Athens Airport Hotels

Athens Airport Hotels
Athens Airport Hotels, Attica, Greece

The towns of Markopoulo, Peania, Spata, Pallini and Koropi are up and coming regions of Attica that are undergoing much development in regard to their urban infrastructure.
Their close proximity to the new Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” has resulted in the construction of numerous hotels, rooms for rent and entertainment venues.
These areas are ideal for both business travelers and vacationers, since they are close to the coastal regions of Porto Rafti and Loutsa, which offer lovely beaches and clean waters, and to the Athens city center, which can be accessed via the excellent transportation network in the region.

Visitors can stay in Markopoulo, Peania, Spata, Pallini and Koropi for a few days before going to the islands, to explore historical
Athens and its suburbs

Dubai energy forum set to tackle energy challenges

Dubai energy forum set to tackle energy challenges

Issues surrounding emerging energy such as security of supply, renewable energy and sustainable development will be discussed by world experts at an upcoming forum in Dubai next year. The forum is the first of its kind on energy to be held in the Emirate.
The Dubai Global Energy Forum (DGEF) 2011 to be held between April 17-19 next year will run under the theme of "Energy Challenges and Opportunities - Sustainable Future" and is expected to attract about 1,500 participants ranging from CEOs to analysts and research and development professionals.
With the challenge of dealing with fossil fuel-dependent economies such as Dubai's, the forum will address issues on the introduction for renewable energy, smart networks and more importantly policy changes that will facilitate these

from -  http://www.arabianoilandgas.com/article-8066-dubai-energy-forum-set-to-tackle-energy-challenges/

Corporate Traveller Hotel Rates

The Landmark London Hotel  has sales specialists dedicated to looking after all our corporate clients.

Business travellers from sectors such as Banking, Pharmaceuticals, Oil and Gas, Advertising, Sports and Entertainment, appreciate the value of special corporate rate programs and the attention from staff, who will ensure your needs are met.

Guaranteed corporate rates can be arranged with last room availability and a 24-hour online booking programme. All contracted corporate accounts will benefit from preferential rates and exclusive privileges.

from -  http://www.landmarklondon.co.uk/business_travel_hotel_london.html

Business travel returns to Tokyo's luxury hotels

TOKYO—Luxury hotels in Japan’s largest city must offer oversized guestrooms, cutting-edge technology and extraordinary service if they are to regain the levels of occupancy and the rates the properties enjoyed before the recession hit.

At the same time, the high-end sector must compete with the burgeoning supply that continues to be built in this futuristic city of 29 million, a magnet for both the business and the leisure traveler, according to Koji Takabayashi and Tokiro Kawai. Takabayashi is managing director of Horwath HTL Japan, and Kawai an associate there

Leisure-travel business has remained robust at the Conrad Tokyo in Shiodome, a new, multileveled business district in Japan’s capital city—but rates have not recovered, said Gregor Andréewitch, GM of the ultramodern, 290-room hotel.

Opened in 2005, the Conrad Tokyo suffered badly during 2008 and 2009 when business travel dried up, leaving the property’s three meeting rooms and two ballrooms underused.

According to Andréewitch, the Conrad Tokyo’s key competitors are the Shangri-La Hotel Tokyo, which opened in 2009; The Peninsula and the Ritz-Carlton Tokyo, which opened in 2007; and the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo that opened in 2005.

“The luxury segment got hit deep in the pocket because we all lived for the corporate traveler, particularly coming from the finance industry,” he said during a recent interview at the hotel.

The rooms—the Conrad claims they’re the largest in the city— are a minimum of 43 square meters (almost 463 square feet), the ceilings are high, the public spaces generous. Andréewitch noted space is a premium in this city, where the average apartment size for a family with three children is 52 square meters (about 550 square feet).

Part of Hilton Worldwide’s luxury lifestyle brand portfolio, the Conrad Tokyo is a business hotel Monday to Thursday and a leisure hotel Friday through Sunday. Fifty percent of its clientele is Japanese; 25% is European and American; and 25% is Asian other than Japanese. Based on demand, ADR spans JPY33,000 to JPY70,000 (US$394 to US$835).

Tokyo luxury market

And those aren’t the top rates, according to Horwath’s Takabayashi and Kawai, who define luxury hotels as those that charge at least JPY50,000 (US$597) per room night. They call Tokyo Japan’s only luxury market, noting that in Osaka, the country’s second-largest city, the Ritz-Carlton Osaka is price leader but charges just more than JPY30,000, or US$358, and the St. Regis Osaka, which opened in October, targets an ADR of JPY30,000 (US$358). At the same time, hotel rooms in Osaka are as big as the largest in Tokyo.

“Average occupancy of Tokyo luxury hotels … shows a decrease from about 80.0% in 2007 to around 60.0% in 2009 mainly due to the global economic recession,” Takabayashi and Kawai wrote in an e-mail. “While luxury hotels in Tokyo tend to maintain their ADR at the cost of occupancies in order to keep their brand value or brand image, Grand Hyatt Tokyo is the most negatively impacted by the global recession and its ADR has dramatically decreased in 2009.”

How competitive the Tokyo luxury hotel market will be, particularly considering the scheduled 2012 opening of the Palace Hotel Tokyo and of the Aman Tokyo in 2014, comes clear in Horwath recommendations. Takabayashi and Kawai said to maintain high ADR, hotels in this class must offer not only “hard” products like large units, cutting-edge technology and sophisticated furniture, but also “soft” services such as the personalized butler typical at Ryokans, small, high-end hotels in resort locations.

The Horwath executives note that despite the area’s economic doldrums, such high-end projects as the Palace Hotel and the Aman are proceeding “due to the high credibility of their developers.” They also suggest that potential hotel developers consider linking their projects to a multiuse development including offices, which could charge higher rents.
Pros and cons
Labor is not an issue at his hotel, says the Conrad Tokyo’s Andréewitch. In Japan, hotel work is a profession, not a job, and the workforce is highly educated—which can make it hard for an outsider because of strict work permit regulations. The GM said he couldn’t hire a Frenchman as sommelier because he couldn’t get a permit even though he spoke three languages.

In addition, it’s hard to fire someone in a culture that values experience over competence, Andréewitch said.

“Japanese have a huge respect for each other, for harmony within the group, where nobody stands out,” he said. “What that means is a very talented person might be kept back because it’s against Japanese culture. It’s the protruding nail syndrome: If you stand out, you can be banged down.

“You don’t fire people here, you move them. You get moved sideways. They still have an income. The government doesn’t want them to be a social problem.”

Some more factoids, from the Japan Hotel Association:

• As of 2009, there were 9,689 hotels representing 798,070 rooms in Japan, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
• Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, Marriott International, Hilton, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, InterContinental Hotels Group and Accor are the United States and European brands represented in the country. Imperial Hotel, Okura Hotel, Prince Hotel and Hotel New Otani are the dominant domestic brands, the association said.
• As of 30 November, the Japan Hotel Association had 239 member hotels representing 55,378 rooms; of those, 43 hotels representing 16,431 rooms were in Tokyo.

from - http://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Articles.aspx/4740/Business-travel-returns-to-Tokyos-luxury-hotels

Luxury Hotels from the Travel Intelligence Collection

Whether in the form of grand luxury hotels in London or small and stylish boutique hotels, Travel Intelligence's collection of luxury hotels is absolutely second to none. To guarantee that only the very best make it onto our site, each luxury hotel is personally selected and carefully vetted before being reviewed by a professional travel writer.

This month, we're turning our attention to our favourite luxury hotels in Spain in our summer spotlight. So whether you're looking for luxury hotels in Andalucia dripping with historical features and character, or a sensational selection of ultra-modern luxury hotels in Barcelona and luxury hotels in Madrid, Travel Intelligence is the ultimate one-stop shop for finding and booking the country's most stylish luxury hotels for that sensational summer break

House price falls in Japan accelerate

Seriously affected by the global financial crisis, falls in Japan’s residential property prices accelerated during the first half of 2009.
The urban land price in Japan’s six largest cities dropped by 7.8% (9.2% in real terms) in H1 2009 from the previous year, according to the Japan Real Estate Institute (JREI), ending the long-anticipated recovery of Japanese property prices.
In Japan, land prices serve as a proxy for home prices. Land prices in the six largest cities rose by 2.8% (2.8% in real terms) in 2006, 8.1% (8.1% in real terms) in 2007, and 1.1% (a fall of 0.2% in real terms) in 2008. 
On a national level the price of land has been falling since H2 1991. Since the second half of 2007, land price decreases in Japan have accelerated. Land prices slid 3.4% (4.9% in real terms) in H1 2009 from the previous year



Land prices are used as a measure of residential property values partly because Japan is earthquake-prone, making the value of land more significant than the houses built on them.
The global financial crisis upset Japan’s real estate sector. Bankruptcies in real estate firms increased in H1 2009. Investors in Japanese real estate investment trust funds (J-REIT) have fled the market, leading to a huge drop in demand.
New building permits in 2008 continued to be below 2006 levels, due to tighter constructions laws. Banks remained extremely cautious, making it difficult for buyers and developers to acquire loans.
The economy however grew in Q2 2009 after four consecutive months of contraction due to the aggressive government stimulus and tax reforms. As long as the economy is able to sustain the growth, the residential property market is expected to gradually recover

from - http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Asia/Japan/Price-History

New analysis casts doubt on GSO luxury hotel

GREENSBORO — A consultant’s report ordered last week by the city of Greensboro leaves little room for doubt: “It is clear that the proposed hotel will not be able to compete economically at a viable level.”
The hotel in question is the now $52.5 million, 200-room hotel and conference center proposed for the middle of downtown Greensboro. The 53-page consultant’s report, ordered by Andy Scott, the city’s assistant city manager for economic development, was completed over the weekend by HVS, one of the nation’s leading experts in assessing hospitality markets. The report evaluated the latest feasibility study filed a week ago by the hotel proponents.
Scott received the report Tuesday, but did not share it with council members that day because of confusion surrounding whether council had recommended three projects for bond financing — including the hotel — on Dec. 15 without knowing it. That appears to have been the case.
Yet Scott, who says he would distribute the report to council members this week, adds that the conclusions still could play a role in determining whether an underwriter or bond-rating agency will take the project seriously. Final decisions regarding bond worthiness won’t be made until May, he says.
The Business Journal, which obtained a copy of the report, shared it on Wednesday with
Randall Kaplan, one of the lead partners in the hotel project and co-owner of Elm Street Center, which would become the luxury hotel’s conference center. His response upon reviewing HVS’s conclusions?
“It causes me concern because they (HVS) are the experts in evaluating the marketplace,” says Kaplan, whose partners hired HVS to do their own downtown hotel feasibility study in early 2008. “We’re not idiots. We do not want to do this deal unless it is financially viable.”
Kaplan says he remains very excited about the project’s potential, its location and what it can do for downtown Greensboro. But he stressed that many hurdles must be cleared before the project qualifies for low-interest bond funds made possible through the federal stimulus act (see related story, page 2). The new HVS study, he concedes, represents yet another hurdle.
“At the moment,” he says, “the big unknowns are: Where do we settle in on reasonable occupancy rates and what will be the actual costs of new construction of the hotel.”

The numbers

The answers to both questions are a bit of a moving target. But before we discuss the findings in the HVS study (which confirm and go beyond the conclusions reached in this space last week), let’s do some project numbers.
Kaplan told City Council on Tuesday that the entire project represents a $52.5 million investment, with $12.5 million of that representing the estimated value of Elm Street Center and all the land it sits on between Elm and Davie Streets. New construction is loosely estimated at $40 million. Of that, $26 million would come from the low-interest, stimulus-related bonds. Kaplan cannot say yet where the remaining $14 million would come from (if they need that much), but some portion could come from New Market Tax Credits, bank financing and/or cash put in by the development partnership.
Kaplan confirms that Bridget Chisholm, who heads the Urban Hotel Group, would claim a developer’s fee of about 5 percent, or roughly $2 million, but he says that she has agreed to take only a “small portion of that amount out at closing” and leave the rest in the project as equity.
He also says that his investors’ group, made up of about 10 Greensboro businesspeople, may take out about $1 million in cash at closing in compensation for selling the office building attached to Elm Street Center so that it can become part of the project.
But whether the project ever gets to that level of financial detail will likely come down to whether the hotel proponents can produce evidence to credibly offset the conclusions of the new HVS report.
Kaplan confirmed that HVS was making its judgments against a $25,000 feasibility study he ordered in February 2008 — long before the real estate market meltdown. The 2008 report, he says, was altered slightly to reflect current market conditions when it was given to Andy Scott last week.
To that end, the hotel developers projected average nightly room rates of $155 in 2012, rising to $180 in 2016. Comparing the proposed hotel to the new Doubletree on High Point Road, the downtown Marriott, the O. Henry and the Proximity, HVS found that the projected room rates were slightly high, but only by about $12 per night.
However, HVS said it was highly unlikely the hotel developers would achieve the projected annual occupancy rates of 64 percent in 2012 rising to 67 percent in 2016. HVS said the new hotel could expect occupancy of just 38 percent in 2012, rising to 48 percent in 2016 — far less than it would need to cover bond payments, to say nothing of providing a return to project investors.
“It is typical for a new luxury hotel operating in a depressed market to take four to five years to reach a stabilized level of operation,” HVS writes.
The consultant offered a variety of reasons for its much lower occupancy projections:
• The economy has caused group and meeting business to fall sharply, especially for luxury and upscale hotels; full recovery is seen as years off.
• Between 2003 and 2009, only in April and October (furniture market time) has hotel occupancy in Greensboro topped 70 percent. In the last three years, HVS notes, Greensboro has added hundreds of hotel rooms while demand has increased only incrementally.
• “The addition to downtown Greensboro of a proposed 200-room luxury hotel is not considered significant enough to induce additional demand into the market,” the report reads, adding that the city has an ample supply of luxury rooms. “It is more likely that the proposed hotel will cannibalize existing demand away from the other hotels in the market, which will make it far more difficult for these hotels to recover from the current recession.”

Not giving up

Kaplan knows the HVS evaluation of his group’s feasibility study doesn’t look good. But he’s not giving up. He says his group will likely pay for an updated study that drills down more deeply than the HVS evaluation does. He says that several factors could set the project in a more favorable light.
For example, he says, the Elm Street project will have restaurant and retail space, which will contribute to the revenue stream and has not yet been figured in. He says the potential impact of the International Civil Rights Center & Museum across the street has not been considered. He says low-interest financing and low construction costs should lower overall project costs, thus providing a financial boost.
And despite what critics and other studies say, Kaplan believes the new hotel will grab market share from the downtown Marriott, the O. Henry, the Proximity and even hotels in the airport area.
But even with those firm beliefs, he says: “If after we go through another round of studies, the projections for occupancy are still at around 40 percent, it won’t get done. We won’t build it because it won’t get funded.”
There are other variables as well, he says. Parking is crucial; the project could be undermined if the city does not agree build an $8 million parking deck adjacent to the hotel on Davie Street. Also, a national chain — like a Wyndham or a Westin — must also agree to back the hotel. Without an upscale national brand and all the resources it would bring, Kaplan says his partners aren’t interested in going forward.
Yet even with all those hurdles, the proposed luxury hotel project remains in the race at the end of this long and confusing week. The finish line, though, appears much farther off
from - http://www.bizjournals.com
link
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http://japanesefoodyum.blogspot.com/

Tokyo Serviced hotel

When you are visiting another destination, you would ideally want to get adjusted in a short period of time and quickly move on to getting your work done. If you take too long with the adjusting phase, there might not be as much time left to get on with your job and finish the work that you were sent out to do in the first place. In order to facilitate this, there is what is known as serviced apartments on offer. In fact, people across the world over know that Tokyo serviced apartments are probably the best in the world of serviced apartments.

There is a clear reason for this accolade; it is not without proof. Over time, the concept of service apartments has reached pretty much all corners of the world. But, in Tokyo, the apartments come very close to bringing you a homely feel. In fact, the service provider takes extra care in providing you with possible every amenity and creature comfort that you might ever need. You will not have any reason as such to complain about and might even get too used to the feeling of staying in such a well equipped place. This unique charm of Tokyo serviced apartments has captivated numerous travelers to the region.

In terms of what is on offer, you might be in for a pleasant surprise. Pretty much everything you can dream of is provided in these Tokyo serviced apartments. Everything, right from a fully furnished and loaded kitchen to even a fully equipped living room should keep you entertained and in comfort whenever you are in home. People who like to cook themselves a meal will be absolutely thrilled to make use of the amenities available in the kitchen for them. All these options make this an absolute dream to be in and potentially something that you wouldn't want to let go of quickly!

One has to speak about the location of these apartments as well, without which the description would be rather incomplete. Almost all of the Tokyo serviced apartments are located in very welcoming neighborhoods where you might find the beauty of nature intertwined with the modern concrete structures to create a perfect symmetry. The location is something that draws in people every now and then and in most cases, you might even be surprised that you are actually living in such a place. Many people can only dream of buying houses in such areas and hence, a serviced apartment has got to be the next best option that they can go in for.

Added service to the apartment like a maid, a fully loaded fitness center and even a round the clock security system are all part of the deal. All in all, you won't have much to complain about with these apartments. In fact, this is easily one of the better choices to take up and definitely something that you should consider if you want to enjoy the good life while in Tokyo. Check out some of the Tokyo serviced apartments at a reputed realtor to learn more about them
link
http://meganfoxstar.blogspot.com/
http://elishasexycool.blogspot.com/
http://junkfoodtoday.blogspot.com/
http://japanesefoodyum.blogspot.com/

hotel in japan today

from - www.slideshare.net
Find Industry reports, Company profilesReportLinker and Market Statistics >> Get this Report Now by email!Hotels in JapanPublished on February 2009 Report SummaryThe Plimsoll Portfolio Analysis - Hotels is a comprehensive evaluation of the Japanese market. The revised and updated 2008 editionanalyses the financial performance of the companies important to the success of your business. Using the most up to date informationavailable, the analysis is ideal both as a tool to benchmark your own companys results and to study the market in more depth. Aimedat the busy manager, the Plimsoll Portfolio Analysis is both quick and easy to use thanks to the unique visual layout. The Analysislays bare the performance of each company highlighting their strengths and weaknesses. Do you know which companies are best todo business with Do you know which companies are selling at a loss and whose profit margins are plummeting Find out the answersto all these questions and more with the newly published Plimsoll Portfolio Analysis.The report is divided into two sections for your ease of use, Industry Analysis and Individual Company Analysis. Industry Analysis:sales growth and profitability are analysed, giving you the fulllest picture possible of the health of the market. Companies are rankedon these categories so you can see which companies are outshining the rest. Use the industry average tables to benchmark your owncompanys performance- how do you compare to the rest of the industry Individual Company Analysis: Each company receives a fullpage of analysis, evaluating their financial performance over the last four years so you get a full picture of the long term prospects ofeach company. Each company page of analysis is also packed with the following information: full business name and address, namesand ages of directors and contact details, seven unique Plimsoll charts showing at a glance the performance of each companyhighlighting their strengths and weaknesses, and four years of the latest accounts available.The Analysis evaluates the performance of 300 companies.Hotels in Japan Page