The former Rydges on Swanston, the incubator for 90% of Victoria’s deadly second COVID wave, will be refurbished and rebranded as Crowne Plaza Melbourne Carlton. New owner Ross Pelligra bought the property for $35 million in September, and says: “We plan to lift the game and give this property a full refurb and a fresh […]
Category: Insights
Australian short term rental booking growth leads the world
Leading short term property management platform Guesty reports that sector bookings in Australia grew faster than any other country during September. “In September, we saw a 5% increase in reservation volume worldwide compared to August,” the company said. “Australia had the biggest increase in reservation volume worldwide – up 25% month on month.” Guesty also revealed that […]
Veriu takes 16 years to become overnight success story
Opportunistic and casually ambitious – that’s one way to describe the team driving Veriu, a hotel brand that’s seemingly come from nowhere in the Australian marketplace, most recently winning the race to acquire the Punt Hill brand and leases on its 13 properties. But Veriu is anything but an upstart with roots stretching back to 2002 when […]
Tumbarumba proves NSW needs more rail trails
Tumbarumba – a sleepy timber, grape growing and grazing town in the bucolic Snowy Valleys of NSW – is undergoing a quiet tourism revolution. It’s all down to a new ‘rail trail’ that’s attracted more than 12,000 riders since a low-key opening during peak-COVID last April. Now other towns in the region want to join […]
David Hammon, CEO and Director, Hammons Holdings
David is currently CEO and a Director of Hammons Holdings, the company which owns Australia’s most visited privately owned tourism attraction, Scenic World. Under David’s leadership, Hammons Holdings was recently appointed to operate tourism activities on the Sydney Harbour Bridge following a rigorous tender process driven by the NSW StateGovernment. The appointment marks one of the greatest […]
125 Helloworld franchisees close shop, business raises $50m
Helloworld has revealed that 125 of its franchise travel agencies have closed their shops due to the impact of COVID over the past few months. The Australia and New Zealand retail chain – ASX code HLO – made the revelation when announcing a $50m equity raise of new fully paid shares, which was successfully completed […]
Paul Constantinou, Chairman and CEO, Quest Serviced Apartments
With more than 35 years in accommodation and hospitality, Quest Chairman Paul Constantinou is a respected industry leader. Paul founded Quest in 1988 and has built the business to be the largest serviced apartment group in Australasia. Today, Quest has more than 150 properties operating throughout Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. After gaining a scholarship […]
WebBeds world’s top bed bank post-COVID?
Webjet aims to transform its WebBeds accommodation distribution/saler business into the “#1 B2B player globally”, overtaking the long-term bed bank market leader HotelBeds, when the world finally emerges from the COVID crisis. But what are the metrics and how will Webjet make that happen? Neither of these key points was addressed by Melbourne-based company in its announcement. So let’s […]
Stayz on the way out as HomeAway takes centre stage
Holiday rental brand Stayz, one of Australia’s online travel pioneers, is being phased out and will ultimately be superseded by parent company HomeAway. Product migration to HomeAway has been under way for the past six months and should be finished by June. Meanwhile the American company has embarked on a digital campaign headlined ‘HomeAway – The New […]
Virgin Australia disappears from view after Bain Capital acquisition
Update 18.1.21: Virgin eyes ‘former glory after major c-suite appointments Challenging times for Virgin Australia and its new owners, Bain Capital, which paid $3.5 billion for the broke and battling airline several months ago, but has given the carrier no voice or profile during Australia’s peak summer holiday season. All the talk has been left to […]