LA harbor plan would mix leisure with industry

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The hulking container ships that ply the Port of Los Angeles already provide Southern California with a major source of revenue. Soon they could also provide the scenery for what port officials hope will be the region's newest tourist destination.

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Home Inns to open 200 new hotels in 2010

Home Inns & Hotels Management Inc, one of the largest budget hotel brands in China, plans to open 200 hotels next year, mainly in second-tier Chinese cities, said Home Inns' CEO David Sun at the Shanghai International Franchise Exhibition, sources reported.
Home Inn aims to own a total of 1,000 hotels in three years as China's budget hotel market still has great potential for development, according to Sun.
The Chinese hotelier predicted earlier its operating revenue for the third quarter of this year would reach between RMB 685 million and RMB 705 million. The operating revenue for the whole year is estimated to grow by 33% to 35% from that of 2008.
Home Inns recorded RMB 100.4 million of net profit for the second quarter of this year. Its total revenues grew 43.3% year on year to RMB 642.1 million during the period.

Poor trading at Globe pubs causes profits to drain away

Globe Pub Company, the cash-strapped tenanted pub group founded by Robert Tchenguiz, has reported a first-quarter loss of more than £200 million after being forced to write down the value of its estate amid continued poor trading.

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Fontainebleau Las Vegas creditors request liquidation

Creditors for the stalled Fontainebleau Las Vegas want to oust developer Jeffrey Soffer from the bankrupt project and have a court sell the unfinished high-rise, and have filed a lawsuit in federal bankruptcy court to do so.
``With completion of the Project by the Debtors not possible, a sale of the Project to a third party and liquidation of the remaining assets is the only viable course,'' the lenders wrote.

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Chinese hotel project in Cuba eyes U.S. market

The Hemingway Hotel may have an American ring to it, but it is the name of a Chinese-Cuban venture scheduled for groundbreaking this year with an apparent eye on the U.S. market, tourism industry sources said.

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1bn euro development for Greece

The first hotels and spas in a 1bn euro (US$1.43bn, £863.74m) resort being built in Messinia, Greece, will open in 2010.
Called Costa Navarino and masterminded by Greek company Temes SA, the development will contain 11 luxury hotels managed by various international brands along 150km of coastline. As well as 3,000 hotel rooms, there will be luxury villas, seven golf courses, six thalassotherapy centres and spas and a marina.

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French consortium acquires Accor properties

Hotel operator Accor has completed the sale of 158 hotels, operating under its budget brand hotelF1, to a consortium of French investors through a property investment trust.
The €272m (£249.4m, US$396.2m) deal will see the group continue to operate the French properties under the hotelF1 brand as part of a 12-year leaseback agreement, which involves 12,300 bedrooms.

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http://www.ihgplc.com/index.asp?PageID=57&newsid=2360&rssfeed=ihgplc

LaSalle Hotel Properties (NYSE: LHO - News) is leading the Hotel REIT sector higher today after its balance sheet earned it a positive mention in Barron's. The newspaper noted that, while the stock has staged a 360% run since March, it may still have room to run. The report also highlighted the company's overweight presence in Washington, D.C., which helped it maintain occupancy during the recession.

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First Holiday Inn Opens in the Dominican Republic

MIAMI (September 24, 2009) - IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)], the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms, today announced the opening of the new Holiday Inn Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. This is the first Holiday Inn located in Santo Domingo and also the first Holiday Inn in the Caribbean to incorporate the brand's new hallmarks which, is the seal of approval that this hotel exemplifies the standards of the $1 billion Holiday Inn brand relaunch program. The 7-story, 141-room hotel will open under a management agreement with Inexpress Dominicana, S.A., a sister company of Inverplata S.A., which owns the InterContinental V Centenario Santo Domingo, and as the second IHG property in Santo Domingo.

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Resort Real Estate: Preparing for the Recovery

Demand for lodging accommodations and demand for resort real estate have distinct drivers. It is well documented that there is a strong correlation between lodging demand and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates. Unlike other types of real estate, hotels by definition offer a transient service, so occupancy levels can almost immediately react to external factors, such as economic conditions. As shown in the chart below1, the long term trend is clear

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Rubio's names new chief operating officer

CARLSBAD, Calif. (AP) -- Rubio's Restaurants Inc., operator of the Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill chain, said Monday it has promoted Marc Simon to the newly created position of chief operating officer.
Simon has been a senior vice president of operations since he joined the company in November 2007.
Previously he was CEO of America's Incredible Pizza Co. in Tulsa, Okla. He has also worked at McDonald's Corp. and Ernst & Young's consulting group.
Shares of the Carlsbad, Calif.-based company fell 46 cents, or 6.6 percent, to $6.54 on Monday

UK Chain Hotels Market Review - August 2009

Holiday makers boosted occupancy levels for provincial UK chain hotels in August 2009, according to the latest HotStats survey by industry experts TRI Hospitality Consulting. Although occupancy levels were at similar levels to August 2008, provincial hoteliers continued to compete aggressively on price, resulting in an 8.3% year on year drop in achieved average room rate to £64.51. In contrast, the decline in average occupancy levels was only 0.6 percentage points, to 71.8%, representing the smallest margin of decline since the beginning of the year.

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Enterprise targets £200m at pub auctions

The company is trialing the sale of seven freeholds at an Allsops auction on 15 October, hoping to raise £14.7m.
The company is offering private investors a 35-year lease with itself as tenant on the head-lease, subject to a five-yearly rent review and no indexation.
Chief executive Ted Tuppen said rents on offer to investors account for between 80 and 90% of each pub’s total Ebidta. “We’ve taken advice on the rent that’s appropriate,” he told City analysts

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Enterprise Inns profits hit by financial aid for struggling pubs

Enterprise Inns has revealed that continued financial support for struggling pubs is draining its overall profits but the rate of closures is slowing.
In a pre-close trading statement, the pubco said its core estate has demonstrated resilience during tough trading conditions but profitability has been hit by financial support for struggling licensees, business failures and temporary management agreements

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Station Casinos wants ‘breathing room’ from employee wage suit

At the time of the bankruptcy filing, a lawsuit seeking class-action status was pending in Clark County District Court alleging as many as 20,000 current and former workers were shorted on pay because of a "rounding" system Station uses to track hours worked.

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Starbucks VIA Ready Brew Arrives

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tomorrow, Starbucks Coffee Company (NASDAQ: SBUX - News) launches its breakthrough Starbucks VIA™ Ready Brew at all U.S. locations, expanding upon the company’s coffee expertise and leadership. Starbucks VIA™ is 100 percent natural roasted arabica coffee in an instant form that is rich and full bodied just like a fresh-brewed cup of Starbucks® coffee. Starbucks VIA™ is made with a proprietary, U.S. patent-pending microgrind technology to preserve the coffee’s taste, quality and freshness.

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