ReardonSmith architects have revealed designs to build a luxury, subterranean hotel and spa at the Hersham Golf Club in Surrey. Plans for the hotel include 200 underground bedrooms located in three rings, each built around 800sq m garden courtyards. There will also be a luxury spa and restaurants and the total area of the hotel and new golf club will be approximately 16,500 sq m. Both hotel and spa have

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts has opened the Grand Hyatt Shenzhen, China. Part of the city's City Crossing complex, it sits alongside MixC - Shenzhen's largest shopping mall - plus an Olympic-sized skating rink and Park Lane Manor, said to be the most exclusive residential property in Shenzhen. The hotel occupies a 38-storey crested building, whose top seven glass-encased floors create an illuminated 'lantern' at nightfall, offering panoramic views of Shenzhen,

The winners of the annual European Hotel Design Awards have been announced at a ceremony in London. Malmaison Aberdeen received the Architecture of the Year award for a restoration project, while the Andel's Hotel in Lodz, Poland, was given the award for the best conversion of an existing building to a hotel use. The 278-room Andel's is part of the Summit Hotels & Resorts group and is located in a

A new 122-bedroom Best Western hotel in Basel, Switzerland - Best Western Hotel Stücki - has opened its doors to the public, which has been specifically designed to accommodate taller guests. The hotel, which was unveiled by Best Western Swiss Hotels in September, is fitted with beds at least 7ft (2.1m) long and 43 inches (109cm) wide to cater for tall people, while the average height of the rooms is

An application for a 430m euro (£387.4m) snow complex in Dundalk, Ireland, is to be submitted to Louth County Council. The Altitude project - proposed by local firm Innovative Leisure Systems and the UK-based Briton Engineering – will include a ski slope and nursery slopes; a 100-bedroom family hostel; a 110,000sq ft indoor concert arena; an 80,000sq ft leisure zone, which includes a cinema and bowling alley; and a 40,000sq

Ritz-Carlton is opening the world's tallest hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong, in 2010. The 1,574-foot (480-metre) high building will comprise around 300 bedrooms and suites, three restaurants, an ESPA spa and fitness centre, a rooftop swimming pool and meeting areas. Built on the top floors of the International Commerce Centre (ICC), the hotel will also feature 360-degree panoramic views of Victoria Harbor.

Raffles Hotels and Resorts is set to manage a new luxury hotel in the holy Islamic city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Located in the Abraj Al Bait Complex, the 198-bedroom Raffles Makkah Palace will include a cafe, an ice-creamery, a chocolate parlour and the Levantine Restaurant. An outdoor dining terrace will overlook the holiest site in Islam - the Masjid al-Haram (Grand Mosque). Health and fitness facilities will include

London-based restauranteurs, the Galvin Brothers, are set to launch their latest venture - Galvin La Chapelle and Café de Luxe - at the capital's Spital Square on 18 November. The new venture includes the Galvin La Chapelle restaurant, which is housed within the converted 19th century, Grade II-listed St Botolph's Hall dating back to the 19th century and boasting 30m (98.4ft)-high ceilings. Meanwhile, Café de Luxe will act as an

Restaurant operator D&D London has unveiled plans to develop its first hotel after securing a deal with property company Frogmore for a new 80-bedroom property in Moorgate, London. The 72,000sq ft (6,689sq m) boutique property will be designed by architects Allies and Morrison, while Conran and Partners - owned by D&D London's majority shareholder Sir Terence Conran - will design the hotel's interior. A ground floor bar and grill, a

Rockwell Group Europe has teamed up with Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide to design the W Paris-Opéra, W Hotels' first property in France. Diego Gronda, managing and creative director of RGe - the Madrid office of New York's Rockwell Group - is leading the design team, with the project scheduled to open on 1 February, 2011. Owned by Barcelona-based Meridia Capital, the hotel occupies an 1870s Haussman-era building situated across

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide has announced the opening of the first of its Aloft brand hotels in the Middle East, the Aloft Abu Dhabi. The new hotel is linked directly to the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center (ADNEC), a development consisting of premium office towers, luxury hotels and residences, restaurants, shopping and a marina. Featuring 408 loft-like rooms, the hotel's facilities include the re:mix communal lobby area and w

Plans by Tiger Developments for a £250m (US$409.2m, 276.7m euro) scheme in the centre of Edinburgh, which would have included a 17-storey, leaf-shaped Intercontinental Hotel and a Travelodge, have been turned down by the Scottish Government. Although passed by the city council in 2008, a public enquiry into the project - designed by Richard Murphy Architects and also featuring offices and retail space - found that the 17-storey hotel would

The 391-bedroom Trump SoHo New York hotel will open its doors in the city’s Lower Manhattan district on 1 February 2010. Designed by Handel Architects, the hotel will become the fifth site in the Trump Hotel Collection – a portfolio of luxury properties owned by US entrepreneur Donald Trump. Facilities at Trump SoHo New York will include a Spa at Trump-branded beauty spa, three high-end restaurants and more than 12,000sq

The Soaring Eagle Inn & Conference Centre in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, US is to be demolished and a new hotel and waterpark built in its place. The inn is owned by the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe, whose Migizi Economic Development Company announced the news. The three-star, 120-bedroom hotel will boast a bar and a restaurant that will overlook the existing golf course, as well as the 45,000sq ft indoor waterpark.

Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels has opened the ninth of its Peninsula-branded hotels, in Shanghai itself. The first new building on the city's river front Bund in more than 60 years, The Peninsula Shanghai occupies a prime site on the Huangpu River beside the former British Consulate Gardens and the Suzhou Creek. The hotel features 235 guest rooms and suites, with four themed suites - the Astor, Majestic, Palace and

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts has opened the Grand Hyatt Macau on the territory's Cotai Strip in the new City of Dreams development. The 791-guestroom hotel houses one of the largest event spaces in Macau and, with 15 individual function areas spanning more than 968,000sq ft (90,000sq m), Hyatt sees the hotel as becoming the leading MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) venue in the region. The 424 rooms and suites

A Pyongyang, North Korea, hotel with the nickname 'the hotel of doom' has seen building work recommence after a hiatus of 16 years. Designed by Baikdoosan Architects & Engineers, construction of the 300m (984ft)-tall Ryugyong Hotel began in 1987 and it should have been opened in 1989. At that time it could have been the tallest hotel in the world and its seventh largest skyscraper, with 3,000 rooms, seven revolving

The Four Seasons Hotel in Park Lane, London, has closed for a major refurbishment. ReardonSmith is leading the design team responsible for the revamp, which will see a two-storey extension of the north west elevation in order to provide a new executive suite. On the ground floor, a new porte cochere will also built and a new staircase introduced. The building’s double height atrium will be restored and include a

Bromley Council has approved plans to build a new hotel at the Biggin Hill Airport in Kent. Designed by EPR Architects, the four-star hotel will have 76 rooms, a number of meeting rooms and a brasserie style restaurant. The hotel will be separated into two elements – an air-side public areas and a quieter bedroom wing. The public areas will have terraces with uninterrupted views across the airfield to the

Concerns have been raised by the pub industry after the Design Council appointed a design team to develop a 'safer' pint glass in a bid to tackle the problem of glasses being used in violent assaults. Design Bridge has been tasked with drawing up proposals for safer drinking vessels that will appeal to both consumers and publicans as part of efforts to reduce the amount of injuries caused by glassware,

Plans to establish a new 495-bedroom 'pod' hotel at the Trocadero in London as part of an overhaul of the Grade II-listed property have been deferred by Westminster City Council. According to Criterion Capital's proposals, the hotel is likely to be operated by French company Accor and will occupy part of the second to seventh floors in the building, offering en-suite rooms with an average size of 12 to 17sq

Construction work has reportedly started on the 5-star Songjiang Hotel, a 'sunken hotel' being created in a 100m-deep water-filled quarry in Songjiang near Shanghai, China. Situated inside the Shanghai Sheshan National Holiday Resort area, the 21-floor hotel will have two underwater levels, 17 floors between the surface of the water and ground-level and two floors above ground-level. The underwater floors will house a restaurant and guestrooms facing an aquarium, while

The Dorchester Collection’s Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles, US, is to undergo a multi-million dollar renovation that will see the hotel shut from October this year till mid-2011. The project will include the renovation of all of the hotel’s 91 rooms and suites, its famous Champagne Bar and its restaurants and private dining rooms. Twelve new villas will also be built within the hotel’s grounds. A new spa is already

The latest hotel to form part of Sir Rocco Forte's portfolio of luxury accommodation has opened in Sicily. The £120m (US$203.3m, 141.1m euro) Verdura Golf & Spa Resort joins famous names such as St. Petersburg's Hotel Astoria, The Balmoral in Edinburgh, Geneva's Le Richemond, Brown's Hotel in London and the recently opened Augustine in Prague as the 13th hotel in the Rocco Forte Collection (RFC). Covering an area of 175

A topping-out ceremony has been held in London to mark the completion of external construction work on one of the capital's largest ever purpose-built hotels, the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge. The £350m property, which is scheduled to open in early 2010, is situated on land once occupied by the former Greater London Council building and will boast more than 1,000 bedrooms and 2,700sq m (29,062.6sq ft) of meeting space. London

An internal nine-storey atrium, designed in the style of a Fabergé egg, is at the heart of designs for the proposed new Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Moscow, Russia, which have been unveiled by architects HOK. The 250-room, five-star property, which will be situated on the city's Tverskaya Road, is to be housed in a renovated 19th century manor house and features an 'upside-down' design that will invite visitors to check-in

Eatonfield Group, the Cheshire-based development company, has been given the green light to transform a former NHS hospital in Lesmahagow, South Lanarkshire, into a country house hotel. South Lanarkshire Council has approved plans for the redevelopment of the 83-acre (33.6) Birkwood site, which was acquired by the company in June 2008. The site has been unoccupied since 2002. The Grade B-listed hospital building will be renovated into a new country