Versace to build 15 luxury resorts

Published by Nathalie Guillerm on Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

As Nathalie said, Versace plans to build 15 luxury resorts. Indeed, from my point of view, it is an interesting challenge for this brand in order to reach some new clients and develop the Versace Company around the world more efficiently.

First of all, we can talk a little bit about the brand. Versace is an Italian clothier founded by Gianni Versace in 1978. After Gianni Versace was killed by Andrew Cunanan on July 15, 1997, his sister Donatella Versace, formerly vice-president, stepped in as creative director of the designing House and his older brother Santo Versace became CEO. Currently, Donatella Versace controls the majority of the company's assests until her daughter, Allegra, the sole-heiress of the Versace fortune, is prepared to take an active role.

The first hotel under the name of Palazzo Versave located on the famous Gold coast in Australia offers currently one the most service in the world with high quality of product inside the property. Palazzo Versace is the evolution of the Versace lifestyle, a place of Renaissance splendor, elegance and ease - in a location of breathtaking beauty. This full-service luxury resort, created in the spirit of beauty and opulence for which the Versace name is known, features extraordinary works of Italian marble, mosaic and glass. Every piece of furniture is unmistakably Versace - whether part of the signature Versace home collection or expressly designed for the hotel.

Due to the prestige of Versace and also the success of this first hotel, it was logical to extend this concept around the world. Like Bulgari or Armani, Versace has chosen to implement its brand as a reference in hotel industry to suggest a new king of travel and to live an unforgettable experience.


www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/061120_versace_to_build_15_luxury_resorts/

Shangri-La Appoints Didier Le Calvez Executive Vice President,Europe and North America And General Manger, Shangri-La Hotel, Palais d'Iena, Paris



Didier Le Calvez is the new Executive Vice President of Shangri-La (Europe & North America) and also the new General Manager of the future Shangri-La Hotel, Palais d'Iena, Paris, opening early 2009. Mr Le Calvez was since 1998 the General Manager of The Four Seasons George V and worked since 1988 for the Group Four Seasons.

Internationally renowned for his great work through the different properties where he worked, Didier Le Calvez joins today Shangri-La and will be responsible for leading Shangri-La's impending rapid expansion into the West. He will introduce and maintain Shangri-La's signature standards of Asian-style service excellence not only in Paris, but in new hotels opening over the next three years in London, Vancouver, Chicago, Miami and Las Vegas.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts have acquired the historic “Palais of Prince Roland Bonaparte” with plans to convert it to the Shangri-La Hotel, Paris in 2009, marking the group's European debut. The Bonaparte family mansion in Paris' 16th arrondissement will be converted into the capital's first luxury hotel fully owned and operated by an Asian hotel group.

Located at 10, avenue d'Iena, near the Trocadero, the building offers some of the city's finest views of the River Seine and the Eiffel Tower, which is a 15-minute, walk away. The Champs Elysées and Arc de Triomphe are also within walking distance. The mansion is located next to the Iena metro station and set amidst a mix of residences, businesses, museums and embassies.
Interiors will feature original grand staircase, fireplaces, parquet and marble flooring, seven-metre high doorways and ceilings, chandeliers, mirrors, ceiling frescoes, gold-leaf accents and molding enhanced with the Bonaparte insignia. Historic paintings and statuary will remain focal points. Accommodations in the seven-storey building will consist of 140 deluxe guestrooms and suites. Two restaurants will include a fine Chinese restaurant in addition to a rooftop terrace with a "reach out and touch" outlook on the Eiffel Tower and river. Also included will be an indoor swimming pool, health club, retail space and business lounge.

As a conclusion, Shangri-La has chosen to success with the implementation of its new hotel in Paris and especially with the arrival of Didier Le Calvez, an incredible hard worker and business man, who will position this new property as one of the most prestigious Palace in the world like the Four Seasons George V seven years ago.


www.hospitalitynet.org/news/154000320/4029997.html

Luxury Hotelier’s 2007 Top Ten CRM Resolutions



The author of this article is Madigan Pratt. He is the Managing Director of Madigan Pratt & Associates, Inc., an award-winning Hospitality Marketing and CRM Consulting firm. MP&A specializes in helping small-to-mid-size hotels acquire and retain profitable customers and optimize revenue.

In this article, he focuses his attention on the notion of CRM and its benefits with a special program for luxury hotelier’s 2007 with the ten CRM resolutions as follows:

* Completely embrace my customers

* Conduct a CRM Audit

* Capture and protect relevant customer data

* Consider the benefits of CRM, not just the out-of-pocket costs, when budgeting my program

* Deliver relevant content to customers and prospects

* Banish “Email Blast” from my Lexicon

* Measure effectiveness and allocate resources according to ROI

* Treat marketing more as a science than an art

* Keep Top Management Intimately Involved

* Bring in outside resources as needed

I am totally agree with Madigan Pratt, the CRM is today the key of success. Customer relationship management software is defined as business management and automation of the front-office divisions of an organization. CRM software is essentially meant to address the needs of Marketing, Sales & Distribution and Customer Service and Support divisions within an organization and allow the three to share data on prospects, customers, partners, competitors and employees. The purpose of CRM software is to manage the customer through the entire lifecycle, i.e. from prospect to qualified opportunity to order.

CRM software automates many of the needs of Marketing, Sales and Support users, such as Telephony, or the ability to conduct phone calls and manage call data, and tools to capture, share and manage automated alerts on lead data as it passes through the sales pipeline. CRM software provides a standard framework for pushing leads through a sales pipeline and managing it amongst many stakeholders in real time, in order to provide better customer relations and grow revenues by creating more sales, and losing less customers.

CRM software helps organizations achieve the goal of excellent customer relations by measuring key performance indicators collected by the CRM software about customer lifecycle behaviour to isolate those marketing campaigns that drove the most and best quality leads, by allowing people to manage more business with less effort, never losing data on customers to eliminate deals slipping through the cracks and by providing good customer support to maintain the relationship with the customer for years to come.


http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4029844.html

Hotel amenities that stick

Published by Géraud Desaulle on Wednesday, November 29th, 2006


As Géraud said in his comment, the article is about the importance of amenities inside hotels. Now, it is interesting to mention that the necessity to have amenities in a property is less important in an economic or social hotel than in a Top luxury hotel. Indeed, the creation of some items and signature products is very expensive and consequently depends of the structure of the hotel. It is the reason why in Palace you have lot of amenities like bathrobe, soaps & shampoos, slippers, candles…and not in a standard hotel.

For example, if you spend 750€ for one night at the Ritz Paris and 90€ at the Ibis Paris, the amenities will be of course different. When a property sends a room, it is not only the price for a bed but also and especially, the atmosphere, the service and the amenities inside the rooms.


http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/061128_hotel_amenities_that_stick//

Travel to Maldives

Published by Clemence Aulet on Thursday, November 9th, 2006

First of all, we have to mention the fact that Clemence in this article has completely right when she talks about the positive & negative points (Advantages Vs Disadvantages). However, from my point of view it will be better to develop more about Maldives with the impact of tourism, some economic examples with percentages, the rank or the image of this resort compare to other resorts on atolls and perhaps how Club Med continues to be one of the leaders in terms of infrastructures, services and activities in Maldives?