BERLIN -- Bangkok-based Dusit Thani, which operates Dusit Hotels
and Resorts, sold its share of Kempinski Hotels to its partner, the
Siam Commercial Bank of Bangkok, a Kempinski spokeswoman said.
Dusit Thani and the Siam Commercial Bank each owned 50% of the
Bangkok-based Siam Sindhorn company, which owns 83% percent of
Kempinski Hotels. Kempinski operates the Campton Place Hotel in San
Francisco as well as hotels in Argentina, Bulgaria, Canada, China,
France, Germany, Hungary, India, Japan, Russia, Switzerland and
Turkey. Dusit Hotels and Resorts operates 13 hotels.
In an interview with Travel Weekly at the ITB trade show here,
the Kempinski spokeswoman said that the Siam bank probably will try
to sell hotel company. She speculated that Dusit Thani was not
prepared to fund Kempinski's expansion.
Siam Sindhorn bought the Kempinski chain in late 1994.
In other hotel news announced at ITB:
Hyatt International will open its first Europe-based Grand
Hyatt here in October. The 346-room property is owned by a
subsidiary of the German firm Daimler Benz.Marriott Hotels said it will open 20 of Courtyard properties in
Europe, Asia and Australia in early April. All but three of the
openings are conversions of Ramada International Hotels. Marriott
acquired Ramada's parent company, the Renaissance Hotel Group, last
year. The three hotels that will require new construction are in
Paris, Berlin and Beijing.Ritz-Carlton will open a hotel in Wolfsburg, Germany, in 2000
as part of a lodging and entertainment project owned by Volkswagen.
The 135-room hotel is Ritz Carlton's first property in Germany and
its second in Europe. Ritz Carlton said the hotel will be
positioned as a conference center.