HotelsMag March 2013 | Page 18

GLOBAL UPDATE

THE GOSTELOW REPORT

Alvear Palace , doyenne of Buenos Aires ’ beautiful palace hotels , opened in 1932 . Now owned by perfume magnate and philanthropic entrepreneur David Sutton , it remains a focus for Argentina ’ s sizeable Jewish community ( every kitchen in the 191-room hotel has a kosher clone ). As well as building 16 new luxury suites on the hotel ’ s rooftop , Sutton is expanding
MARY GOSTELOW
opening in June . It is rumored that Selfridges has plans to convert part of Nations House , which was built in 1909 , into a luxury hotel .
Vikram Oberoi , only son of industry legend P . R . S . ( Biki ) Oberoi , is playing an increasingly public role as COO of New Delhi , India-based East India Hotels , parent of the Oberoi and Trident brands . The 250- room Oberoi in Dubai soft opens
elsewhere . Twelve blocks from the Alvear Palace , the 140-room Alvear Art business hotel opens in May . Also to come is a project in the Puerto Madero riverside area of the Argentinian capital . This will be strategically aligned as an event space , which can accommodate up to 1,000 diners , that also happens to have bedrooms — the number yet to be determined .
London ’ s Selfridges , the signature Oxford Street store owned by the Canadian Weston family , has paid £ 130 million ( US $ 203.5 million ) for the adjacent Nations House . Selfridges is working with Italian architect Renzo Piano — designer of London ’ s Shard , which includes the Shangri-La Hotel London
in April , and Vikram Oberoi says he would now like to have a presence in Morocco , notably Casablanca and Marrakech . In India , there is talk of an Oberoi in Chandigarh , capital of the Punjab , which would be developed by Sukhbir Badal , son of the chief minister of the Punjab , Parkash Singh Badal . Badal is owner of both The Oberoi Gurgaon and its adjacent Trident Gurgaon , two highly profitable hotels that are much more convenient for Delhi ’ s Indira Gandhi International Airport than central New Delhi hotels . Oberoi is also working on an unassigned lakeside site in Bangalore , an Oberoi with residences in Goa , and a Trident and Oberoi in Hyderabad .

ON THE WEB

INTERVIEW : INVESTING IN INDIA
Read more on HOTELSMag . com : www . hotelsmag . com / Industry / News / Details / 39047
India Real Estate Opportunity ( IREO ) plans to create a midmarket , condo-hotel brand before launching an IPO or REIT .
In January HOTELS spoke with the head of IREO ’ s hospitality business , Senior Vice President Pankaj Dugar , about the specifics of its hospitality development program in a market with a dearth of quality hotel products and long-term strong demand drivers .
Dugar told HOTELS , “ We believe there is this extended-stay demand in India and there are many other cities to expand the model … we believe there is a sweet spot in multiple cities with more than 1 million population and in micro-markets for 100- to 150-room hotels like this . We think there is room for 50 to 100 of these midmarket hotels .”
Pankaj Dugar
BLOG :

Will OTAs dominate distribution in 2023 ?

Are hotels on the path to become subservient to online travel agencies for distribution ? HOTELSMag . com blogger Larry Mogelonsky explores what could happen if by 2023 OTAs take more than 50 % of a hotel ’ s sales and begin to buy hotel companies .
In a blog exploring the possible fate of the fictional “ Rebellion Hotel ,” Mogelonsky wrote , “ Each of the OTA powerhouses built effective marketing programs to galvanize their respective franchises and sign on new hotel allegiances . Unaligned properties , like the Rebellion Hotel , were left with the scraps — low rankings , reduced prices and ever-higher OTA commission rates — until even those became undesirable and were cut off all together .”
Read the full blog post on HOTELSMag . com : http :// www . hotelsmag . com / Industry / Blogs / Details / 38559
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