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Briefs: Dubai investment? | Airbnb to hit 500 million

Mondrian shifts brand: The Mondrian London is changing its name to Sea Containers London in a play on its building’s history. It’s now an independent hotel as well, to be managed by Lore Group, which is taking over from Sbe. Some interior updates are planned.

Airbnb update: By the end of the 1Q 2019, Airbnb projects over 500 million guest arrivals in listings since its founding in 2008, the home-sharing site said in an update on its business. For the second year in a row, Airbnb was profitable on an EBITDA basis, it said. Other details: For business travel, more than 300,000 companies are engaging with Airbnb to help manage travel, and the average stay for Airbnb for Work is about five days, with the fastest-growing segment of trips three nights or less. “To date, we have collected and remitted more than US$1 billion in hotel and tourist taxes,” the press release said. “We also continue to work in partnership with governments to pass smart rules for home sharing in cities and countries around the world,” noting highlights in Los Angeles, Seattle, France and Sydney (it didn’t mention New York).

Dubai eyes purchase: State investment group Dubai Holding is reportedly considering purchasing a three-hotel portfolio: the 78-room Capri Palace in Capri, Italy, the 84-room Aldrovandi Villa Borghese in Rome, and the 360-room Grand Hyatt in Istanbul. Dogus Holdings, owned by Turkish billionaire Ferit Sahenk, is the current owner and is considering the sale as part of a debt restructuring, according to Bloomberg.

Read Bloomberg’s story

Oxley to sell in Singapore? Singapore’s Oxley Holdings accepted a letter of intent for the purchase of its Mercure and Novotel hotels 518 and 254 rooms, respectively) in Singapore for S$950 million (US$701.7 million). According to the Business Times, the buyer is Indonesian banking and property magnate Tahir.

Barceló in Marrakesh: Spain’s Barceló Hotel Group acquired the 252-room Barceló Palmaraie in Marrakesh, Morocco for €35 million (US$40.1 million), along with two plots of land, one adjacent to the hotel and another downtown, where it plans to build a 160-room luxury hotel.

Profit growth for European Hotels in November: Demand from the commercial segment accounted for more than 40% of accommodated room nights in November and helped fuel a 5.2% year-on-year increase in profit per room for hotels across Europe, according to the latest data tracking full-service hotels from HotStats. November was another month of robust profit growth for hotels in the region, with year-to-date GOPPAR at 9.5% above the same period in 2017. This was the 10th month of profit growth in 2018, with the only blip suffered in May, and, absent a complete collapse in December, hotels in Europe are set to record another huge profit increase in 2018, following the 8.9% increase in 2017. 

Hilton Kansas City Airport sells: New York-based The LCP Group and Blue Vista Capital Management have jointly acquired of the Hilton Kansas City Airport in Kansas City, Missouri. The 347-room property will be managed by HEI Hotels & Resorts located in Norwalk, Connecticut. No selling price was disclosed. 

MacDonald slashes jobs: The MacDonald hotel group has cut 50 jobs citing “unsustainably high” costs. The redundancies will be made at the company’s headquarters in Bathgate. The firm – which has several hotels across Scotland – says it hopes as many staff as possible can be redeployed within the business. 

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