The resort report: what's new in the hotel world
ANN RUPPENSTEIN
Checking out the latest hotel and resort news from fresh renovations to brand new or upcoming properties to entice your clients.
If London is calling your luxury clients, a new opening awaits. Featuring 199 rooms including 30 suites and a destination restaurant and bar, The BoTree debuted on Marylebone Lane on Sept. 15.
From partnerships with like-minded brands that are catalysts for positive change, such as Jo Loves, The BoTree’s official bathroom amenity partner, the property is all about being mindful and responsible. For example, Jo Loves products are vegan, natural, sulphate-, paraben-, and cruelty-free, as well as packaged using OceanBound Plastic, a reliable plastic resin made from material at-risk of becoming ocean pollution.
Having achieved an Excellent rating in the world’s foremost environmental assessment method and rating system for buildings (BREEAM), The BoTree is committed to reducing its resource and carbon footprints, embracing digital options and new technology wherever possible.
The BoTree encompasses the energy, character and atmosphere of Marylebone life, welcoming all to enjoy the hotel’s variety of offerings and settings through day and night. Guest rooms are adorned with colourful natural fabrics and eclectic textures created exclusively for the hotel. The 30 contemporary suites serve as a destination in their own right, providing the perfect entertaining space with a lounge, balcony, personal bar, and integrated cocktail station. The largest of the suites, The BoTree Suite, offers commanding views across central London. Featuring its own guest entrance and an outdoor terrace, this exclusive space can be combined with the adjoining suites to create a large wing for the ultimate private retreat.
IHG Hotels & Resorts has opened the first Vignette Collection hotel in Europe with the debut of Casa da Companhia in the centre of Porto, Portugal. Vignette Collection is a family of distinct luxury hotels connected by a shared vision that travel can benefit local people and places. Situated in the prestigious and picturesque Clérigos district of Porto, the hotel has a high-end boutique feel featuring 40 rooms, including three suites, a luxurious spa featuring treatments from Holiclinica, a fitness suite, heated indoor and outdoor pools and an outdoor terrace.
Porto is known for its gastronomic experiences and Casa da Companhia carries on the trend with its restaurant and bar located on vibrant Flower Street. Its Executive Chef has created an authentic Mediterranean gastronomic experience with dishes inspired by his childhood memories, his roots and experience acquired over the years on the job. The restaurant presents a menu with nuances of spices from the routes of India, through a range of dishes based on international trends, with a focus on local produce from the Porto coast, plains and Trás-os-Montes mountains.
Following several months of work for a full renovation, RIU Hotels reopened the 476 room Riu Palace Macao. In addition to renovating its common spaces, restaurants and rooms for the second time in 11 years, this is the first RIU hotel in the Dominican Republic to offer the new Elite Club service, an exclusive service with perks and spaces designed for guests looking to take their experience at RIU Hotels to the next level. One of the biggest changes is the implementation of swim-up rooms with a private pool. These rooms are exclusively for Elite Club by RIU service guests.
In addition to the 34 rooms with a private pool, there are another 22 rooms for customers using this service. The Elite Club offers its guests a lounge area with a bar reserved just for them, an exclusive restaurant offering an à la carte dinner, an à la carte breakfast at the Italian restaurant, which is adapted to this service every morning, and an exclusive beach with its own bar service serving premium drinks for Elite guests.
Built during the renovation and coinciding with the Adults-Only hotel’s reopening, the hotel chain is also inaugurating its largest wellness centre open to all guests of RIU Complex hotels in Punta Cana. The new centre has a large gym with all the equipment necessary for guests to have a complete training session, beauty salon and hairdresser, and a spa with two water areas, steam baths and up to nine massage booths.
Harmonizing heritage and hospitality, the 121-room hotel Convent Square Lisbon, Vignette Collection is born from the restoration of Convento de. S. Domingos, dating from 1242. Cobblestone streets lead guests from the Portuguese capital to the spiritual setting of the convent’s open-air cloister featuring vibrant fire pits. Today, worship is replaced by wellness with a sauna, fitness suite and indoor plunge pool now overlooking the rooftop’s unrivalled views of the city’s ancient architecture including the São Domingos church.
Convent Square Lisbon, Vignette Collection brings the ancient healing practice of Dominican monks to modern day, inviting guests to infuse their own daily blend from a selection of herbs and leaves. First introduced by Portuguese priests and merchants during the 1600s, the ritual pays homage to Portugal’s heritage as the nation to bring tea to Europe, as pioneered by Portuguese Princess and wife of Charles II, Catherine of Braganza in 1662.
Each Vignette Collection hotel is partnered with a chosen non-profit organization, working in partnership to contribute positively to the local ecosystem. Convent Square, Lisbon will join forces with Corações Com Coroa to support its campaign for the empowerment of women by funding housing and school materials for young girls and sponsoring women through a hospitality internship program.
The newly opened Andaz Macau is located in Galaxy Macau, the city’s luxury shopping, dining, entertainment and resort complex.
Inspired by the vibrant local art, culture, and architecture, the hotel features more than 700 uniquely appointed guest rooms and suites, immersing guests in the “real Macau.”
Andaz Macau’s two hotel towers are located between the picturesque and well-preserved neighbourhoods of Old Taipa and Coloane. Guests can easily access the city’s charming traditional attractions and Galaxy Macau’s facilities.
With its direct connection to both Galaxy International Convention Center (GICC) and the 16,000-seat Galaxy Arena, as well as its dedicated check-in lounge explicitly designed to provide a seamless arrival for large groups, Andaz Macau offers unrivaled convenience for both convention center and leisure guests looking to fulfill their curiosities through their travels.
The hotel features a collection of artworks and artifacts that tells the story of the city’s soul through art, celebrating its heritage and future while allowing guests to express themselves through art.
