December 6, 2023

News in brief: Malmaison, United and more

Malmaison will open its first boutique hotel in York on May 20. In the former Aviva insurance building, it will have 150 rooms and suites with views across York Minster and the famous City Walls, a rooftop skybar, and a Chez Mal Brasserie & Bar. A new extension to the rear of the building will feature Malmaison’s Work+Play facilities with meeting pods for hourly use or longer term co-working space, conference rooms and event space for up to 150 guests. Guests will also be able to enjoy the spa, Technogym, and on-site Starbucks with an outdoor terrace.

United Airlines has launched an Eco-Skies Alliance programme, working with more than a dozen leading global corporations to collectively contribute towards the purchase of approximately 3.4 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel this year. The airline claims this is enough to eliminate up to 31,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, or enough to fly passengers over 220 million miles.

Whitbread, the parent of Premier Inn, has struck a deal with energy giant ENGIE to deliver the UK hospitality sector’s biggest roll-out of high-powered electric charging points, starting in June. The group, which has over 800 hotels across the UK and more car park locations than the NCP, aims to install up to 1,000 GeniePoint Network rapid charging points, beginning with 600 committed over the next three years, as part of its Force for Good sustainability scheme.

Serviced apartment company SilverDoor has announced a new partnership agreement with TRIPBAM, the provider of hotel benchmarking, analytics and contract auditing capabilities to the corporate travel market. The agreement will give travel managers who currently use TRIPBAM’s rate re-shopping tool access to SilverDoor’s global serviced apartment inventory and will be able to identify travellers who have booked long-term stays and shift them to SilverDoor apartments.

Duetto has appointed Chris Crowley to its Executive Leadership team as SVP of Sales. He will lead the global sales organisation of the cloud-based revenue software provider, which currently operates offices in London, Germany, the U.S., Argentina and Singapore. He joins from consultancy Nina & Pinta where he was Partner. Before that Crowley was with HRS, BCD Travel and also served as President of the ACTE. He is also an ITM Board member.

EDITION Hotels has announced the opening of eight new properties, including sites in Rome, Madrid, Dubai, Reykjavik, Tampa, Doha, and a second property in Tokyo. This will bring its portfolio to 19 properties globally and further expansion is planned in 2022. The brand of “one-of-a-kind hotels” was conceived by Ian Schrager and Marriott International.

Good Travel Management has reported 13 new client wins across multiple industry sectors during the first three months of 2021, despite the pandemic uncertainty. It said the new accounts have a combined projected future spend of millions of pounds.

The Association of Serviced Apartment Providers (ASAP) has purchased ASAP NL, which it partnered with in October 2017. It said the move was a “natural progression towards becoming one brand, to aid the understanding and awareness of the growing sector, globally”.

Anvil Group has partnered with SAP Concur to integrate Anvil’s risk management platform, Riskmatics, and data from SAP Concur solutions through its itinerary API (Application Programming Interface). The integration delivers consolidated travel information from Concur Travel, Concur TripLink, TripIt from Concur, and Concur Request.  

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