If there’s one thing we look forward to on Thursdays, it’s the Big Fat Hotel Wrap. That, and the self-appointed early mark at 3pm.

Folkestone launches Green Square Hotel fund

Folkestone Limited’s real estate funds management subsidiary, Folkestone Funds Management Limited (FFM), is pleased to announce that it has launched the Folkestone Green Square Hotel Fund (Fund).

FFM is seeking to raise $23.2 million which, together with borrowings of $21.75 million, will be used to acquire a 144 room hotel to be constructed at 18 O’Riordan Street, Alexandria, New South Wales (Hotel). The site is located within the $13 billion, 278 hectare Green Square Urban Regeneration Area and is strategically located approximately 120 metres from the Green Square Train Station. The Sydney Airport Domestic and International Terminals are two and three stops respectively to the south; Central Station is one stop to the north.

The Fund has agreed to acquire the Hotel for $43.5 million on a fund-through basis from the developer, GS Hotel Development Pty Ltd (Developer), a joint venture between Folkestone Limited and Furnished Property, an associated party of Veriu Hotels & Suites. Veriu Hotels & Suites, a leading boutique hotel operator, have signed an agreement for lease to operate the Hotel for 10 years, with a base rent with annual increases together with a turnover rent.

Save up to US$1458 per couple on new, luxury, fully-inclusive Stay and Cruise packages in Patagonia

A new, all-inclusive package will enable luxe travellers to explore Patagonia by both land and sea in March, 2018, including a stay in a spectacular wilderness lodge and a cruise to Cape Horn and glaciers at the ‘bottom of the world’.

Offered by Patagonian cruise line, Australis, the new, all-inclusive, seven-night package enables couples to save up to US$1450 as they head to one of the world’s last great wilderness areas and discover the mountains, lakes, ice fields, forest landscapes and beautiful vistas of the southern tip of South America.

Included in the package are three nights’ stay at the Singular Patagonia Hotel, a gateway to the spectacular, world-famous Torres del Paine National Park. The former, century-old cold storage warehouse was transformed into a luxury retreat on the shores of the Fjord of Last Hope Sound near Punta Arenas. Featuring 57 rooms and suites, a full-service spa, a museum and two renowned restaurants, the hotel sits on six hectares of private reserve accessible only to hotel guests. The stay at the Singular Patagonia Hotel is all-inclusive with fine dining, beverages and guided excursions into the wilderness included.

Intercontinental Fiji Gold Resort & Spa’s Hanisi awarded 2018 Barista of the Year

InterContinental Fiji Golf Resort & Spa is proud to announce that their resident coffee expert, Ms Hansini Gounder, won the title of “2017 Piazza D’Oro Barista of the Year” at the annual Moffat National Salon Culinaire Competition on 16th November 2017.

Hansini is a friendly face at Sanasana Restaurant and is well known for her high level of skill when brewing amazing gourmet coffee. Hansini has been satisfying our resort guests with her delicious coffee since 2012 and this award is testimony to her passion and dedication to the art of coffee-making.

To win, Hansini had to demonstrate her skillset by preparing two flat whites, two espressos’ and two lattes of exceptional taste; and then clean her work station within a 20 minute timeframe.

The Lost Camel finds its way back to Ayers Rock Resort

The boutique-style Lost Camel Hotel will re-open its doors at Ayers Rock Resort on 1 July 2018. With a newly refurbished stylish mix of Aboriginal and urban themes, the hotel is located in the heart of the Resort and offers a great option when staying in the Spiritual Heart of Australia.

Originally opened in 2002, The Lost Camel Hotel was transformed to staff accommodation in May 2012 and is now being refurbished as a contemporary and fun accommodation option for the busy Resort.

The compact studio-style rooms are decorated in bright colours and crisp, clean whites. Each room features a sumptuous King Bed (can be separated into two single beds) and a bathroom with a separate shower and toilet and an open-plan vanity.

Guests can soak up the sun by the hotel’s central swimming pool, browse the shops or enjoy a casual meal at one of the cafés located in the Resort Town Square just minutes’ walk away. Guests also have access to free in-room Wi-Fi and are able to take part in the many free daily guest activities on offer.

AVANI pays attention to guest experiences not just inside their hotels, but outside of them too

AVANI Hotels & Resorts is successfully using social media to connect and engage with its millennial minded customers by delivering dynamic and fresh content.

Aiming to introduce the brand to new customers, AVANI Hotels & Resorts adopted an outreach marketing strategy to engage with travellers, instead of marketing at them. The campaign, named AVANIme, is a wired-in experience for modern explorers, giving insight into local culture, cool hotspots and travel tips about urban cities and in some cases, off-the-beaten track destinations.

A series of #24HRSWITHME Youtube videos are being filmed with local well known personalities. The first video featuring Thai-American model, actress and entertainer, Cindy Bishop, best known for hosting Asia’s Next Top Model, was shot at AVANI Riverside Bangkok Hotel and in and around Bangkok.

AVANI has also invited other celebrities such as Lisbon Fado Singer, Cuca Roseta to share her favourite city hangouts on #24HRSWITHME. Other cities to be featured will be Auckland, New Zealand and Gold Coast, Australia.

Hotel Indigo arrives in Japan to bring local neighbourhood stories to life for travellers

As the number of visitors to Japan continues to grow, there is a segment of travellers who are looking for something different – a property to satisfy their senses of curiosity and creativity that delivers a memorable experience of a destination.

Looking to meet this need, IHGA Hotels Group Japan, the joint venture between InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®) and ANA, signed an agreement with GHS K.K. and Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. to launch IHG’s popular boutique brand Hotel Indigo® in Japan.

The first property Hotel Indigo® Hakone Gora is scheduled to open in 2019, and will be a place where guests and locals alike can gather and enjoy the rich culture and history of Gora, with its famous, pastel coloured hot springs surrounded by majestic, green mountains and the charms of nature that change with the seasons.

Mitchelton Winery launches $16million Luxury Boutique Hotel in the Goulburn Valley

Opening December 1st 2017, in the Victorian countryside near Nagambie, The Mitchelton Hotel and Spa provides a new standard in laid back luxury for the region just 90 minutes’ drive from Melbourne.

A personal project of caravan magnate Gerry Ryan and his son Andrew, the $16 million Mitchelton Hotel and Spa is the most recent addition to the family’s spectacular Mitchelton Winery Estate, set on the banks of the Goulburn River.

Developed to enhance the tourism drawcard for the region, the Mitchelton Hotel’s 58 rooms is comprised of the 33-sqm ‘River’ or ‘Vineyard’ view categories through to the four 57-sqm suites. Featuring spacious rooms adorned with earthy tones, the hotel was designed to have a relationship with its countryside setting and, in particular, the horse studs around Nagambie.

COMO Hotels and Resorts announces new luxury Bali resort

COMO Hotels and Resorts is proud to announce it will be opening COMO Uma Canggu in February 2018, a new beachside resort on Bali’s south coast. This will be the group’s third property on the island and 14th in total, with a presence across the world growing from Miami Beach to Bhutan, Western Australia to Bangkok.

Boasting 119 accommodation options (including rooms, suites, one- and two-bedroom residences, as well as three-bedroom duplex penthouses featuring individual rooftop pools), COMO Uma Canggu is located on 2.2 acres of land in Canggu, a coastal village and six-mile long beach lapped by the Indian Ocean with some of Bali’s best surf breaks.

COMO Uma Canggu is 11 kilometres from the bustle of Seminyak – though the rolling waves and calming landscape of rice paddies ensure it feels a world apart.

New Hotel Announcement – Rydges Hotels & Resorts

Rydges Hotels & Resorts is expanding its footprint in the world of motorsport, today announcing Rydges Pit Lane Hotel at The Bend Motorsport Park in South Australia.

This hotel will offer an extremely rare and unique hotel experience, being located in the main pit building, with the majority of the rooms overlooking the track, when completed in April 2018.

Rydges Pit Lane Hotel will be taking bookings from 13th December 2017 and will open in early April 2018.

The Chen opens its doors

Art Series Hotel Group has opened the doors to its eighth art inspired hotel, The Chen, in the burgeoning Melbourne suburb of Box Hill.

Named after and inspired by the Chinese-Australian abstract artist, Zhong Chen, the 100-room hotel was opened today with an official ribbon cutting by CEO of Mantra Group, Bob East.

It was a special day for the Mantra Group with the official handover of Art Series from Will Deague, CEO Deague Group, the final step in one of the biggest property portfolio acquisitions of the year.

A true expression of the Art of Joyful Journeys, The Chen reflects the artist’s fun and relaxed persona. Introducing a new level of luxury accommodation, the hotel also celebrates the ethnic diversity of Box Hill, with Chen’s bold art representing his own transcultural identity.

Centara Hotels & Resorts sets out five-year vision and strategy for growth

Following Centara’s recent announcement that it had strengthened its management team by welcoming back seasoned industry professional Markland Blaiklock, in a newly formed role of Deputy CEO, the group has now released its significant expansion plans for the next five years.

Centara is Thailand’s largest domestic hotel operator and continues to increase its international footprint, with 57 properties in operation or under development across 12 countries in Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, China, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

The company operates a diverse portfolio ranging from 5-star luxury hotels in major cities to remote tropical island resorts and innovative value properties. It differentiates itself from competitors by offering gracious, Thai-style service; branded spas and restaurants with excellent reputations; and a variety of formats and service innovations that deliver quality and value to business and leisure travellers.

TFE Hotels to open tenth Australian Designed hotel in Germany

TFE Hotels celebrates its tenth year operating Australian designed and managed apartment hotels in Germany, with the opening of two new hotels in coming months at trendy Leipzig and Hamburg.

Toga Hospitality (now TFE Hotels) opened its first hotel in Germany in 2007 at the famous Berlin Wall crossing point Checkpoint Charlie in the Mitte district, known as Berlin’s beating heart. The group created a new niche for high quality apartment hotels and today the brand is flourishing there, working towards opening its tenth hotel in Germany, which is set to open in Munich in 2019.

Adina Apartment Hotels provide guests with a “home away from home” atmosphere, offering studios or apartments that have their own kitchen, laundry and living room, with the bonus of a 24-hour reception with friendly and knowledgeable hotel teams, restaurant and fitness centre with gym equipment, jacuzzi, pool and sauna. With Adina hotels managed by TFE Hotels, headquartered in Sydney, Aussie travellers will get a little touch of home away from home while in Germany, with Aboriginal art works and even Vegemite on the breakfast buffet!

Iconic New York cocktail bar ‘PDT’ to open at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong

The Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Hong Kong is delighted to announce a unique new bar concept in collaboration with the iconic New York cocktail bar, PDT (Please Don’t Tell).

Regularly voted among the World’s Best Bars, PDT has long been a favourite of New Yorkers who enjoy the intimate privacy of its distinctive interiors with cocktails developed by renowned mixologists Jim Meehan and Jeff Bell, along with their talented bar team. PDT HK will open in early 2018, the first permanent PDT outside of New York City.

Following in the tradition of the original, guests will enter the Hong Kong space through a hidden entrance disguised as a phone booth in the hotel’s MO Bar. The interiors are the vision of Hong Kong designer-of-the-moment, Nelson Chow, and will be a playful mix of vintage and modern classics, with a nod to its New York roots seen in the selection of eclectic taxidermy on the walls.

W Brisbane set to flaunt next level event and meeting spaces upon opening in March 2018

W Brisbane, part of Marriott International, is set to amplify Queensland’s incentives and events offering when the hotel opens in March 2018. The first five-star hotel to open in Brisbane’s central business district (CBD) in 20 years, W Brisbane will showcase approximately 1,100 square metres of vibrant indoor and outdoor event and meeting spaces, with bookings now open.

W Brisbane is bringing W’s bold design and its spin on luxury, to the western end of the CBD. The closest, largest, five-star hotel to the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC) and just 18 kilometres from Brisbane Airport at 300 George Street, W Brisbane will boast stellar views across the Brisbane River to South Bank and Mount Coot-tha.

W Brisbane’s sprawling 595 square metre, pillarless Great Room will cater for large productions or conferences of up to 450 guests banquet style, or can be divided into three separate spaces for events of up to 150 guests. W Brisbane will be the only hotel in Queensland to feature built in permanent LED screens, which can be used individually or pushed together to create one large LED wall to feature highly engaging content that pops. In-house projection mapping technology will bring banquet tables to life with striking creatives or corporate logos.