MEDIA CENTRE - Events

Global Hospitality Summit, Dubai (Jan 2016)

Philip chaired the 4^th Global Hospitality Summit for the fourth year, this time in Dubai. There were many great speakers and the audience was wonderful. Here below some of Phil's "takeaway nuggets!".

• Starwood Hotels taught us the importance of Granny Proofing bedrooms and Laurent confirmed that "simplicity" is the new luxury.
• Operators from the UAE and India identified that emerging markets are tricky, but "emerging developers" are often much more difficult to deal with, even in mature locations such as Dubai and London.
• Accor predicted the eventual death of the desktop, given it is already seeing some 40% of all reservations being booked via mobiles and tablets, and is forecasting over 50% by the end of 2016. 
• NH Hotels set a new target for the industry in advising that they have been achieving ROIs on refurbishments of over 20% in all projects globally in the last 2-3 years.
• Zia from Svenska Hotels highlighted that 90% of existing hotel rooms in India are unbranded and that the whole country has a similar number of hotel rooms to London.
• Minor International expect to achieve branded residential premiums in mixed use schemes in Asia of around 10-25%, depending on location and circumstances.

Phil is looking forward to the 5^th Summit in 2017, location to be advised, and is looking forward to seeing you there.