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Fairmont Hotels Go Exotic With Three New Silk Road Hotels
We love new hotels, and we definitely love new hotels in exotic places – so the fact that the Fairmont group have just opened up three new hotels along the Silk Road gets us pretty excited.
The first is the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi – that unusual name means "Gateway to the Sea" so you can guess that it's a beachfront hotel. There's a private beach and two swimming pools if relaxing is on your agenda, but it's also easy to visit the gold markets, a nearby mosque or trek out on a desert safari. Until the end of the year nightly rates start from $230 as an opening special.
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Pan Pacific Hotels Start To Take Over China With Second Hotel
The Pan Pacific Hotels group are at the start of a "growth strategy" for China – they sure aren't the only ones – and that means they're going to open their second hotel in China in January 2010.
After opening up the Pan Pacific Xiamen earlier this year, they will now be taking over and rebranding the Sheraton Suzhou Hotel and Towers in the east coast city of Suzhou. It's a 484-room place which Sheraton just added a brand new wing of 99 rooms to earlier in the year (obviously nobody told them they'd be handing it over).
Before the January reopening they'll be putting some Pan Pacific "brand standards" in place. And then the group will be looking ahead to its continued attempt to rule China, with its third hotel planned for Tianjin in 2011.
[Photo: bernardoh]
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New Shangri-La Ningbo Gives Shanghai Luxury Style For Just $120 a Night
Although properties in New York and Chicago are out of the picture for now, Shangri-La Hotels are continuing to expand in Asia, just opening a new fancy high-rise is the Chinese city of Ningbo. The Shangri-La Ningbo would be your typical five-star property, if it weren't boasting of special introductory rates as low as $120 and a residential community of 60 apartments.
Available until December 31 for stays in a deluxe room, the $120 opening deal will hopefully attract tourists on a sidetrip from visiting Shanghai, as Ningbo is just across the Huangzhou Bay. For that $120, you'll get a whole bunch of free stuff: free buffet breakfast, free broadband internet access, free use of hookups and speakers for iPods and other digital accessories, and access to the gym with pool and two tennis courts.
Tags: Sofitel Hotels / Dubai Hotels / Abu Dhabi Hotels / China Hotels / → All Tags
Sofitel Takes On Middle East and China
Not a brand to stand around twiddling their thumbs at the moment, Sofitel is busy getting their hotels stuck into the Middle East. For a start, the Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach is due to open sometime this year – press releases are saying September, but their website says July 1 and it looks like we can book rooms throughout July, starting at €150 ($215) – but that's not enough for Sofitel. They've just announced two more properties for the UAE, with Sofitel Dubai Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai due to open in 2012 and in Abu Dhabi, the Sofitel Abu Dhabi Capital Plaza is already making progress, ready to take guests in 2010.
And it's not just the Middle East. We were already amazed when Sofitel opened their 23rd hotel in China but they're quickly following that up with three more. In southern China, close to Hong Kong, there'll be two new places: the Sofitel Dongguan and the Sofitel Guangzhou. On the east coast, you'll soon find the Sofitel Qingdao; all three of these new Sofitels are located in main business districts. Opening dates for the Chinese additions aren't being advertised just yet, but it sounds like it'll only be five minutes until we turn around and hear about even more.
[Photo of Sofitel Xian: Ksionic]
Tags: Hotel Openings / Shanghai Hotels / Sofitel Hotels / China Hotels / → All Tags
Sofitel Continues to Conquer China with 23rd Hotel
Whoa, we are totally blown away by the fact that Sofitel, after the recent opening of their Huanghe Sheshan Resort outside of Shanghai, now has 23 China properties. That is beyond awesome, considering how some chains tend to tiptoe cautiously into Asia. So what does this extra-urban resort bring to the area besides another Sofitel sign? Apparently, an escape from the bustling city and a whole boatload of objects d'art and Hermes toiletries.
Set within the Sheshan National Tourism Resort and only a 35-minute drive from the city, the hotel boasts 368 rooms, including 53 Luxury Suites and an Imperial Suite. An extra seven luxury villas also exist for the express purpose of making government officials and business delegations feel at home without metro surroundings. Hmm, this doesn't sound like the Sofitels we know (and love); this is like Mandarin Oriental territory. Nonetheless, this is a full-service resort with multiple restaurants, spas, pools, bars, and pool bars. For those desperate for an escape from the Shanghai grind, rates for spring are looking trim at 161 Euro for a Luxury King room.
[Image: Sofitel Huanghe Sheshan Resort]
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Sheraton Hotels' Contest Rewards 'Asia's Top Workaholics'
While Australians are combing the globe for who best can fetch the mail out on a lonely Great Barrier Reef island, Sheraton Hotels has already awarded two women for doing way more than fetching the mail, indeed for being the biggest workaholics in the Asia Pacific region.
In a contest similar to the Great Barrier Reef job, avid office drones were encouraged to submit essays describing their lives devoid of vacations and family quality time. The two winners, Rachel Zhang Yi of China and Tee Yan Ven of Malaysia, both garnered a massive percentage of votes by turning their entries into something of mini-blogs, documenting their daily schedules and stresses. Yan Ven especially sounds desperate for some time off, saying: "my work takes up 90% of my time, and while I really enjoy what I do, this competition has given me a reason to reward myself and remind myself of balancing my work and social life."
Although their prizes don't include months off to live in the middle of nowhere, they will at least be treated to a pampering vacation with three other family members or friends at a Sheraton resort of their choice. We're rooting for Fiji or the Maldives!
[Photo: Sheraton Asia]
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The Chinese Hotel Gas Mask Dilemma
Believe it or not, we have actually seen a gas mask for guests in a Chinese hotel before — in the Aloft Beijing, to be precise. These gas masks are apparently not so rare in Chinese hotels, and they should help you survive if you have to evacuate the building in case of a fire.
Surprising, but we get it. What has bamboozled us, however, is the gas masks apparently available at the Hunan Civil Aviation Hotel in Changsha: you have to pay 200 yuan ($30) for them, as Swedish blogger Jonna recently discovered.
Several problems here. Do you pay for it in advance, judging on how likely you think the fire risk will be? Do you grab your wallet at the first sign of a fire? And the worst bit: the room has three beds, but only one gas mask. Is it only the fastest credit card grabber who survives?
[Photo: Jonna Wibelius]
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Langham Yangtze to Resurrect Shanghai Art Deco in May
Thinking of abandoning Cancun this summer for something a tad more exotic? Just beyond the hassle of negotiating a visa is Shanghai, and coming in May, its first Art Deco Boutique Hotel: the Langham Yangtze. Having taken over the old Yangtze Hotel masterpiece in 2008 for a renovation, Langham was lucky to have snatched a rare bit of Shanghai's old world architectural glamor.
Since this will be a part of the luxurious Langham line, expect rates to be far higher than they were as the old and generically-outfitted Yangtze Hotel; something like $300 a night versus the $60 of several years ago. For this price and to rival the growing competition among luxury hotels in Shanghai, the hotel has some goodies planned.
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Mandarin Oriental Soldiers On With First China Hotel
Believe it or not, Mandarin Oriental had no hotels in China before this year. Sure, they have three in Hong Kong and almost everywhere else in Asia (and the world), but China remained virgin territory until January, when the Mandarin Oriental Sanya opened on Hainan Island.
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The Peninsula to Up Shanghai's Luxury Quotient
Before both the W and Waldorf-Astoria come and wave their flags on both sides of the Huangpu River, The Peninsula will have a good solid year of being the premiere new luxury hotel in. Scheduled to open in autumn of this year, The Peninsula on the Bund will sit right on a throne of land right at the bend in the river, affording awesome views of everything from the highrise-filled neighborhood across the river to the former British Consulate gardens below.
With decor inspired by the Art Deco era, we can expect the Peninsula Shanghai to surprise with little unnecessary, yet appreciated, additional touches of pomp. For instance, all 235 guest rooms will be subdivided into separate living spaces, so as to give the feeling of a suite even if you've booked a regular room. This extra space will function as a dressing room, yes a dressing room, because having a designated space for storing your shoes and all your black-tie ensembles is the epitome of extraneous luxury.
Tags: Ritz-Carlton Hotels / China Hotels / Luxury Hotels / → All Tags
Pink Lovers Head to The Ritz-Carlton Sanya
When we first heard about the Ritz-Carlton Sanya, a new resort on the Chinese island of Hainan, we thought the marketing hype might be overstating things a bit. But if you believe even half of what a recent Wow Travel review says, they were pretty much on the mark.
Situated on the beach at Yalong Bay, the Ritz-Carlton Sanya doesn't seem to have any flaws. The reviewer got a personal butler (who was "super intelligent", apparently) who drove her to the spa, to breakfast and anywhere else she needed to go; he was also able to disappear on cue.
But what impressed her most was the abundance of pink. Staff uniforms are pink, glasses are pink, and pink is all the rage in China they say, so you'd better like it or you might want to stay elsewhere. Although actually from what we've seen, there's an awful lot of blue too--impressive blue water in plunge pools and the sea.
This place is not cheap for China--average rates can go around $350--but they do have some stay four, pay three packages and the early guest feedback is all saying it's worth the money. As long as you can deal with the pink, apparently.
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Langham Lands Four New Locations in China
Fully set on taking Asia by storm, Langham Hotels plans on opening at least four new properties in China by the end of 2010. Marking The Langham's first entrance onto Chinese mainland (they have two properties already in Hong Kong), they will focus on expanding into China's largest cities Beijing and Shanghai, with their first airport hotel to boot.
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