October 2007
Moscow: the place for a pricey room !
Moscow has the most expensive average hotel prices of any city, according to a new survey. The survey, by the hotels.com website, found the Russian capital had the highest average prices, ahead of New York, Venice and London. At the other end of the scale, South Africa's Cape Town had the lowest prices, with Guangzhou in China and Orlando in Florida also great places for bargain hunters.
While average prices fell in the US during the last 12 months, it was a different story in the UK, which posted a rise of 17 percent year-on-year to be the most expensive country destination across Europe. A hotel room in Beijing, due to host the Olympic Games in 2008, cost roughly the same as in Berlin, one of Europe's cheapest cities, a statement issued by the website said.
Alain Ducasse set to open soon at the Dorchester
French chef Alain Ducasse is to open his eagerly awaited restaurant at London's Dorchester hotel on 13 November, Caterer can reveal.
The 80-cover Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester eaterie will be located in the hotel's Terrace private dining room, overlooking Park Lane and Hyde Park.
The kitchen will be overseen by executive chef Nicola Canuti, who joins from Ducasse's Spoon des Iles at the One & Only Le Saint Géran hotel in Mauritius, with sous chef Bruno Riou and pastry chef Angelo Ercolano.
Restaurant manager will be Christian Laval, who has been manager of Ducasse's Spoon Food & Wine in Paris since it opened in 1998. He will be supported by Philippe Beaucourt, while head sommelier will be Hugues Lepin.
Ducasse said: "I rely on my executive chefs to translate my cuisine and at the Dorchester I'm blessed with a particularly gifted and capable brigade. Matched by the finesse of the front-of-house team, these key staff will be responsible for making Alain Ducasse at the Dorchester as perfect as possible every week."
Loved to death?
Bora Bora is adored as an island paradise, but its ecological future is uncertain.
Tahiti is usually synonymous with paradise but when National Geographic reviewed 115 of the world's most famous travel destinations, the write-up it gave French Polynesia was guarded.
"Tourism has had a big impact on the islands and local culture due to large resorts, but it is still a beautiful place to go," said one expert on the panel.
The sustainability report card - based on cultural, environmental and aesthetic criteria - awarded 53 out of 100 to the islands and ranked them in the lowest category. Only a handful of destinations were worse - notably Venice, Phuket and Spain's Costa del Sol.
Overdevelopment and tourism mismanagement on the islands had detracted from the region's natural beauty, the report said, forcing tourists to explore more outlying areas.
Among those islands most at risk from tourist overcrowding is Bora Bora, the tiny piece of paradise that lies north-west of Tahiti in the Society Islands group. Its airstrip, built by allied forces during World War II, was the region's only airport until the 1960s.
Gordon Ramsay and Angela Hartnett say goodbye to the Connaught
Gordon Ramsay Holdings (GRH) has parted company with the Connaught hotel and will not renew its lease for its Michelin-starred restaurant when the hotel reopens after a £60m refurbishment later this year.
The company has confirmed its split with the hotel's owner, the Maybourne Group, and has said the restaurant, which has been overseen by chef-patron Angela Hartnett since its inception in 2002, will not reopen with the hotel in December.
Hartnett will open a new venture later this year. The Connaught is yet to announce plans for a replacement restaurant.
The move comes just weeks after Caterer revealed that Ramsay's Boxwood Café at the Maybourne Group's Berkeley Hotel is to close after a revamp of the property, which is set to begin at the end of the year.
It also follows our report on rumours that Marcus Wareing is not to return to the Savoy Grill when it reopens after the hotel's 18-month refurbishment - reports which GRH has denied.
The departure from the Connaught will leave GRH with five restaurants in other major London hotels. These include the Michelin-starred Savoy Grill and Banquette at the Savoy, Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's, Maze at the Marriott Grosvenor Square, La Noisette at the Carlton Tower and the two-Michelin-starred Pétrus at the Berkeley.
A GRH spokesman said: "The Maybourne Group and Gordon Ramsay Holdings confirm that Gordon Ramsay Holdings will not be renewing their lease on the restaurant at the Connaught when it re-opens at the end of the year following an extensive refurbishment."
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Christian Clerc moves to Chicago as Regional Vice President and General Manager of the Ritz-Carlton Chicago (a Four Seasons Hotel). He comes from the Four Seasons Punta Mita where he was the General Manager and Regional Vice President as well. A Lausanne graduate, Clerc originally joined Four Seasons in 2000 as Director of Rooms at the Four Seasons Washington DC.
General Manager Susanne Hatje, who successfully opened Hong Kong’s Landmark Mandarin Oriental, will now be launching the Mandarin Oriental Boston. Hatje originally joined the group via their acquisition of the Rafael Hotel Group.
Serge Couturiaux has joined the Veranda Resort in Turks and Caicos as General Manager. He was most recently on the island with the Palms as Executive Assistant Manager.
Robert Mercure is the new General Manager at the Fairmont Château Frontenac. Since 2006, he served as Hotel Manager for the Fairmont Monte Carlo. He has been with the company since 1999, holding various posts at the Fairmont Royal York and Fairmont Queen Elizabeth.
Pierre Louis Renou transfers as Operations Manager to the Sofitel Los Angeles. He was most recently in the same position at the Sofitel St. James in London.
The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has appointed Valerie Thompson Vice President of Finance, the Americas, to be based in San Francisco. She was previously the Vice President, Operations Accounting, for Fairmont.
Hotel Manager Felix Murillo moves from the Four Seasons Mexico City to the Four Seasons Buenos Aires. He also served as Director of Food and Beverage at the Four Seasons Miami, the Four Seasons Chicago and the Four Seasons London Canary Wharf.
Richard Mignault has been promoted to Corporate Vice President of Human Resources and Administration for Hilton Hotels, based at the company’s world headquarters in Beverly Hills. He was most recently based in New York as Vice President - Human Resources, Eastern Region.
Tom Lefkovits moves as Director of Rooms to the Four Seasons Los Angeles. He joined the company at the Four Seasons Boston where he held the position of Director of Rooms since October 2004. Previously, he played various management roles at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler over a period of eight years.
Luca Allegri moves to Monte Carlo and to the Hotel de Paris. He has left Four Seasons where he held the position of General Manager at the Four Seasons Sharm el Sheik after serving as Hotel Manager at the Four Seasons Cairo at Nile Plaza. Previously, he spent five years at the Plaza-Athénée Paris, first as Director of Food and Beverage, then as Executive Assistant Manager. He had also taken part in the pre-opening of the Four Seasons Georges Cinq in Paris as Director of Food and Beverage.
Jose Soriano transfers as General Manager to the Four Seasons Dublin, succeeding John Brennan. He joined the company in 1995 as Director of Rooms at the Four Seasons Singapore before moving in 2000 to the Regent Singapore as Hotel Manager. Subsequently, he served at the Four Seasons Toronto, the Four Seasons Geneva and, most recently as General Manager of the Four Seasons Canary Wharf in London.
Michael Purtill moves into London to succeed Jose Soriano as General Manager of the Four Seasons Canary Wharf. For the past four years, he has served as General Manager of the Four Seasons Hampshire. Previously, he held the post of General Manager at the Ashdown Park Hotel and Country Club in Sussex.
Marc Raffray moves up to Hotel Manager at the Four Seasons George Cinq, where he had been the Director of Food and Beverage since April 2005. He takes over from Jean-Claude Wietzel, now the General Manager of the Four Seasons Sharm El Sheik. Raffray had been the General Manager of several small luxury properties in France, Morocco and Mauritius prior to joining Four Seasons.
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