Front Desk

• Dubai, UAE, announces plans for massive tourist, shopping center
  Dubai, United Arab Emirates, has revealed plans for a new development project on the city's outskirts that includes a theme park, a shopping complex and several luxury hotels. Plans call for the retail center's capacity to be enough to surpass The Dubai Mall as the largest in the world. The Washington Post/The Associated Press (11/25)     

Business Update

• Blackstone Group acquires Burlington Hotel in Ireland for $87M
  The Burlington Hotel in Dublin has been sold to the Blackstone Group for about $86.8 million. The 501-room hotel is expected to undergo renovations worth more than $20 million. The Irish Times (Dublin) (11/25)     

• Delano plans further expansion after Morocco property's debut
  The opening of the 71-room Delano Marrakech in Morocco marks the beginning of the luxury brand's growth in the global lodging market, parent firm Morgans Hotel Group says. CEO Michael Gross says international gateway cities are being considered for potential growth. "We look for locations where our current guests have already been, or aspire to go," Gross said. The brand's pipeline includes the Delano Las Vegas, scheduled to open in 2013, and properties in Moscow and Turkey, which are expected to open in 2015. Travel Weekly (11/25)     

• Indian Hotels is said to be considering a higher bid for Orient-Express
  Indian Hotels may decide to increase its bid price for Orient-Express Hotels to make its buyout offer more attractive to the hotelier's shareholders, a source says. Orient-Express had turned down Indian Hotels' unsolicited bid of $1.86 billion. Fox Business/Dow Jones Newswires (11/22)     

• Other News

• Sheraton and Hilton plan to open properties in Kigali, Rwanda
  AllAfrica Global Media (11/25)     

Market Trends

• STR data reveal positive October performance at Americas hotels
  Hotels in the Americas region showed gains in key performance metrics during October, STR reports. October occupancy in the region rose 2.4%, to 64.3%. Average daily rate in U.S. dollars rose 3.9%, to $111.10, while revenue per available room climbed 6.4%, to $71.39. TravelPulse (11/25)     

• Push for sustainable lodging continues to grow
  An increasingly environment-conscious consumer base is helping to persuade hotel brands to adopt sustainable practices, this feature says. Several studies have revealed that more travelers are paying attention to green policies at hotels as the corporate segment also shows a rising sentiment toward environmental friendliness. "As a result, hoteliers are seeing that going green can give them a marketing edge among business travelers, especially for retreats, meetings, conventions and the like," said Gary Diedrichs of Green Traveler Guides. Reuters (11/22)     

• Israel's tourism industry is unaffected, official says
  Tourism in Israel continues as a ceasefire with Hamas is in place, says Stas Misezhnikov, Israel's minister of tourism. "During the last week, and despite the headlines, thousands of tourists continued to arrive in Israel undaunted. No airline flights were canceled and while certain tour itineraries were necessarily adjusted to meet the exigencies of the situation, there was neither panic nor overt concern. Altogether, some 100,000 tourists continued vacationing and traveling in our country," Misezhnikov said. TravelPulse (11/25)     

• Other News

• Metro Detroit hotels reached 6-year occupancy peak in October
  The Detroit News (11/24)     

Hot Topics

Top five news stories selected by AH&LA SmartBrief readers in the past week.

• Hotels focus on guests' security (HotelNewsNow.com)

• Hotels are gaining more control of online market (Travel Weekly)

• Travel conference focuses on need for change in the online space (HotelNewsNow.com)

• Experts: Rates increase will be an opening for revenue managers (HotelNewsNow.com)

• San Diego Marriott will get $100M makeover (San Diego Union-Tribune)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

Best Practices

• 5 essential tips for hotel revenue managers
  A recent white paper outlines five tasks that hotel revenue managers need to perform to help increase their company's profit. Tasks include enhancing processes on customer intelligence, widening their approach to total revenue management and ensuring the collection and analysis of correct data, the paper says. eHotelier.com (11/22)     

Development

• Funding for planned conference center at Harrah's Resort OK'd
  New Jersey's Casino Reinvestment Development Authority voted Tuesday to approve $45 million in funding toward Caesars Entertainments' planned $134 million conference center at the Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City. The addition to Harrah's will be 200,000 square feet, with the conference center occupying half of that space. Caesars officials said the facility would be unrivaled on the East Coast. "Having been in Las Vegas, there's three or four of these facilities," said Don Marrandino, president of Caesars Eastern Division. "They're world-class and they draw people." WMGM-TV (Linwood, N.J.) (11/21), The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.) (11/21)     

• Officials in West Palm Beach, Fla., consider 3 hotel proposals
  City officials in West Palm Beach, Fla., are considering three possibilities for a planned hotel project: a $12 million hotel and condominium project; a 12-story, 200-room hotel worth up to $15 million; and a $3.1 million five-story property. The Palm Beach Post (Fla.) (11/25)     

• Other News

• Hotel proposals in Aiken, S.C., are back on the table
  Aiken Standard (S.C.) (11/25)     

• Hotel under construction in Edmonton, Alberta, upgrades to a Renaissance by Marriott
  The Edmonton Journal (Alberta) (11/23)     

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AH&LA News

• AH&LA partners to offer competitive food service procurement
  AH&LA has partnered with the Hotel Cuisine & Lifestyle (HC&L) initiative to offer competitive food service procurement, distribution and marketing offerings to members. Developed by The Sieb Organization in partnership with Sysco Corporation, HC&L helps AH&LA members lower their procurement and distribution costs, upgrade quality levels and drive revenue enhancement in all hotel food service outlets and departments. For more information, visit www.ahla.com/membersonly.     

• Gain spa management know-how
  Spas are fast becoming an essential hotel amenity. Gain the targeted knowledge you need to understand and manage spa operations with spa management courses from the Educational Institute, developed in collaboration with the International SPA Association (ISPA). For more information, call 800-349-0299 or 407-999-8100.     

SmartQuote

The passion for setting people right is in itself an afflictive disease." --Marianne Moore, American poet and writer