Business Travel Executive, December 2018

INDUSTRY NEWS 10Business Travel Executive DECEMBER 2018 People Associated Luxury Hotels International has made three additions to its global sales team Daniel Agüero Duplá has been named director of global sales in the UK Divya Saighal is director of sales for the south general sales organization GSO region and Christine Squitieri is director of sales for the Northeast GSO region Agüero Duplá most recently served as associate director of sales at Hotel Café Royal Saighal as director of housing at EM2 Sports and Squitieri as national sales manager for the Ocean Edge Resort Conference Center in Brewster MA Hard Rock Asia has named Ado Machida as president of Hard Rock Japan He comes to Hard Rock Japan from Navigators Global LLC a management consulting organization specializing in strategic government relations crisis management and business development Prior to that he was director of policy implementation for the Trump transition effort SACO the Serviced Apartment Company has named Patrick Michaels as director of sales for London responsible for developing relationships with corporate travel buyers and travel management and relocation companies He has 15 years experience with luxury hotels and serviced residences and represented Korman Communities in both the US and London Tramada Systems has named Joan England as director of business development based out of the companys North American headquarters in Dallas She brings over 30 years of experience in business travel management and travel technology to her position She had been president of C Suite Strategies a consultancy and has also worked at American Express and Carlson Wagonlit Travel Amadeus Travel Channels has appointed Angel Gallego as executive vice president of the corporations segment working on the companys Live Travel Space Gallego previously worked at Amadeus for 15 years at various times as Asia Pacific president as vice president of distribution in Western Europe the Middle East and Africa and as Latin America director Singapore Launches Los Angeles Service Singapore Airlines has begun nonstop flights from Los Angeles to Singapore the companys third US nonstop flight announcement in the past three weeks Newark to Singapore began Oct 12 and Seattle to Singapore started Nov 28 The service will use Airbus A350 900ULR aircraft on the 8763 mile route with a scheduled flight duration of 17 hours and 50 minutes The Los Angeles flights will feature a two class layout with 94 Premium Economy Class seats as well as 67 Business Class seats First Tri Branded Marriott Property Coming to Nashville The countrys first tri brand Marriott hotel will open in January 2019 in downtown Nashville The 470 room property will be home to a SpringHill Suites a Residence Inn and an AC Hotel It will have two separate lobbies one for AC Hotels guests and a shared lobby for SpringHill Suites and Residence Inn customers Guests of the three brands will share amenities including six food and beverage outlets a private outdoor rooftop pool and whirlpools and a resort style indoor outdoor pool bar They will also share more than 9000 square feet of flexible meeting space Hotels Underperform Projections in 2017 Ado Machida In 2017 the actual achieved levels of occupancy average daily rate total revenue and profits for US hotels fell short of their respective budgeted amounts according to CBRE Hotels Americas Researchs Trends in the Hotel Industry This marks the second consecutive year that owners and operators failed to meet their operating goals For 2017 hotels in the study sample budgeted for a 32 percent gain in total operating revenue However total revenue growth amounted to just 17 percent for the year The shortfall was primarily due to budget deficiencies in occupancy and ADR according to CBRE Profits at the hotels in the sample remained the same from 2016 to 2017 well short of the budgeted 5 percent growth rate BTE