Americas
Marriott predicts recovery in business travel
US-based hotel chain Marriott International has reported an 11% drop in profits for the third quarter of 2003, but said there were signs that the three-year slump in business travel may have hit the bottom. It forecast a rise in revenue per available room next year of 3%-4%.
Miami's art deco Ritz-Carlton to reopen
The Ritz-Carlton hotel on Miami's South Beach is scheduled to reopen this December. The 1950s hotel has undergone a $200m (£120m) restoration, but still retains its art deco features. The hotel has 375 bedrooms, 72 of which have been added during the refurbishment.
Host Marriott buys Hawaiian Hyatt Regency
Property company Host Marriott Corporation has bought the 806-bedroom Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa in Hawaii for $321m (£192m) from an affiliate of Blackstone Real Estate Advisors. The hotel is forecast to make a profit of $33m (£19.7m) this year.
Asia Pacific
Best Western targets China for aggressive growth
Hotel consortium Best Western has revealed plans to add more than 50 hotels in the next two years throughout Asia, with the most aggressive growth planned for China. The chain already has eight hotels in China, with two more planned to open this year. It aims to have 100 hotels in China by 2007.
Sydney Airport Hilton to be rebranded as Mercure
The 266-bedroom Sydney Airport Hilton hotel in Australia is to be rebranded as the Mercure Sydney Airport, following the decision of the owners - the Winten Property Group and the Lyon Group - to replace Hilton with Accor as the hotel's management company.
India
Hyderabad Viceroy converts to Marriott
The 168-bedroom Viceroy hotel in Hyderabad is being converted into a Marriott hotel. US-based Marriott International will extend the hotel to 308 bedrooms and rename it the Hyderabad Marriott. The property will be Marriott's fifth hotel in India.
Europe
Geneva Crowne Plaza to be biggest Swiss hotel
The five-star Crowne Plaza hotel in Geneva will become the largest hotel in Switzerland, with 500 bedrooms, once work is completed this month. The hotel, which was built in September 1989 with 305 bedrooms, will overtake the current biggest hotel in the country, the 410-bedroom Noga Hilton hotel. More than €48m (£33.5m) has been spent adding the extra 195 bedrooms.
AC Hotels opens fifth in Barcelona area
Spanish group AC Hotels has opened a four-star hotel in Mantorell, near Barcelona. The hotel has 92 bedrooms and three conference rooms with space for up to 150 people each. The AC Mantorell is the group's fifth hotel in the Barcelona area and seventh in the Catalonia region. AC Hotels currently operates 57 hotels with 5,300 bedrooms in Spain, Italy and Portugal and hopes to increase its portfolio to 100 in the near future.
Five luxury hotels being built in Hungary
Five five-star hotels with a total of 820 bedrooms are scheduled to be built in Hungary by the beginning of 2005. The Polus Palace Golf Club Hotel in Godollo, near Budapest, opens in January, closely followed by the New York Palace in Budapest. The first of the five hotels comes on line at the end of this year when Radisson SAS opens its Birdland Resort & Spa in Bukfurdo.