Two hotels in Birmingham development

TWO new hotels with more than 320 bedrooms between them are scheduled for a new development in Birmingham.

Planning permission has been granted for a scheme covering 1.4 million square feet at a former Royal Mail sorting office in the city centre. As well as the hotels, the development will include restaurants, offices and 140 loft apartments. Building work is due to start in April.

A 200-bedroom, four-star hotel is planned for the front of the development and a budget hotel with 120-140 bedrooms will be built on adjoining land.

Property agent Knight Frank is negotiating with various companies to operate the hotels.

golden tulip's garden

Hotel consortium Golden Tulip Worldwide has added the Swiss Garden International Hotels Group to its portfolio. It has signed up six properties from the group, five of which are in Malaysia and one in Australia.

accolade for custer

Danielle Custer, executive chef of the Laurels restaurant at the Westin Park Central in Dallas, USA, has been named Chef of the Year for 1999 by the Restaurant Guild International. Custer will be honoured in Los Angeles later this year.

scandic's dutch deal

Scandic Hotels has signed a management agreement to operate a hotel in IJmuiden, Holland, under the Holiday Inn brand. The hotel will have 146 bedrooms and is due to open early next year.

accor looking up

Accor has reported consolidated 1998 sales of £3.8m (Ffr36,881m), an increase of 16.1% on 1997. Hotel revenue increased by 12.1%, including 15.9% for the business and leisure segment, 10.6% for the economy segment and 4.1% for Motel 6.

tours to chernobyl

The latest tourist attraction launched by Ukrainian tourist agency Liko-L is a trip to Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Chernobyl's fourth reactor exploded in 1986 in the world's worst civil nuclear accident.

korea's top hotel

The 116-bedroom Westin Chosun hotel in Seoul,Korea, has been named Top Hotel in the Korea Herald newspaper's 1998 awards.