Here is a slide show of the top 10 fashion designer hotels.

European hotel operator Accor group plans to open 17 Novotel-chain hotels in the Asia-Pacific over the next two years.

The group yesterday officially opened its latest hotel in the city, the Novotel Hydro Majestic Kuala Lumpur.

The hotel, which is located in Jalan Kia Peng, offers 291 rooms. With its opening, Accor now manages 72 hotels in 14 countries around Asia-Pacific.  Read more

Plans are under way to develop two more hotels in Rosemont, which would bring the total in the convention mecca to 19 if all the projects are completed.

The two hotels would be built on a long-dormant but high-profile stretch of vacant property in the heart of the village, officials said Tuesday.

Developers are asking Rosemont to approve plans for a “high-end” hotel, possibly a Conrad Hotel, and a Hampton Inn on a 5-acre tract at the northwest corner of Higgins and River Roads, officials said.  Read more

What do Versace, Christian Lacroix and Ralph Lauren have in common (besides presumably impressive walk-in closets)? They all have hotels—and they’re in good company. The Italian fashion houses of Missoni and Moschino will both open fashion/hospitality hybrids this year in Milan. Giorgio Armani recently announced ambitious plans to build branded hotels in New York, Dubai and London. And Versace will add a second resort to its empire this year in Dubai (naturally).  Read more

Investcorp has announced its acquisition of a group of hotels located in the US in a series of transactions worth $450 million.

The US Hotel Portfolio comprises nine hotels from the Marriott, InterContinental, Hilton and Starwood hotel groups, located in Illinois, Oklahoma, Florida, Texas and Virginia.

Eight of the hotels have been purchased and the ninth is scheduled to be completed in July.

Three hotels - the Marriott Schaumburg, the Crowne Plaza and the Holiday Inn Express - are located in Illinois.

Two hotels, the Holiday Inn Select and the Marriott Palm Beach, are located in Florida and a further two, the Doubletree and the Marriott Waterford, are located in Oklahoma.

The remaining two hotels, the Marriott Waterside and the Westin DFW, are located in Virginia and Texas respectively.

Combined, these nine hotels supply 2,828 rooms and 252,514sqft of meeting space.   Read more

Hotels are engaging in a technological arms race, piling on guest-room gizmos such as TV projectors and iPods outfitted with guests’ favorite songs. Increasingly, though, travelers such as Laura Gibbon are becoming casualties.

Gibbon, of Brighton, England, stayed earlier this month at Hotel Omm, a chic boutique hotel in Barcelona, Spain. Her children, ages 8 and 10, stayed in an adjacent room and wanted to leave their bathroom lights on overnight. But the light switches were so complicated - there was even a manual for them in the room, Gibbon says - it was impossible to discern how to keep the bathroom lights on and the room lights off at the same time. “If you turn one on, they all go on,” she says  Read more

Hilton Hotels Corporation (NYSE: HLT) has announced that its joint venture company with DLF plans to develop 10 hotel projects in India, under the full service Hilton brand, business hotel brand, Hilton Garden Inn and long stay brand, Homewood Suites by Hilton. The announcement marks the first stage of development for the Hilton-DLF joint venture company which will culminate in the opening of the first Hilton Garden Inn hotel in Saket in 2008.

Ian Carter, executive vice president and CEO Hilton International Operations was in Delhi this week and commented, “We are delighted with the substantial progress of our joint venture company with DLF in India. Having identified 20 key sites in India, we are moving quickly toward to realizing our goal of becoming a household name in India in the next 5 years, with the first 10 hotel projects underway. We are very confident in our partnership with DLF”.  Read more

Equity Inns Inc. has signed agreements to purchase five Marriott-branded hotels from Huntington Hotels for a total price of $114.2 million.

The properties include a 150-suite Residence Inn at the Los Angeles International Airport; a 95-suite Residence Inn and 137-suite SpringHill Suites in San Diego; and a 184-room Courtyard and 116-room Fairfield Inn & Suites in Dallas.  Read more

A growing number of city centre hotels are facing up to their environmental and social responsibilities, according to the April edition of greenhotelier. The magazine’s feature ‘City hotels - greening the urban jungle’ examines how city hotels are implementing green strategies at all levels of policy and management, from the initial design of the hotels to their day-to-day operations.  Read more

2007 will be a record year for Accor’s development in China with the company’s emphasis equally divided between new luxury/upmarket product and economy hotels.

Accor Asia Pacific Managing Director, Michael Issenberg, announced at the annual World of Accor trade expo in Hong Kong on Tuesday that the company was on schedule to launch a record 20 hotels in 2007, while a further 40 hotels were either under construction or in final phases of planning.

The 60 new hotels are spread across the country and include deluxe Sofitel and Grand Mercure hotels, mid-market Novotel and Mercure hotels and economy Ibis hotels.  Read more