Deutsche Hospitality partners with Commerz in €250m fund: German hotel group Deutsche Hospitality, “the umbrella brand of Steigenberger Hotels AG,” has formed a €250-million ($284.5 million) fund with Luxembourg-based CR Fund Management, known as Commerz, “to develop a risk-diversified portfolio of as many as eight three- to five-star hotels,” according to a news release.
The fund will develop assets across Deutsche’s portfolio, including Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts, Jaz in the City and Maxx by Steigenberger, which launched in March. Parent company Steigenberger AG will contribute €12 million ($13.7 million), while external investors will add €92 million ($104.6 million) to the pot.
U.S. inbound not to keep track with global demand: Despite inbound tourism set to continue to grow in the U.S. through 2022, the rate of growth will not keep tabs with demand for the rest of the world, according to the latest travel forecast published by the U.S. Travel Association. Globally, long-haul travel demand is expected to increase by 21%, but in the U.S. for the same period to 2022, it will increase only by 13%.
Business travel and leisure travel will move in sync in 2019, the report continued, with growth in the U.S. in both sectors increasing by 1.8%. For all of 2018, U.S. business travel is expected to grow by 1.6%, with leisure travel expected to grow a little more, at 2%.
Bells ring as Indian hotels embrace glamorous weddings: Today’s Indian wedding celebration are becoming ever more lavish and, much to the delight of hoteliers, increasingly are moving from smaller event spaces to hotels of all size, including the most palatial, as a spate of celebratory betrothals have become social media, tabloid and TV sensations, according to Hotel News Now contributor Chitra Balasubramaniam.
Now typical yet elaborate and often costly add-ons to Indian weddings include Bollywood dance classes, lavish food and beverage and entertainment, celebratory appearances and perhaps the groom turning up on the back of an elephant.
Jitters on Wall Street as Feds muse interest rates: Global markets jittered yesterday as U.S. President Donald Trump asked why the Federal Reserve would contemplate now raising interest rates in what he said was a U.S. economy of “a very strong (U.S.) dollar and virtually no inflation,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Federal Reserve, which will meet Wednesday for the last time in 2018, with analysts expecting it to raise short-term interest rates, said it is guided by its own economic analysis, not politics. Global stocks followed a Monday slump of more than 500 points on the Dow Jones Industrial Average amid fears of slowing growth.
Hull hotel comes to rescue for homeless Christmas: Much online and TV coverage has been dedicated to a spat over a charity’s hotel room block in the Yorkshire, England, city of Hull, according to the BBC.
Charity Raise the Roof Hull Homeless Project claims the organization had paid Hull’s Royal Hull Hotel £1,092 ($1,380) for 14 rooms to house 28 people on Christmas day, but the hotel cancelled the booking, alleging that in a replica of the charitable initiative in 2017 at the city’s Ibis Hull City Centre had resulted in damages to the hotel, an allegation the Ibis denied.
There is an ending to this story that is suitable to the season, with the city’s DoubleTree by Hilton saying it would host the initiative and also put on a Christmas dinner for the 28 people, free of charge. An online donations page following the cancellation that was announced on Saturday has raised more than £9,000 ($11,374).
Compiled by Terence Baker.