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

Plans for the multi-million pound Buxton Crescent Hotel and Thermal Spa development in Derbyshire have been put on hold while developers await the outcome of an archaeological survey. The results of the survey, together with the findings of geotechnical and hydrological tests into the composition of the ground on which the historic building is situated, are to be used to assess existing designs for the scheme before construction work can

Eclectic Clubs and Bars will open its re-designed Embargo nightclub on King's Road in London later this month, following a £750,000 refurbishment. The interior has been completely redesigned by Julian Taylor, and is described as "opulent with a hint of Cuban fusion", featuring exposed brick and gold floors and ceilings while an illuminated dance floor adds to the 1950s feel. The venue's capacity has also been increased to 300. Eclectic,

The respective owners of Villandry and Relish Restaurants, Jamie Barber and Ed Standring, have opened a new joint venture called Villandry Kitchen in High Holborn, London. The sister restaurant of Villandry in Great Portland Street and Bicester Village was designed by Sophie Douglas of Fusion, who was also responsible for the 2005 revamp of the Great Portland Street site. The restaurant will be an all-day café, bistro and bar, and

Daniel Thwaites, the Blackburn-based pub and hotel operator, has confirmed that it is considering offloading the Stafford Hotel in central London after receiving offers for the property. The company has owned the hotel, which is operated by its Shire Hotels subsidiary, since 1995. However, Shire Hotels' managing director Antony Spencer has now revealed that Savills has been dealing with a number of prospective buyers. Spencer said: "We have received a

Boris Johnson's latest initiative to improve the lives of Londoners aims to boost the number of volunteers in the capital. Johnson said: "Volunteering is good for individuals and great for London in tough economic times. By giving your time, whether a one-off few hours or a regular commitment, we can both help to make the capital a more civilised, pleasant place and reap the rewards of putting something back into

Proposals to convert the redundant 1930s Odeon cinema on Clerk Street, Edinburgh, into an arts hotel called ZED have now been referred to the Scottish Government. A planning application submitted by Duddingston House Properties to the City of Edinburgh Council for the conversion and part demolition of the grade B-listed art deco building was approved in October 2008 on the condition that the project be referred to Historic Scotland. However,

The new four-star Valamar Lacroma Resort, Conference and Spa has been unveiled by Special Hotels of the World (SHOTW) on the Babin Kuk peninsula near Dubrovnik, Croatia. Facilities at the 401-bedroom resort, which is to be part of the Valamar Hotels and Resorts Group, include one of the largest conference halls in Croatia, capable of accommodating 1,000 delegates, as well as two restaurants, four bars, a fitness centre and two

Work has begun on the US$112m (£70.5m, 80.2m euro) 40-storey Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur hotel and mixed-used development in Malaysia. One of the more notable features of the five-star hotel, which was designed by the Seattle office of Wimberly, Allison, Tong & Goo (WATG) architects, is that the lobby will be on the top floor as opposed to the ground floor. Guests will have to ride express lifts to the

The designs for Accor's new hotel in Lavasa, India, have been unveiled. The Accor Pullman Hotel and Convention Centre has been designed by Wimberly, Allison, Tong & Goo (WATG) architects and is expected to open in 2010. The 256-bedroom building will boast a 16m-high lobby, which will form the focal point for the hotel. Sculpted screens based on local patterns are intended to provide shading and cooling, while the interior

Aberdeen City Council has approved planning permissions for two hotel expansions. The five-star Marcliffe Hotel will be extended to include a further 228 bedrooms, a reception, a function area and a lounge, leisure and spa facilities and a new underground car park. The three-and-a-half storey, city centre Bells Hotel will also be extended to comprise ten stories featuring 217 bedrooms, a restaurant and a bar, as well as a basement

London-based EPR architects have submitted a detailed planning application to Bromley Council for a four-star hotel at the Biggin Hill Airport in south east London. EPR has provided designs for a 76-room hotel with a restaurant at the airport, which played a major role as an RAF base in the Battle Of Britain during WWII. Biggin Hill Airport managing director Peter Lonergan said the airport is in "desperate need of

Leisure entrepreneurs Mike Aikman and Jason Scott have opened their latest venture, called The Saint, in the Scottish capital. Located on St. Stephen Street in the centre of Edinburgh, The Saint has been launched as a late-night bar aiming to attract the more affluent revellers. Offering a number of different wines by the glass, the bar also has a large selection of beers from across the globe, along with wide

Redevelopment work on the Knock Castle hotel and spa in Crieff, Perthshire, has reached the second phase. The £1.5m (1.69m euro, US$2.26m) revamp's second phase included the creation of a dedicated spa treatment wing, housing treatment rooms as well as a relaxation area. The leisure area containing the swimming pool, spa pool and steam room area was also upgraded. Other improvements completed during the second phase included the addition of

Plans for the 100,000sq ft mixed-use regeneration of Greenwich Market in London, part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, have been submitted to the London Borough of Greenwich. Designed by Hopkins Architects, the scheme is part of the redevelopment of Greenwich Town Centre. Among plans for the 0.7-hectare (1.7-acre) site are a 100-bed boutique hotel, shops and studios under a newly covered market square. The site is owned by