“World's best up-and-coming hotels” plus 2 more |
| World's best up-and-coming hotels Posted: 01 Aug 2010 09:39 AM PDT Take the pedigree of the Four Seasons brand, add in the design sensibility of Pierre-Yves Rochon (the man behind the hotel group's George V Paris), and add a dash of the Middle East's of-the-moment style quotient, and you have the new Four Seasons Hotel Beirut, one of this year's top up-and-coming hotels. Every year, Travel + Leisure's World's Best Awards survey highlights the hotels, cruises, airlines, and more as voted on by T+L readers. But creating the "20 to Watch" list — the hotels we think will become World's Best Award winners — is a job for the editors. So we scanned the globe to pick out this year's new and refurbished, expanding, or otherwise evolving hotels. In 2010, almost a third of the top 100 properties in the World's Best Awards are located in the United States and Canada, which tells us that domestic hotels are raising the bar. The Pierre, one of Manhattan's most iconic properties, recently underwent a $100-million renovation, so it's ready to compete with other Big Apple standouts including the Ritz-Carlton New York, Central Park and St. Regis New York. Slideshow: 2010's Best Up-and-Coming Hotels Over in the Windy City, you might find that the James Hotel Chicago, with 297 rooms and David Burke's Primehouse, will make its T+L World's Best debut next year. The hotel is offering programs to keep guests "intellectually engaged," a term that's part of the current zeitgeist in the hospitality industry. As an example, this past spring the hotel partnered with a local gallery for a seasonal art series. If a sandy beach getaway is more your scene, there's Rosewood's Jumby Bay resort on Antigua, which fell off the World's Best list this year but will surely rise again thanks to its recent renovation, which added 28 suites, an open-air spa, and an oceanfront infinity pool. And plenty of airlines, including American Airlines, Continental, Delta, and US Airways, fly to the island's V. C. Bird International Airport. Unfortunately, airline surcharges are on the rise (Bestfares.com has reported that surcharges on flights to Europe have increased year-over-year), but you can find great hotel values across the Atlantic. A low price and Eiffel views is what grabbed our attention at the new Radisson Blu Le Metropolitan Hotel. And check out the hotel's Greatest Holiday in the World competition; contest winners are awarded 365 free nights at any of the brand's hotels. Although we haven't found any other hotels offering rooms gratis, Town Hall Hotel & Apartments, in London's East End, has 98 rooms starting at $294 — a great deal in the U.K. now. We know, however, that sometimes a hotel is only right if you can bring the entire entourage along. The new Veranda by Grace Bay Club is a great place to take the kids this summer. One- to four-bedroom villas are set near the beach and three pools, and the all-inclusive rates and youngster-friendly attitude differentiates this spot from the other hotels in Turks and Caicos. Read on for more up-and-comers, plus an airline, cruise line, and destination spa that we have our eyes on this year. Copyright © 2010 American Express Publishing Corporation Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Posted: 01 Aug 2010 08:44 PM PDT It had been years since Nguyen Quoc Khanh uttered a word of French. Although he studied the language as a schoolboy at the French lycée in Dalat, before the fall of Saigon, he never imagined he'd have much use for it under Vietnam's socialist regime. But when an electrician friend told him about a French banker who insisted on finding a French-speaking architect to renovate his new offices, he gave it his best shot. "I understood most of what he said, but the words didn't come to me easily, so I just kept saying 'Oui, oui; non, non; c'est possible,'" recalls Khanh, founder and chairman of AA Corp., Vietnam's largest high-end interior-design company and furniture retailer. His language skills, or at least his willingness to try, impressed the banker enough to give him the job, the first of a long string of interior-design contracts with foreign companies that were entering the country after years of economic isolation. This was during the late 1980s and early 1990s era of doi moi, or "renovation," when Vietnam's more open economic policies were attracting more foreign investment. In lockstep with these changes, Khanh started a renovation movement of a more literal kind. He knew foreign investors and diplomats would need improvements to the dusty and mildewed villas available to them as homes and offices, and he quickly became their go-to guy for interior design. "It was a great time," says Khanh, who now speaks fluent French and English and a smattering of Russian and Mandarin. "We were so busy, and we were learning so much." Today AA dominates the domestic market for high-end interior design, consistently nabbing 80% of the contracts for four- and five-star hotels around the country, says Khanh. Most corporate offices and up market residences, shops, restaurants and country clubs bear the AA stamp. Over the past five years AA has also pushed for more global business, making its mark on hotels, resorts and residences from the InterContinental in Kiev, Ukraine to the Trump SoHo in New York. Khanh's firm has completed dozens of five-star hotel projects in the Americas, the Middle East and Europe, as well as in Asia. Khanh, 50, doesn't have to go far for the business. Hotel contractors around the world seek him out on his home turf in Vietnam. GER Architectural Manufacturing, the custom woodworking contractor that oversaw the interior design for Trump SoHo, was doing an Asia-wide search for a more nimble and less costly production partner and turned to Vietnam. AA tends to be the first name that comes up on a search for interior-design firms in Vietnam, partly by reputation but also because of its initials, which stand for Advanced Architecture. "We didn't know much English at the time, but that was one of our best decisions," says Khanh, who started the company in 1990 in Ho Chi Minh City with two fellow architecture students who have since been bought out. The connection with GER put AA on the radar in New York and led to more hotel projects, including the Standard and the Royalton. AA now has three similar partnerships with contractors and has completed 19 luxury hotel projects in 12 cities in the U.S. Despite Khanh's international success, his company is still small, with $35 million in sales last year. Business was hit by the global recession, which saw hotel construction drop 25% from its peak in 2008 in Asia-Pacific (outside of India and China), Europe and the U.S., according to research firm Lodging Econometrics ( EOMT.PK - news - people ). Profits margins of only 5% to 10% have also held the company back. AA is able to prosper through low operating costs. Labor is extremely cheap in Vietnam: AA pays 1,400 of its 2,000 workers an average of $150 a month, which is still well above the minimum wage. Only three positions are filled by expatriates. His wife helps with the business (the couple has two sons), designing lamps, cushion covers and other furnishings. AA was partly financed by private equity firm Indochina Capital, which owned a 20% stake. But the fund has had to liquidate and Khanh is buying back the shares. "The standout story about AA is how Khanh navigated his way through the economic downturn by taking quick action," says Stanley Vukmer, the fund's former managing director, who oversaw the investment. He cites the company's decision to focus more on regional markets less affected by the hotel slump, such as Asia and the Middle East, as evidence of AA's strong management. The strategy is already paying off. Sales are on track to grow 30% to $45 million this year. Khanh plans to list the company on the Vietnam stock market early next year, "if the markets aren't too volatile," he says. He aims to raise enough capital to expand his production capacity and boost his retail furniture business. His factory in Long An Province, about 45 minutes from Ho Chi Minh City, uses only 60% of his land. He hopes more volume will bring bigger profit margins and turn AA into a $100 million company in the next three to four years. Khanh is betting that much of that volume will come from the domestic market and that half of future revenue will come from furniture sales. It's a gamble in such a small market, but urban Vietnam's appetite for luxury goods is strong and growing. Retail sales rose 18.6% last year, to $65.7 billion, according to the government. Of course the pool of people able to afford big-ticket items is still limited. "Domestic consumption is a no-brainer here," says Dominic Scriven, chief executive of Dragon Capital. "But then, most of the population still collects rubber bands." Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Gas, Food, Lodging in Deming, New Mexico Posted: 01 Aug 2010 01:23 PM PDT Deming is located at 4,000 foot elevation in the Upper Chihuahuan Desert climate zone in the southwest corner of New Mexico. To the unknowing traveler, it might just seem like a lonely desert town where you stop for a moment and keep on trucking. That was certainly my first impression. My husband and I saw the exit signs off Interstate 10, gassed up, got some grub, and headed west without giving the town a second thought. However, when some of our friends moved there, we got the opportunity to spend more quality time in Deming. That was when we discovered this cozy place, consisting of more than 14,000 people, had a lot more to offer than meets the eye. Deming is home to two wineries, four state parks, an 18-hole golf course, 14 RV parks, and is located about 30 minutes from the Mexican border. A walking tour of the town reveals a rich history featuring many buildings listed on the state and national register. In fact, Deming has all of the qualities that make up a real community--a public library, museum, health club, hospital, municipal airport, community college, hotels, banks, restaurants, a farmer's market, etc. Following are just a few of the area's attractions: Tasty Wines Crossing the Border Collecting Rocks The town of Deming makes an ideal retirement location due to the low cost of living and the mild climate. So next time you find yourself heading through New Mexico on Interstate 10, stay for awhile in Deming, you'll be glad you did. Another interesting tidbit: Deming made its big screen debut in the 1992 film Gas Food Lodging about a single mom trying to raise her daughters in a lonely truck-stop town. Content copyright © 2010 by Erin Lehn Floresca. All rights reserved. This content was written by Erin Lehn Floresca. If you wish to use this content in any manner, you need written permission. Contact Erin Lehn Floresca for details. Five Filters featured article: "Peace Envoy" Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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