AMERICAS
Miami first for Four Seasons
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts opened its first property in Miami, Florida, last week. The 221-bedroom hotel is housed in the 70-storey Four Seasons Hotel & Towers, a mixed-use development that also has apartments, office and retail space. One floor of the hotel is dedicated to conferencing, with 14,210sq ft of function space, including a 5,830sq ft ballroom which can accommodate as many as 670 people, while another floor is dedicated to relaxing. The seventh floor is a two-acre terrace with three swimming pools and a bar.
Sale rise at Wendy's
Fast-food restaurant company Wendy's International has reported improved sales in both its Wendy's restaurants and Tim Horton's coffee shops in the four weeks to the end of September. Turnover rose by 3.5% at group restaurants compared with the same month a year earlier, and by 6.5% at coffee shops.
Best Western heads to the Hills
Hotel consortium Best Western has added a Beverly Hills property to its collection. The eight-storey, 110-bedroom Best Western Beverly Pavilion joined the consortium last week, having been previously branded as a Radisson hotel. Best Western has more than 4,000 hotels around the world.
Outback Steakhouses enjoys turnover growth
US restaurant chain Outback Steakhouses saw turnover increase by 3.2% in the five weeks to 27 September, against the same period in 2002. But sales at the company's Carrabba's Italian Grills restaurants were flat during the period.
Comfort in Idaho for Choice
Choice Hotels International has opened a new all-suites hotel in Boise, Idaho. The 83-bedroom Comfort Suites Airport hotel, opened last week, has an indoor pool and a small meeting room with space for up to 50 people. There are currently 369 Comfort Suites hotels open, with a further 71 under development worldwide.
INDIA
Taj looks stateside
India's Taj group of hotels has been given the go-ahead by its directors to make an offer to buy a hotel in the USA. The acquisition is in line with its strategy to expand internationally, with hotels in key gateway cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Singapore.
EUROPE
Sol Meliá: one out...
Spanish hotel chain Sol Meliá has sold its three-star, 277-bedroom Sol Patos hotel in Benalm dena, Malaga, for €16.8m (£11.8m). The deal is part of the group's strategy to dispose of properties in cities where it already has hotels - Sol Meliá already has the Sol Aloha Playa hotel in Benalm dena - and when it can sell them at a "sufficiently profitable" level.
...And one in
The Spanish group has also added another hotel to its portfolio in Germany. The four-star, 177-bedroom Tryp Frankfurt hotel has two restaurants, six meeting rooms and its own conference centre with space for as many as 300 guests. The addition takes the number of hotels operated by Sol Meliá in Germany to 13.
AFRICA
Kempinski goes into Africa
Kempinski Hotels & Resorts has opened the five-star, 100-bedroom Kempinski El Forouk in Bamako, Mali, and is now heading east to Ndjamena in Chad. The group hopes to open the 185-bedroom Kempinski Sahael & Sahara hotel by December, taking its total number of hotels in Africa to three.