Hotel wrap: Ovolo’s dog-friendly rooms, IHG’s new brand, Pan Pacific’s expansion + more

Hotel wrap: Ovolo’s dog-friendly rooms, IHG’s new brand, Pan Pacific’s expansion + more

New hotel brands, expansions, dog-friendly rooms, a ‘Kids Kava’ experience and a tuk-tuk bar – this week’s hotel wrap is much like a bag of liquorice allsorts.

Ovolo introduces dog-friendly rooms

Hotel collection Ovolo has announced it is introducing dog-friendly rooms to all its properties Australia and Hong Kong.

This new scheme, called V.I.Pooch, will offer the dog-friendly rooms for an additional cost of AU$80 per night.

Each room will be decked out with a plush dog bed, a no-mess eating and drinking mat, separate food and water bowls. Up to two furry friends are permitted per room.

While guests of Ovolo can enjoy a loot bag full of snacks, V.I.Pooches can enjoy a designer ‘Doggy Bag’ containing toys, healthy snacks and poop bags to bring along on walks, hikes and adventures all around town.

 

IHG reveals new all-suites brand

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) revealed its new all-suites brand, Atwell Suites, to thousands of IHG owners and operators at its Americas Investors & Leadership Conference in Las Vegas last week.

The new upper-midscale hotel brand will target an estimated $26 billion industry segment, and is aiming to be known for making guest stays more comfortable and memorable through thoughtfully designed and flexible spaces that enable easier transition between work and rest.

Atwell Suites prototype

IHG expects the Atwell Suites brand to be franchise-ready in the spring of 2019, with the first hotels beginning construction in 2020 and opening in 2021.

Initial development will be focused in the US market and the brand will be new-build led following a prototypical design.

 

Pan Pacific expands footprint to Europe, announces sustainable hotel in Singapore

Pan Pacific Hotels Group has announced it will debut its first Pan Pacific hotel in London in 2020.

Designed by international design firm Yabu Pushelberg, Pan Pacific London will offer 237 keys in the heart of London’s financial district at One Bishopsgate Plaza – a five-minute walk from Liverpool Street station.

Pan Pacific London

The group will also relaunch Pan Pacific Orchard in 2021 as its next sustainable hotel in Singapore.

Pan Pacific Orchard will feature three levels of experiential sky gardens with foliage that comprises three times its total land area and offer true resort living in the heart of urban Singapore.

Pan Pacific Orchard, Singapore

Located along the Orchard Road shopping and lifestyle district, Pan Pacific Orchard will be the group’s first zero-waste hotel, featuring a rainwater harvesting system, a recyclable water system, and a compactor that transforms food waste into compost, among other innovative elements.

 

Sofitel Sydney Wentworth partners with Archie Rose Distilling Co. to celebrate 2019 Archibald Prize

For the 15th consecutive year, Sofitel Sydney Wentworth is official hotel partner of the 2019 Archibald Prize, now on at the Art Gallery of NSW until 8 September 2019.

This year, Sofitel Sydney Wentworth has partnered with the award-winning Archie Rose Distilling Co. to celebrate the art event with art-inspired cocktails and the ever-popular Archibald High Tea.

Archie Rose Old Fashioned

Archie Rose Distilling Co. have curated two Archie cocktails available in Soiree Bar from now until 31 July 2019.

Priced from $75 per person including Dilmah Tea, the Archibald High Tea is available for a limited time at Sofitel Sydney Wentworth’s Soiree Bar.

The offer also includes one ticket to the Archibald Prize. The curated high tea is available in the Tea Lounge from now until 31 July 2019.

Those who need more excuses to indulge can extend their Archibald experience and stay in the luxurious comfort of a newly refurbished guest room with elegant French styling at Sofitel Sydney Wentworth.

The package includes accommodation in a Superior Room, French Café gourmand for two, two Archie Rose cocktails served in Soiree Bar, two tickets to the Archibald Prize 2019, and late check out at 12pm.

 

Vietnam’s The Anam unveils new spa villas

The Anam, a 12-hectare resort on Vietnam’s pristine Cam Ranh peninsula, has introduced spa villas replete with couples’ massage tables, a large private outdoor pool and panoramic ocean views.

The two new 267-square-metre villas are set on a hill and command expansive vistas of Long Beach and islands strewn offshore.

The Anam spa villa

In addition to their spa facilities, the villas also offer two spacious bedrooms with an ensuite bathroom, a kitchen, a large living room, and a private pool with a deck, BBQ grill and sunbeds.

To mark the opening of the two-bedroom spa villas, The Anam is offering guests staying at these villas one complimentary in-villa spa treatment per person per day, as well as free breakfast and airport transfers.

 

Nanuku Auberge Resort offers ‘Kids Kava’ experience

Fiji’s Nanuku Auberge Resort has extended its list of children’s cultural activities to include a new, makeshift ‘Kids Kava’ experience.

Incorporating all ancestral elements such as Fijian clothing and traditional dialogue, the Kids Kava experience is as authentic as a customary adult ceremony, using chocolate milk instead of Kava.

Kids Kava experience (Nanuku Auberge Resort)

Nanuku’s Lailai Adventure Club manager, Anna Ratucoki, said: “It’s the perfect addition to many Fijian activities we enjoy with the children, including traditional earth cooking, Meke dancing, flower basket weaving, evening torch lighting, storytelling, coconut husking, Lei making, Fijian language lessons, Fijian singing lessons, rice planting, bamboo raft building, plus many more.”

 

The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts commits to greener future with WWF partnership

The Fullerton Hotels and Resorts has announced it will sign a Plastic ACTion commitment (PACT) agreement with the World Wildlife Fund (WFF) this month to reduce a significant amount of single-use plastic by 2020.

All three Fullerton Hotels and Resorts’ properties – The Fullerton Hotel Singapore, The Fullerton Bay Hotel Singapore and the soon-to-open The Fullerton Hotel Sydney – aim to be “greener” by 2020 through their commitment to the following initiatives as part of the Plastic ACTion agreement with the WWF:

  • Completely rid the use of plastic bottles hotelwide by 2020, including hotel rooms and meeting rooms.
  • Replace all single-use plastic items and replace with biodegradable alternatives hotelwide by 2020.
  • Introduce 70 per cent more recycling bins and provide guests with eco-bins in their rooms.
  • Utilise centralised procurement to ensure all plastic item alternatives are validated and have supporting documentation.

 

Banyan Tree Samui opens cool tuk-tuk bar

Thailand’s Banyan Tree Samui resort has opened what might be the quirkiest, if not the cutest, bar in Thailand – a cocktail caravan remodelled from a classic 1960s tuk-tuk.

Banyan Tree Samui tuk-tuk bar

The MP4 Midget is virtually unseen on the streets of Thailand these days, but once upon a time, the “frogs” (as they were commonly nicknamed) were everywhere.

Thousands of these 12 HP 350cc three-wheelers were manufactured by Japan’s Daihatsu company and exported to Thailand from 1959 to form a fleet of taxis nationwide.

This particular frog was discovered last year in the southern Thai port town of Trang by Banyan Tree Samui’s head chef, Rainer Roersch, who said he sensed immediately that a novelty tuk-tuk would make for an ideal art installation on the Koh Samui beachfront.

Revived from retirement, and now dubbed the Froggy Sea Breeze Beach Bar, the emerald-green van today serves up cocktails, beers and spirits to Banyan Tree guests and non-guests alike in a quiet cove in the southeast of the island between the popular beaches of Chaweng and Lamai.

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