. The hotels will be managed by an entity of White Bear Family Company, a travel company that operates nearly 30 hotels in Japan.
Hotel-backed poll shows New Yorkers back Airbnb crackdown. More than half of New York City residents support a proposed law to crack down on Airbnb, according to a new poll paid for by a hotel industry and union group. In the Lake Research Partners survey, 61% of respondents said they supported a City Council bill requiring Airbnb to provide the names and addresses on all its listings in the city to the Mayor’s Office of Special Enforcement, 20% were against the proposal, and 19% were undecided. The survey was commissioned by Share Better, a group pushing for the bill’s passage, and funded by the hotel industry and Hotel Trades Council, a union representing hotel workers.
IHG expands in India. InterContinental Hotel Group formed a partnership with India’s SDB Developers to build a second Holiday Inn in the Kolkata area. The 110-room Holiday Inn Resort Kolkata NH6 is slated to have 90 rooms in operation by the end of this year, with 20 more rooms to be added by 2020. The property will be located an hour’s drive from downtown Kolkata and the airport. It will include meeting and banquet facilities as well as a gym, pool and spa.
New hotel for central Taichung. State-run bad debt manager Taiwan Asset Management Corp. formed a partnership with Evergreen Resort Hotel Jiaosi to develop a hotel from an empty building in central Taichung. The companies agreed to spend NT$700 million (US$23.3 million) to develop the 20-year-old commercial property into a hotel with 280 rooms. The hotel could launch operations by the end of the year.
RLH promotes Paul Sacco. Denver-based RLH Corp. promoted Paul Sacco to executive vice president and president of global development. In his new role, Sacco will oversee franchise growth initiatives for RLH brands. Sacco joined the company in September 2017 and has been successful in developing and growing the company’s upscale brands, RLH said.
Hilton leads in China development. The top hotel companies in China’s construction pipeline by project count are: Hilton Worldwide with 347 projects/80,532 rooms, InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) with 296 projects/71,191 rooms, Marriott International with 283 projects/79,018 rooms, and AccorHotels with 141 projects/26,756 rooms, according to Lodging Econometrics. The largest brand in the pipeline for each of the these companies is: Hilton’s Hampton Inn & Suites with 164 projects/25,503 rooms, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express with 131 projects/25,194 rooms, Marriott’s full-service hotel with 63 projects/19,361 rooms, and Accor’s Ibis with 47 projects/5,041 rooms.