From his London headquarters, Paul Clark, CEO of Virgin Hotels, acknowledges the value of a relationship with an airline. The brief from his boss, Richard Branson, is to coordinate projects with the routes of the Virgin network, namely Virgin America, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Blue. Branson already has the Virgin Limited Edition collection of such unique retreats as Necker Island. Now, with Virgin Hotels, Clark hopes to create urban townhouse-style properties, a blend of lifestyle hotel and private club that bears affinity to the highly successful Virgin Clubhouse airside lounges that Virgin premium passengers enjoy at many major airports. The challenge here is that Clubhouses are partly successful because of their Cowshed spas, but these cannot be adapted for Virgin Hotels as Cowshed's conceptor, Nick Jones, started his own growing brand of Soho House properties.

Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts, Zürich, part of Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, often leads the way for sibling brands to enter such developing markets as China or Russia. Following the success of the Swissôtel Krasnye Holmy, Moscow, Fairmont is said to be talking about a project in that city. Swissôtel, meanwhile, is now building a property in Novosibirsk. It now needs, says Managing Director Meinhard Huck, to have something in Sochi, the Black Sea city that hosts the Winter Olympics in 2014. Similarly, in China, Swissôtel has opened the 213-key Swissôtel Foshan and the 478-key Swissôtel Grand Shanghai. Now, says Huck, it is time to look for other key cities in China.

Frasers Hospitality, Bangkok, has a 10-year history of operating serviced apartments in such key destinations as Bangkok, Beijing, Hanoi, London, Manila, Paris, Seoul, Shenzhen, Singapore and Sydney. Now, says board member Rohit Sachdev, it is expanding into the overnight hotel sector. Frasers Hospitality has full funding for 10 hotels, around 150 keys each. The unique factor is advanced back-of-house technology that results in maximum efficiency from a minimum workforce. Sachdev is looking for an operating partner, not necessarily from within the hotel sector but a company that understands logistics and technology.

The current economic situation in the United States is causing fledgling companies to alter future plans. Candela Hotels, Seattle, opens its first hotel there in 2010. CEO Tom Piggott, who worked in Asia for many years, is now accelerating his ambitions to enter the Indian market. He and his development consultant, Andrew Stein, president and CEO of Watchung, New Jersey-based Makopastreet Partners, are looking for local partners interested in luxury eco-development in Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai.

Martin Rinck, Singapore-based president and managing director of Carlson Hotels Asia Pacific, is looking for more projects in Australia, China and India but, somewhat unusually, he also has New Zealand in his sights. He thinks his Radisson SAS brand would be ideal for that country and is searching for projects.

E-mail: mary.gostelow@wowtraveler.net