West Paces Hotel Group Castlemartyr Statement
(Draft # 8, 10/10/08)
ATLANTA, GA -- (20 October 2008) – The Owners of Castlemartyr Resort in County Cork, Ireland have agreed with Atlanta-based West Paces Hotel Group to end the management contract for the operation of the hotel by the Capella brand effective [19 November 2008]. The announcement was made by Bob Warman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, West Paces Hotel Group. With this move, the Capella brand will be removed from the restored manor house and accompanying hotel operation. The hotel featured 103 guestrooms, an 18-hole golf course and clubhouse, a spa and fitness center, and was named an "ultimate escape" by Robb Report and included on Condé Nast Traveller's coveted 2008 "Hot List".
At least it won't be an expensive rebranding. The Capella branding at the property was very, very light - no big signs or anything. And the restaurant menus were in those dodgy red Little Chef-style plastic folders with no branding on them. Probably get the whole thing done for £10k ....
It will interesting to see who picks up the pieces here - however hopeless the staff, the hardware was (generally) good quality and for a mid-market chain it would be decent flagship. I see an exciting opportunity for Macdonald to ruin another status property, along the lines of the Bath Spa Hotel!
At least it won't be an expensive rebranding. The Capella branding at the property was very, very light - no big signs or anything. And the restaurant menus were in those dodgy red Little Chef-style plastic folders with no branding on them. Probably get the whole thing done for £10k ....
It will interesting to see who picks up the pieces here - however hopeless the staff, the hardware was (generally) good quality and for a mid-market chain it would be decent flagship. I see an exciting opportunity for Macdonald to ruin another status property, along the lines of the Bath Spa Hotel!
Oh Lord, what a thought! I don't think the owner can afford another management group. Allegedly, he ran out of money after the first two months of opening and Capella propped up the hotel as long as it could. Then they had to fire a couple of dozen staff. Then they started discounting and allowing the guests in the much cheaper lodges to use the hotel facilities. Then the Irish economy hit rock bottom......sad story.
You wonder, though, about Capella, as this does not seem to be an isolated incident. Austrian friends say Schloss Velden is in real trouble, too. Maybe Capella is doing too many projects too quickly, which is what happened years ago at Ritz-Carlton when Horst Schulze was in charge there. They have so many projects on-line right now that I fear for all of them, as they cannot have a huge management team at this stage in their life. They do have some incredible sites, especially in Mexico, but without the right owners and the right investment and management consistency, I cannot see how they will move forward successfully.
I stayed at DUS about 4-5 months ago. It was excellent.
I agree, but what we are finding is that the Capellas start off amazingly, but once the opening team has departed, everything seems to fall on its face. I do hope Breidenbacher Hof is the exception to the rule, as it is a super hotel.
You wonder, though, about Capella, as this does not seem to be an isolated incident. Austrian friends say Schloss Velden is in real trouble, too. Maybe Capella is doing too many projects too quickly, which is what happened years ago at Ritz-Carlton when Horst Schulze was in charge there. They have so many projects on-line right now that I fear for all of them, as they cannot have a huge management team at this stage in their life. They do have some incredible sites, especially in Mexico, but without the right owners and the right investment and management consistency, I cannot see how they will move forward successfully.
I think you will find quite a number of new hotel/resort projects shelved worldwide. The downturn worldwide has hit occupancy level already. There was an interesting item on BBC World last week which predicted occupancy levels in luxury hotels in Asia and the U.S. in particular would fall further and room rates will soften. (As viewed from my suite at the FS Langkawi !)
A colleague has just returned from the Capella in DUS and is raving about it. In fact, he says it is so good that he will make more an effort to make our regular meetings in DUS rather than making excuses not to go!
A colleague has just returned from the Capella in DUS and is raving about it. In fact, he says it is so good that he will make more an effort to make our regular meetings in DUS rather than making excuses not to go!
Everyone I talk to is raving about Capella Dusseldorf, but then, when they first opened, everyone was raving about Capella Castlemartyr and Schloss Velden. Only time will tell, but I do hope they succeed. I aim to see the new Capella Sentosa in January, which opens March 2009. Opening GM is Michael Luible, who opened One&Only Reethi Rah, so we live in hope.
Does anyone have any experiences with the Dusseldorf hotel?
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Originally Posted by speedbird001
I stayed at DUS about 4-5 months ago. It was excellent.
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Originally Posted by vuittonsofstyle
I agree...
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Originally Posted by Raffles
A colleague has just returned from the Capella in DUS and is raving about it. In fact, he says it is so good that he will make more an effort to make our regular meetings in DUS rather than making excuses not to go!
