|  checking in
Citizens march on
The capsule hotel market is getting more crowded… and more chichi. A new Dutch company, citizenM, is to open its first hotel offering “affordable luxury” at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport at the beginning of 2008. The company has partnered with internationally renowned architects Concrete and European design giants Vitra and Philips to offer “friendly and functional” rooms that feature “a super-king-size bed fitted with luxurious linen and pillows, a wall-to-wall window for plenty of natural light, a flat LCD television, ambient lighting and a rain shower”. CitizenM says hidden costs are eliminated, internet access and movies on demand are free, and a night’s stay starts at €69. The lobby will have iconic Vitra furniture, a canteen offers a 24-hour choice of snacks, and there’s a bar in the evening. Guestrooms can be customised while booking online; personal settings include preferred lighting, music, mood and temperature. The citizenM founders include Rattan Chadha (founder and former CEO of Mexx and a director of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts), Tom Bas (former director of NH Hotels and Golden Tulip) and Michael Levie (former operations chief of Sonesta and NH Hotels). The second citizenM hotel will open next autumn in central Amsterdam. Around 20 others are planned for cities such as London, Glasgow, Barcelona, Berlin, Milan, Brussels and Copenhagen.
www.citizenm.com  checking in
Murano in the red
The Murano Oriental, sister property of the Murano Urban in Paris, has opened its first North African property in Marrakech. The property consists of five villas (riads), a restaurant, bar and lounge. It overlooks the outdoor bar area flanked by what is described as a “shocking blood-red pool”. The riads offer private pools, 32 guestrooms and three suites. The hotel offers a gym, spa treatment rooms, indoor pool and hamman while promising the latest technology (high-definition TV, PC, games consoles and wireless internet) alongside traditional Moroccan architecture and design. A double luxe room starts at €320.
www.muranoresort.com  checking in
Alps go green
St Moritz institution Badrutt’s Palace Hotel has just announced its ski season packages, clearly with an eye for eco-tourists. The Swiss hotel has just introduced a new energy-efficient heating system with which to “keep the Swiss Alps green” by teaming up with the EWZ power station in Zürich to draw water for its heating pump from Lake St Moritz. The result, says the hotel, is a saving of some 400,000 litres of heating oil a year, cutting CO2 emissions by 80%.
www.badruttspalace.com checking
More Hard Days This month’s planned opening of the Beatles-themed Hard Days Night Hotel, a €30m development near Liverpool’s Cavern Club, has slipped back until next January – but at least the 2008 opening will coincide with the city’s year as the European Capital of Culture. The hotel has two penthouses, inevitably named the Lennon and McCartney suites.
www.harddaysnighthotel.com in the air
Club opens doors Eos Airlines, which has just won Best Long-Haul Business Airline at the 2007 Business Travel World Awards, has opened Club 48, its new gateside departure lounge at London Stansted Airport. The airline claims the lounge will further enhance its trademark stress-free travel experience. Kitted out in leather, granite, frosted glass and walnut veneers, Club 48 offers two 50-inch widescreen TVs, computer workstations, Wi-Fi access, and bar and food services. Secluded seating areas with translucent divider screens offer a more private experience. There is a guest services counter and circulating attendants to tend to requests prior to boarding. Eos, which flies between New York’s JFK Airport and London’s Stansted, secured another €35m in equity capital from institutional and private sources in a deal that closed on 17 August. This cash infusion will be spent on new aircraft as the company eyes up additional routes.
www.eosairlines.com  in the air
bmi spreads wings
Heathrow’s second-largest carrier, bmi, has expanded its route network with the opening of sales to 17 new destinations, including Baku, Tehran, Beirut, Amman, Almaty and Yerevan. The new routes, which started on 28 October, will operate from Heathrow’s Terminal 1 with what the airline claims is an improved timetable for business travellers and major enhancements to its food and drinks service, in-flight entertainment and amenity kits. The airline recently introduced new lie-flat beds on services from Heathrow to Riyadh and to Jeddah, as well as to the Caribbean and to the US from Manchester.
www.flybmi.com  checking in
More beds in site
Four ex-senior managers at Expedia Europe have launched TVtrip.com, which bills itself as the first website to enable hotel searches using online videos. TVtrip already covers 12 major European cities including Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Amsterdam and Venice, and by the end of 2007 it promises 1,500 videos showing the rooms and services of hotels in 50 European destinations. The company says it has financed professionally shot video clips that objectively show guestrooms, facilities and the hotel’s surrounding area. TVtrip promises an online travel community where people can upload their own clips of their hotel, and offers the opportunity to book hotels through partnerships with online travel agencies and the hotels’ websites.
www.tvtrip.com  checking in
Dubai on the Med
Dubai-based hospitality company Jumeirah is to open its first European resort and spa in Mallorca’s Port Soller. Scheduled for 2010, the Jumeirah Port Soller development will comprise a five-star resort located on the cliffs of Port Soller, overlooking the port and the Mediterranean Sea. The hotel will feature 120 spacious, sea- or port-facing guestrooms and suites, all with a private terrace or balcony, as well as two swimming pools and a prestigious 2,000 m² spa and wellness centre.
www.jumeirah.com  checking in
Orient hits Milan
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is the latest big name to announce a new venture in Milan. In 2010 the company is to launch a “stylish and intimate hotel, featuring 104 guestrooms including 34 suites”, housed in the redevelopment of three 19th-century buildings. The property will be owned and developed by the Statuto Group, an Italian private real estate investor.
www.mandarinoriental.com |