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October 2006

JUMEIRAH DOMINATES BUSINESS TRAVELLER AWARDS IN THE UK AND ASIA PACIFIC ONCE AGAIN THIS YEAR

Jumeirah, the dynamic and fast growing Dubai-based luxury hospitality group and member of Dubai Holding, has again this year dominated the Business Traveller awards ceremonies in both Hong Kong and London.
For the first time this year, Jumeirah was proud and honoured to be named 'Best Business Hotel Chain in the Middle East' by readers of Business Traveller magazine UK whilst the Group won the award for 'Best Business Hotel Brand in the Middle East/Africa' for the third consecutive year at the annual Business Traveller Asia Pacific Awards. In addition, two of Jumeirah's hotels in Dubai; Jumeirah Beach Hotel and Jumeirah Emirates Towers, received top accolades in other categories.

For a record sixth consecutive year, readers of Business Traveller UK voted Jumeirah Beach Hotel as 'Best Resort Hotel in the World' whilst its sister property, Jumeirah Emirates Towers, received the award for 'Best Business Hotel in the Middle East' for an impressive fourth year running.

Gerald Lawless, Chief Executive Officer of Jumeirah Group, said: 'We are delighted with the results of this year's Business Traveller awards in both Asia Pacific and the UK and the accolades we have received are a true reflection of our commitment to 'Stay Different'.'



RADISSON SAS OPENS AN HOTEL IN MARSEILLE




The newly constructed Radisson SAS Hotel in Marseille is superbly located in the city centre between Fort Saint-Nicolas and the Theatre de la Criée. Specifically catering to the business travel market, the hotel will face the famous Mairie and promises to also be attractive to leisure travellers.

The hotel will be divided between two buildings, one facing Vieux Poort, which will house the hotel restaurants, meeting facilities, terrace, lobby and main entrance, and the other building will overlook the sea.

  • The hotel offers 189 rooms and suites that come in two very distinct styles: Provençal and Africaine.
  • Free Broadband including high-speed and wireless (WiFi) Internet access will be offered to all hotel guests.
  • Our fine dining restaurant, Solaris is a modern Mediterranean answer to California offering a contemporary Provençal menu.
  • The Brasserie Terracotta is a cosmopolitan Mediterranean brasserie with a rustic touch, while the Lounge Bar evokes the feeling of being in a 19th century trading outpost in the African coast.
  • Our flexible meeting facilities can accommodate a small meeting or a large banquet.

    Opening: Early 2007


FOUR SEASONS RESORT MALDIVES AT KUDA HURAA REOPENS



Four Seasons is unveiling three exceptional experiences in the Maldives comprising two very different resorts and one luxury catamaran. Set amidst a vibrant garden island, the brand new Four Seasons Resort Maldives at Kuda Huraa reopens today with a traditional Maldivian village setting and legendary Four Seasons service. The company’s second and highly anticipated new resort, Landaa Giraavaru, will open on November 1, 2006. ituated in the Baa Atoll, the Resort is a paradise hideaway where seclusion meets wild natural beauty. Guests can further explore the far flung and seldom-visited atolls in the Maldives in the comfort of the company’s luxury catamaran, the Four Seasons Explorer. The opening of the Resorts marks the return of two hundred local staff who have been deployed to work at other Four Seasons properties around the world after Kuda Huraa was forced to close following the tsunami.  Each returns to the Maldives with new personal and professional experience gained from working in hotels and resorts in locations ranging from Dallas, Palm Beach, Washington D.C., Provence, Hampshire, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Singapore.



FOUR SEASONS BLAMES FOREIGN EXCHANGE LOSS FOR DROP IN EARNINGS

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has blamed foreign exchange losses for a 42% drop in its net earnings during the second quarter of 2006, compared with the same period last year.
Net earnings for the period fell from $15.8m (£8.4m) in 2005 to $9.1m (£4.8m).
The company claims operating performance and profitability has improved but that its fall in earnings is the result of incurring $6.8m (£3.6m) worth of “other expenses”, primarily relating to foreign exchange losses.
However, the luxury hotel operator saw revpar for the second quarter increasing at its worldwide core hotels by 12.1% and by 11.7% at its US core hotels. The company also reported second quarter increases in gross operating margins of 33.9% at its worldwide core hotels and 32% for its US core hotels.
John Davison, Four Seasons chief financial officer said: “Our financial results reflect the improved performance at the hotels and resorts under our management and our continual focus on improving profitability at the corporate level. We are pleased to have delivered a solid improvement in our operating earnings.”
Four Seasons has projects in Koh Samui, Thailand; St Petersburg, Russia; Hangzhou, China and Doha, Qatar in the pipeline

 

JOB OF THE MONTH
(small selection)
all jobs available
here

General Manager, Eastern Europe

Financila Controller, Spain

Head Chef, Seychelles

Food & Beverage Service Manager, Seychelles

French Chef de Cuisine, Mexico City

Front Office Manager, Senegal

Restaurant General Manager, London UK

Group Financial Controller, London UK

Deputy Hotel Manager, Spain

Executive Sous Chef, Ukraine

General Manager, Cuba

Regional Financial Manager, Dubai

Room Service Manager, London UK

Executive Housekeeper, Manchester

Personnel Manager, UAE

Revenue Manager, Moscow

SPA Manager, Egypt

Hotel General Manager, London

Restaurant Manager, South East Asia

Private Chef, Moscow

STAFF MOVEMENTS

Guillaume Paupy has been promoted to Food and Beverage Director at the Grand Hyatt Sao Paulo from Assistant Food and Beverage Director at the Grand Hyatt Singapore.

Raoul Gransier has been appointed General Manager of the Hotel Bellevue in Croatia. He was most recently the pre-opening General Manager at the Queen's Court - Hotel & Residence in Budapest and was previously the General Manager at the Andrassy Hotel & Zebrano Restaurant also in Budapest.

Jean-Luc Reymond is the new Executive Chef at Le Meridien Montparnasse in Paris, taking over from Patrice Trincali.

Le Mèridien Tahiti has named Sebastien Philizot Executive Chef. He was most recently at the InterContinental Malta.

Philippe Agnese has joined the Four Seasons Bangkok as Executive Pastry Chef. He was previously the Executive Pastry Chef with Ritz-Carlton in Singapore and Bahrain.

Lausanne graduate Christophe Lajus has been appointed General Manager of the newly opened Crowne Plaza Fudan Shanghai. His most recent position was General Manager of the Holiday Inn Resort Yalong Bay Sanya.

Jeremy Bearman has been appointed Executive Chef at Lark Creek Steak in San Francisco. He was most recently the Executive Sous Chef at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon at the MGM Grand Las Vegas and previously the Restaurant Executive Chef at the Medici Café and Terrace at the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas. In addition, Bearman worked at Daniel Boulud's Bistro Moderne in New York working his way up to Executive Sous Chef.

Fabien Deguffroy will be taking over as Spa Director at Little Dix Bay. He most recently served as Assistant Spa Director at the Palms in Turks and Caicos, following a stint as part of the Spa at the Boca Raton Resort and Club.

Pascal Legrain has been appointed Executive Chef at the Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach in Cancun. A return to Mexico for Legrain, who was most recently the Director of Food and Beverage at the Vila Sol Golf and Spa Resort in Portugal, but previously ran the kitchens of the Meridien Cancun and at Las Ventanas Al Paraiso.

John Quero is the new General Manager of the Lace Market Hotel in Nottingham. He was previously the General Manager of the Hotel Rialto in Warsaw, the Resident Manager at the Hotel Bora Bora and a member of the opening management team at the Burj Al Arab.

Patrick Mossu has been appointed Hotel Manager at the Kempinski Ciragan Palace in Istanbul. He has previously worked in various positions at the Mark Hopkins InterContinental, the Hotel Castellana InterContinental and the Mayfair InterContinental.

InterContinental Hotels Group has promoted Thierry Perrot as Area General Manager for InterContinental Hotels Group Citystars, in Cairo. He moves into his new role from his position as the General Manager of the InterContinental Citystars and started with the group in 1981 at the InterContinental Geneva.

Marco Franck has been appointed Resident Manager at the Athenaeum InterContinental in Athens. He was most recently at the Shangri-La Singapore as Executive Assistant Manager in charge of Food and Beverage and has previously overseen food and beverage at the Westin Kuala Lumpur, Starwood Resorts Fiji and Amangani.

Emmanuel Caux has been promoted by Starwood to Regional Vice President for Northern France, responsible for six hotels in and around Paris. A long-time Meridien man, Caux was most recently the General Manager of the Meridien Paris Etoile, as well as Regional Director for Paris and Belgium.

Brigitte Lallemand has been promoted by Dolce International to the position of Vice President Sales for Europe. For the past three years, she had been the Director of Sales and Marketing at the Dolce Chantilly, outside Paris.

Frederic Vincent has been assigned to take over the project of the next international hotel for Lucien Barriere Hotels in Marrakech. He was most recently the pre-opening General Manager at Paris' Hotel Fouquet's Barriere. He will be replaced by Eric Boonstoppel who has been with the group almost thirteen years with his most recent assignment as the General Manager of the Majestic Barriere in Cannes.

The Four Seasons Hotel Cairo at Nile Plaza has named Christophe Gillino Executive Chef. He was most recently the Executive Chef at Reid's Palace Hotel in Madeira and previously worked under Alain Ducasse, Alain Senderens, Manuel Martinez and Christian Willer.

Philippe Orrico joins the Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong as Chef de Cuisine at Pierre Gagnaire. He joins from Sketch, Gagnaire's joint-venture in London and was previously at Pierre Gagnaire Paris.

Xavier Rugeroni, until now a Regional Director for Meridien in Southern France and Malta, becomes Starwood's Director of Operations for Southern France (including Monaco).

Florent Gateau has returned to Rosewood as Managing Director of Acqualina, taking over from David Kurland. He was most recently the Resident Manager at the Setai in Miami, a property he opened, following his initial seven years with Rosewood in various positions at the Mansion on Turtle Creek and Las Ventanas al Paraiso.

Albert Mertz
rejoins the Mandarin Oriental Miami as Hotel Manager after a brief stint as the Chief Operating Officer at the Barish Group in New York. He had previously served in a similar role at the hotel from 2000 to 2004, before being appointed General Manager at the Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya

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