A Hilton franchisee reopened the
President Hotel in downtown Kansas City, Mo., a
landmark dating from 1926 that has stood stood vacant for two
decades.
Now branded the
Hilton President Kansas City, the hotel is managed by Presidian
Management and operated under a franchise agreement with
Hilton.
The building,
located a block from the Kansas City Convention Center, was placed
on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
The original hotel
had about 450 rooms; the renovated version has 213 rooms and suites
and 12,000 square feet of what Hilton calls "Internet-enabled"
meetings space.
The Orlando
Hotel, a small property in West Los Angeles, is the latest
to sign on as a member of Boutique, Preferred
Hotel Group's new hotel brand.
Preferred said the
Boutique brand is geared to distinctive properties of 150 rooms or
less that emphasize "exceptional style, service and personality on
an intimate scale."
The Orlando,
formerly the Beverly Plaza, recently completed a two-year, $4
million renovation.
The
175-year old Breidenbacher Hof, a luxury hotel in
Dusseldorf, Germany, that fell into disrepair and closed in 1999,
is being reopened by the West Paces Hotel Group,
the upscale hotel firm launched by former Ritz-Carlton CEO Horst
Schulze.
The hotel's new
owner, the Pearl of Kuwait Real Estate Co., has teamed up with West
Paces and plans to reopen the property in 2007 as part of a
mixed-use development that will include a 100-room luxury hotel,
restaurants, high-end retailers, some offices and serviced
residential apartments.
The property will
be operated under Capella Hotels & Resorts,
West Paces' top-tier international hotel brand.
Four
Seasons Hotels & Resorts is slated to open its first
all-inclusive resort in Thailand on Jan. 15, a tented camp known as
the Four Seasons Golden Triangle.
The company's
newest resort overlooks the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong
rivers as well as the Thailand, Myanmar and Laos borders.
Accommodations are in 15 customized platform tents with decks,
furnished to represent 19th-century adventure
expeditions.
Michael
Milligan is Travel Weekly's hotel editor. E-mail him at [email protected].