Plans for the development of a new four-star hotel adjacent to the O2 Arena in Greenwich, South London, have received the green light from councillors. AEG Europe, the operator of the O2 Arena, submitted its plans in February for the 452-bedroom hotel, which will also include 100 serviced apartments overlooking the Thames. The Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands-designed hotel is to boast a ballroom and special events space; a restaurant; a 447sq

The independently-owned Mere Golf and Country Club near Knutsford in Cheshire will launch a £4m day spa early next year. The Spa at The Mere will boast seven treatment rooms, a large indoor pool, hammam, rasul, a hydrotherapy area, an aroma steamroom, a caldarium and a salt infusion room. The holistic treatments will be supplied by Carita and Aromatherapy Associates and packages include facials, massages, body wraps, hot stones, mud

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (MOHG) has signed an agreement to manage a new, luxury hotel currently under construction in Pudong, Shanghai. Scheduled to open in 2013, Mandarin Oriental Pudong will feature 362 guestrooms and 210 serviced apartments and will form part of 'Harbour City' a 25-hectare mixed use development in the heart of the Lujiazui Central Financial District. The hotel has been designed by architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia of Arquitectonica and

Leisure sector organisations have issued a mixed response to the chancellor's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) published yesterday (20 October). George Osborne announced a 25 per cent cut in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) budget, which will run over the course of the review period to 2014-15. Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt insisted it was a 'good settlement' and will help enable the government to "protect our sporting and

Conference and events business imago, a wholly owned subsidiary of Loughborough University, is preparing to re-open The Link Hotel clos to the university campus. The £1.5m project has resulted in the former Quality Hotel being completely refurbished. As part of the work, the interior of the hotel has been designed by former Loughborough University student James Deakin, who is currently brand manager for hotel interior specialist Furnotel. Kay England, chief

The iconic Shanghai Club Building has reopened as a Waldorf Astoria hotel following a comprehensive redevelopment of the property. The 269-bedroom Waldorf hotel commands the space that previously housed the prestigious Correspondent's Club, which in its heyday boasted bowling alleys, restaurants, an oyster bar, games rooms, barber's shop and two wine cellars. Its fabled Long Bar, extending 35 metres, was once the longest bar in the world. The neo-classical building

UK-based architect Dexter Moren Associates (DMA) is to begin work on the £100m, 350-bed Wadi Alswani luxury resort on the Libyan coast later this year. DMA was chosen for the project after attending a visit to the country organised by British Expertise - a private sector member organisation for British companies set up to assist UK companies to find work abroad. The Wadi Alswani Resort will provide 350 luxury rooms

Holland-based hotel operator citizenM is to launch its third property - and its first outside Amsterdam - on 9 September with the opening of a 198-bedroom site in Glasgow. Located on the corner of Hope and Renfrew Streets in the heart of the city, the group's new property has been developed in partnership with the Amsterdam-based architectural firm, concrete. Guests will enter the eight-storey citizenM Glasgow through a double-height, glazed

A 50,000sq ft (4,645sq m) sports, lifestyle and entertainment complex will be a feature of the new 369-room JW Marriott Marquis Miami when it opens in October. The facility - on the hotel's 19th and 20th floors - will include a 10,000sq ft (929sq m) multi-use arena which can convert into an NBA approved basketball court, a full- size tennis court or an event space. Also on offer will be

US-based luxury hotel operator Morgans Hotel Group has announced that it has had to procure additional funding to complete the development of its Mondrian hotel in SoHo, New York, US. Morgans has amended the debt financing on the property with its lender - subsidiaries of CapitalSource - to "provide for extensions" of the maturity date of the mortgage loan. In addition to the new funds, Morgan's partner in the joint

Shortlists for the 11 categories of the European Hotel Design Awards 2010 have been revealed. The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Tuesday 23rd November at the Lancaster hotel in London. The judging panel includes Simon Ford of InterContinental Hotels Group, Khirstie Myles of Marriott International, Andrew Onraet of Von Essen Hotels and Eugene Staal of Rezidor Hotel Group. This year's nominations include the Kinsterna Hotel &

One of China's most iconic hotels, the Peace Hotel on Shanghai's Bund, has reopened as the Fairmont Peace Hotel after a three-year redevelopment programme. The 11-storey hotel, which first opened on 1 August, 1929 and was the city's first high-rise, was widely known as the 'Number One mansion in the Far East', due to its prime location on the Bund and for its luxury. In its new guise, the property

Will Deague, founder of the Australia-based Art Series Hotels, has revealed details of the group's expansion plans. The group currently operates two hotels - The Cullen in Melbourne and The Olsen in South Yarra - and is currently preparing to open its third site, called The Blackman, in Melbourne next month (August 2010). Deague said that the group will open three more hotels in Melbourne over the next 12 months.

The Courtyard Charleston/Summerville in South Carolina, US is to be the first hotel built using Marriott International's 'green' hotel prototype. The development, in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), will dramatically accelerate the company's goal to have 300 LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) hotels by 2015. Marriott's prototype is the first in the hospitality industry to have been pre-approved by USGBC as part of its LEED

Luxury hotel operator Dorchester Collection is set to open a new country house hotel and eco-luxury spa, Coworth Park near Ascot, in September 2010. Set in 240 acres of Berkshire parkland, the 70-bedroom Coworth Park hotel is a restored Georgian Manor House and will be marketed as one of the UK's most environmentally-friendly hotels. Facilities include two restaurants, a fine-dining restaurant in the main house and a more informal restaurant

Work has begun on the £15m Hotel Indigo in Liverpool. The 151-bed, four-star hotel - which is partly being funded by a £10m package from the Co-operative Bank - is being built by Wigan-based contractor Denizen. The hotel will be owned and operated by north west development group Sanguine Hospitality. Nick Taplin, Sanguine's managing director, said: "Merseyside's tourism economy is worth over £1.4bn and rising. In spite of one of

The Heritage Wing of Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel, which was damaged in a terrorist attack in November 2008, is to re-open on 1 July. The structure has undergone a complete restoration and refurbishment programme and the hotel - owned by Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces - has been renamed The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai. Refurbishment work has taken place on the hotel's bars, restaurants and banqueting spaces,

The 82 room Arch London has opened in London's West End. The hotel is housed in a row of nine Georgian Grade II listed townhouses and features 82 rooms and suites over six floors. It also has a lounge and study, a cocktail bar, a restaurant and a library serving afternoon teas and martinis. The architecture was by Graham Seabrook Partnership, with interiors by RDD. The interiors mix modern technology

Plans to demolish Sunderland’s Rainton Meadows arena and build an £8.5m hotel, shopping and leisure development have been announced. The 2,000 capacity venue in Houghton le Spring, Sunderland, is owned by Roseberry Leisure, which according to the Sunderland Echo, now wants to knock it down in favour of a 120-bedroom hotel, a 90,000sq ft supermarket and a 3,000-seat arena at the Rainton Bridge Business Park. The firm has been working

Plans to transform a cinema and nightclub complex in Aberdeen into a hotel have been submitted. The proposals, drawn up by Glasgow-based Keppie Design, feature a new nine-storey hotel at the former site of the Chicago Rock and Jumpin’ Jaks properties. The Union Street building was also the former home of the Capitol Cinema. Keppie architect Jane Brewster said the plans could “bring life” back to the area.

Construction work on a new 73-bedroom base2stay hotel in Soho, London, is poised to get underway early next year after the project was given the green light by the local authority. Westminster City Council's planning committee approved plans for the five-storey development, which has been drawn up by London-based ADAM Architecture and incorporates a neo-classical design. base2stay - the hotel concept first unveiled in Kensington, London, in 2006 - was

Rezidor has reopened the former Hotel Ukraina in Moscow, USSR, as the Radisson Royal Hotel Moscow. The 206m-tall building is one of what are known as Josef Stalin's 'Seven Sisters' (Stalinskie Vysotki) skyscrapers, built between 1947 and 1953. Comprising a 34-story hotel building and two 11-storey apartment blocks, it stands on a bend in the Moscow River, across the water from the White House Parliament building. Following a three-year renovation,

The Armani Hotel Dubai in the UAE - the first hotel developed as a result of a collaboration between fashion designer Giorgio Armani SpA and Emaar Properties PJSC - has officially opened. Occupying floors concourse to eight and levels 38 and 39 within the the US$1.6bn (£1.05bn, €1.21bn) Burj Khalifa tower - the world's tallest building - the hotel offers 160 guest rooms and suites and eight restaurants. Leisure options

Electric Hotel - a new 'pop-up' temporary dance work designed to involve the audience in a voyeur role - is set to embark on a UK tour from 7 May. London's Sadler's Wells theatre and outdoor festival consortium Without Walls co-commissioned the performance, which will be taking place in a number of public open spaces. Debuting at Millennium Place in Norwich between 7-9 May, the Electric Hotel concept will see

English Heritage has pledged support for the £5.5bn renovation of London's Battersea Power Station, in a letter to Wandsworth Council. The news will be a welcome boost to Irish developers, Treasury Holdings, who, with their Rafael Viñoly-designed scheme, are the latest in a long line of firms that have tried to rejuvenate the site. The letter said: “As a long-standing 'Building at Risk', we welcome the plans for the reuse

Hotel operator Fairmont has revealed that London's Savoy Hotel will not reopen until late summer after a major renovation of the 120-year-old property hit further delays. A spokesperson for the company said it had yet to confirm a specific date for the relaunch, which was originally scheduled for May 2009 after the hotel closed in December 2007 to allow work to take place. Initial costs for the renovation project, which

Australia-based operator Art Series Hotels, unveiled its latest property on 10 March with the launch of the company's flagship Olsen Hotel in Melbourne, Australia. The AU$90m (£54.2m, €60.1m, US$82m) hotel, which was designed by Melbourne-based architects Rothelowman, is situated on the junction of Toorak Road and Daly Street in the suburb of South Yarra. Dedicated to Australian artist Dr John Olsen, the 16-storey property boasts 229 bedrooms, a glass-bottomed swimming