USA
Mandarin Oriental to open serviced apartments
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is to open 65 new luxury apartments in New York, group chief executive Edouard Ettedgui announced last week.
The Residences at Mandarin Oriental, New York, is under construction above the 251-bedroom hotel component of the AOL Time Warner Centre at Columbus Circle. Scheduled for completion in autumn this year, the centre will be the largest mixed-use complex built in New York's history.
Burger sales still on the wane
McDonald's has reported its 14th month of like-for-like sales declines, although the 0.8% fall in April this year marked an improvement on both March 2003 (down 3.7%) and April 2002 (down 3.9%).
Like-for-like sales fell in Europe, down 1% to $977.5m (£603m), and in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, down 6.9% to $540m (£333m), but grew by 1.3% in the USA to $1.77b (£1.09b). Total sales increased by 8% to $3.6b (£2.2b).
EUROPE
Icelandic incentives
Icelandair has reopened what is now the country's largest hotel, the Nordica, in Reykjavik. The company claims the 284-bedroom property is the first hotel in the Icelandic capital to be designed specifically for the meetings and incentives market. Conference facilities will total 2,000sq m, including one 520sq m conference room, which will be the largest conference room in Iceland.
Icelandair is the country's largest hotel business and runs two hotel chains, Icelandair Hotels and Edda Hotels.
QMH managing director heads for Little Chef
Tim Scoble, managing director of Queens Moat Houses' (QMH) UK division, is leaving the company at the end of the month to become chief executive of Little Chef. Richard Moore, managing director of QMH's German division, replaces Scoble on 1 June.
The company is recruiting a new managing director for its German hotels. QMH has 42 hotels in the UK, 24 in Germany and 23 in the Netherlands.
Andersson's latest hit
Former Abba singer Benny Andersson is to open Sweden's first boutique hotel in the capital city, Stockholm, this summer.
The 99-bedroom Rival hotel, 700-seat theatre, café and bakery is being privately financed by Andersson, chairman of MyTravel, Christer Sandahl and Christer Hägglund, a major stockholder of recruitment consultant Proffice.
"We have set out to create a hotel with personality, the kind of place we would want to stay ourselves," said Andersson.
The hotel is located on Södermalm's heights and is expected to attract 70% business clientele and 30% groups and leisure. A standard double will cost g100-g300 (£71-£215).
MIDDLE EAST
Sars outbreak leads to hotel staff redundancies
The Hyatt Regency hotel in Hong Kong has made 130 employees - nearly a quarter of its total staff - redundant following the devastating impact of Sars.
The redundancies come after occupancy rates plummeted to 5%, the lowest level experienced by the hotel. A spokesman for the company said it would try to rehire all those dismissed when the economy picks up.
Italian restaurant opening in Hong Kong delayed
The opening of David Tang's $2m (£1.23m) Italian restaurant - the Cipriani - in the Bank of China building, Hong Kong, is being postponed because of the Sars epidemic. The arrival of three Italian chefs has been delayed following health and travel warnings issued by the World Health Organisation.
The new restaurant will be run as a private members' club and is now expected to open next month.