Ritz Paris reopens after four-year revamp: The Ritz Paris reopened today following a four-year renovation, with the hype over the 142-room Grande Dame being so great owner Mohammed Al Fayed even commissioned a 29-second black and white film by director Zoe Cassavetes to mark the occasion.
The renovation, estimated at more than $150 million, saw the room count drop by 17 rooms, according to France 24 and other media. The hotel, which opened in 1898, has welcomed such luminaries as Coco Chanel, Charlie Chaplin and Ernest Hemingway.
Accor in talks with HNA to counter JinJiang push? French hotel company AccorHotels is rumored to be in talks with Chinese hotel company HNA to counter fellow Chinese firm JinJiang, which continues to increase its ownership stakes in AccorHotels, according to Reuters.
In April, Hotel News Now mused on whether JinJiang was upping its AccorHotels’ stake to secure a seat on the French company’s board. Reuters suggested in the article that JinJiang owned 15.6% of AccorHotels but that an increase to 29% would “trigger a public offer.”
Executives speak: Has the industry reached the peak? There’s a great deal of speculation of where the hotel industry is in the current cycle, and every executive in the business likes to talk about it. HNN asked hotel executives their thoughts on where the industry is relative to the ever-discussed peak.
Some think the industry has passed the peak but is in for a softer landing than previous endings. Others believe the peak has yet to come but it’s close. For some, the peak is a grey area, dependent on the individual markets.
Vegas’ Monte Carlo Resort to undergo $450m reinvention: The 3,002-room Monte Carlo Resort & Casino in Las Vegas will be turned into two completely new hotels, the 2,700-room Park MGM and 292-room NoMad, in a $450 million transformation due to be completed in 2018, according to a news release.
On the Las Vegas Strip, the reimagined property will also see the introduction of several new restaurants, including one also named NoMad and an outpost of New York City’s Eataly, which will also have an Italian marketplace.
Atlantic City’s Showboat to reopen without casino: The Showboat, The Mardi Gras Casino, in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which has been closed since 2014, is to reopen next month as an 852-room property, but it will not have a casino, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Owner Bart Blatstein, CEO of development company Tower Investments, bought the hotel in January from Stockton University, which had proposed the building to be adapted to student accommodation. The hotel has been subject to legal wrangling, most notably from Trump Entertainment Resorts, which owns the adjacent Trump Taj Mahal, which sought to stop the student plan.
Compiled by Terence Baker.