Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) has announced the official opening of Hyatt’s 1,000th hotel worldwide, Alila Napa valley in St. Helena, Calif. Founder Jay Pritzker purchased the first Hyatt hotel in 1957 with a new vision for hospitality,

Marking the expansion of Hyatt’s luxury lifestyle Alila brand portfolio with the brand’s second property in the Americas, Alila Napa Valley offers guests crafted luxury, innovative design, and bespoke experiences in one of the world’s most famous wine regions. The 68-room adults-only restorative retreat is surrounded by the pristine Home Vineyards of the Beringer Estate and features an outdoor pool overlooking adjacent vineyards and distant mountains, a seasonally driven restaurant and bar with a local, sustainable menu and Spa Alila and Fitness Center with transformative, customized treatments.

“Hyatt’s thoughtful journey to 1,000 hotels has been grounded in listening, growing, and innovating along the way to meet guest, member, customer and owner needs,” said Jim Chu, Hyatt’s executive vice president of global franchising and development. “Today, we remain focused on expanding our global footprint and building our business based on where we can best extend care and make a positive impact on our guests and the communities in which we operate. With a strong pipeline of new openings and developments, Hyatt continues to offer differentiated experiences that will cater to the growing demand for leisure destinations our guests are seeking as they get back to travel.”

Accor brands and hotels has announced it achieved more than 1,500 notable awards and accolades throughout 2020. The Group’s brands and hotels made their way to top spots on some of the world’s most coveted lists and rating systems including Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards, Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards and Forbes Travel Guide Star Awards. 

On a Group level, Accor, ALL and several other corporate entities garnered over 45 honours ranging from 7 Freddie Awards for ALL, Hotel Group of the Year by Grand Hotels in China and one of the Best Big Companies to Work for by Fortune Magazine. 

Accor’s luxury and premium brands collected nearly 1,300 awards in several categories around the world.  Sofitel Legend earned the #14 spot on Travel + Leisure’s Top 25 Hotel Brands and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts’ Bee Sustainable program was named one of the Best Eco Initiatives in Hospitality by Departures Magazine.

Accor’s hotels received 8 five-star ratings on Forbes Travel Guide including triple threat Fairmont Grand Del Mar and The Savoy; Town & Country named Raffles Maldives Meradhoo and Raffles Europejski Warsaw in Best New Hotels of the World category and Conde Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards included Sofitel Legend Santa Clara Cartagena, Sofitel Bogota Victoria Regia and Raffles Istanbul among the 50 Best Hotels in the World.

Several midscale and economy hotels also received great praise from TripAdvisor’s 2020 Traveler’s Choice Awards where a number of Novotel and Mercure properties earned top spots including Mercure Yokusuka and Novotel Fujairah. U.S. News & World Travel Report honored Novotel Istanbul Bosphorus with Silver in Best Hotels of 2020 and The British Travel Awards named ibis the Best Eco Hotel Brand.

Given everything that has been happening over the last year, one beacon of light our industry has continued to carry is the many promises made by manufacturers to go green. The initiative to reduce carbon footprints, switch to sustainable and cleaner manufacturing processes, or offer refurbishment/repair of components shows how hard our sector are working hard to offer sustainability as standard.

As a digital publisher, we fully support these commitments. Not using print/paper and associated distribution chains means we already have a head start, but a year ago we took the conscious decision to pay more for the electricity we use, relying on renewable energy providers to run our service. We are now delighted to also announce that we will make further contributions to a carbon reduction programme to offset carbon emissions from our AWS hosting and social media presence.

Like all the designers and innovators in our industry, we want to make the world a better place for now and the future.

Diane Larner

Bathroom Review & Kitchens Review – Keeping your PR Social… and now carbon neutral!

Image by Muhammad Ridha from Pixabay

Wilsonart, the UK manufacturer of laminate worktops and home to surface brands Bushboard, Wetwall and Mermaid Panels, has expanded its Marketing team in the UK ahead of ambitious plans for growth and development in 2021.

The County Durham based company has appointed a Marketing Communications Manager, and Digital Marketing Specialist, to head up the bathroom arm of the business. The new team will oversee a trio of brands – Mermaid Panels, Wetwall and Bushboard’s Nuance range – that serve the bathroom surfaces industry, with the team driving a primary focus towards the Mermaid Panels brand for 2021.

“We have an exciting year ahead of us here at Wilsonart UK and are planning considerable measures to continue to elevate our brands, particularly in the bathroom sector”, says Neil Horton, Sales Director at Wilsonart UK.

“As part of this, we’re making a significant investment into our marketing drive with an expanding team to ensure we continue to offer specific tools and support to meet the varying needs of our different stakeholders including retailers, installers and the wider community”.

Wilsonart UK is pleased to welcome:

Helen Dennett, UK Marketing Communications Manager; Mermaid Panels, Wetwall and Bushboard Nuance

Helen (pictured top) brings a strong understanding of the industry and a wealth of key channel experience gained from her previous roles at Travis Perkins and Plumbase. As well as bringing integral strategy and campaign management skills to her role, Helen has an established rapport with suppliers in the merchanting sector and an in-depth understanding of the wants and needs of installers. Helen will be responsible for elevating the marketing communications around Wilsonart’s three bathroom brands, whilst continuing to focus on building key relationships with retail and merchant partners.

Sasha Betty, Digital Marketing Specialist

Sasha is delighted to join Wilsonart UK and return to her B2B marketing roots after several invaluable years working in the consumer field. Armed with an abundance of knowledge about end-consumer behaviour and customer journey optimisation, Sasha will focus on driving reach and awareness, positioning Wilsonart’s brands as the centre of the conversation in the digital space. New to the KBB industry, Sasha hopes to bring a fresh pair of eyes to the role, with plans to create authentic and innovative campaigns that will educate, excite, and inspire.

Related

The Kbsa has appointed Caroline Cooper, owner at Roman Bathrooms to the board of directors, with a role to act as bathroom retail ambassador.

Caroline is an award winning designer with 30 years’ experience in the bathroom industry.   Roman Bathrooms has an enviable reputation for outstanding design and unrivalled customer service.  Caroline and her daughter, also a director, run the business which has five members of staff and five installation teams.

Caroline said, “I am delighted to be given this opportunity to work with the Kbsa board and help bathroom retailers understand that the Kbsa can bring substantial benefits to their business. 

“I want to dispel the misconception that bathroom retailers don’t have a body to support and protect them, and show that the Kbsa can represent their interests, just as it does for kitchen retailers.”

Kbsa national chair Richard Hibbert said, “Caroline will be a great asset to the board.  Her experience will help us identify the challenges and issues that are specific to bathroom retailers, helping us refine our offer and bring the benefits of Kbsa membership to a wider audience.”