IHG Announces First Hotel and Residences in Jakarta and Second Property in Bali
 

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) , the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms, has announced the signing of InterContinental Jakarta Pondok Indah Hotel & Residences, in partnership with PT Pondok Indah Hotel, a subsidiary of public listed PT Metropolitan Kentjana Tbk.

Scheduled to open in 2015, the 480-key property will be IHG's inaugural mixed-use development in Indonesia and will join a list of prestigious hotel and residence properties that the group has across the region, including InterContinental Asiana Saigon, InterContinental Dubai Festival City, InterContinental Doha The City, and the upcoming InterContinental Osaka in 2013.

Currently under construction, the InterContinental Jakarta Pondok Indah Hotel & Residences comprises approximately 300 hotel rooms and 180 serviced residences. Centrally located in the affluent Pondok Indah district of South Jakarta, which also adjoins the Pondok Indah Mall 2, the property will have convenient access to up-market shopping malls, growing commercial office towers, international schools, hospitals, a waterpark and world-class championship golf facilities. The neighbouring area will also welcome a convention and exhibition centre in the future.(...)

The brand will also see a second InterContinental open in Bali in the same year with the InterContinental Bali Canggu Resort

Source: HospitalityNet

The IHG wesite is no showing Crown Plaza , Edinbrugh as bookable from the June 2013, although no rooms can be booked! This is the old MacDonald Roxbrughe Hotel. A very nice building, but under MacDonald it did need some TLC.

CP Schwerin (Germany) obviously gone
 

CP Schwerin (Germany) is obviously already gone
German media report on disputes between hotel and IHG as well as hotel and building owner. Obviously (see eg. ahgz.de or local newspaper ostsee-zeitung.de or tv ndr.de, all three in german) hotel went already into administration. Due to legal issues, I will not further comment on this and not post a direct news link. Hotel seems to be taken over by Carathotels.
I can't remember, when the last new CP was opened in Germany, there must be only a handful left.

In Spring 2013, the former post office Postpalais will open as the new Crowne Plaza Berlin–Potsdamer Platz .
.

You are right. I forgot about that, was just thinking about still existing Wiesbaden, Heidelberg, Berlin City Centre and gone Cologne (now Barcélo), Frankfurt (now HI), Munich (downgraded to HI as well or already demolished).

Excellent news, very good location indeed. The HIs are not bad (only one as 4-star though), but really glad to see a CP there.

It shows Q2 opening, will try it once it's opened.

Yep, it is a very good location, stayed there under the old brand, but was dissapointed by the condition of the building and furnishings at the time.


The Indigo in the new town is very nice.

Holiday Inn Montpellier leaves IHG
 

The Holiday Inn Montpellier-Metropole has been sold to Oceania Hotels and de-flagged with immediate effect.

The hotel is now known as Oceania Montpellier: http://www.oceaniahotels.com/hotel-oceania-montpellier

The hotel was central and pleasant.

Fortunately, there is the new CP in town.

Unfortunately the CP Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is officially closed down now!
Unofficial news release is quoting the property will be demolish with immediate effect and something new will be build on the same piece of prime location land.

IHG Networks in KL will left with 1 IC and 1 HI in two distinct location. We definitely need a mid-range brand in KL i believe. Going to miss CP a lot as the rooms and lounge were great base on the price that we paid.

But excellent news for the IC Kuala Lumpur !

IHG to open eight hotels in KSA by 2018
 

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has indentified Saudi Arabia as one of two markets representing the most opportunity for its Middle East business to grow in 2013.

Eight hotels are signed and scheduled to open in Saudi Arabia by 2018, IHG India, Middle East and Africa COO Pascal Gauvin told Hotelier Middle East.

“There is significant opportunity across the Middle East region. Two markets in particular stand out. Firstly Saudi Arabia offers a big opportunity, primarily in terms of the size of the market and its growth,” said Gauvin.

“We are the largest international hotel company in Saudi Arabia, both by number of hotels (22) and by number of rooms (5000). Our pipeline already highlights some of the growth we can expect to see.

“It is our biggest pipeline in the region — we have eight hotels due to open in the next three to five years, representing 2,500 hotel rooms,” revealed Gauvin.
Planned openings in the Kingdom for 2013 include Holiday Inn Riyadh Meydan and Crowne Plaza Riyadh – ITCC.

In 2012, IHG signed two hotels in Saudi Arabia in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District, an InterContinental and a Hotel Indigo — the first hotel under this brand to be agreed for the region.

The second Middle East market Gauvin identified as having most growth potential over the year ahead was the UAE.

“Both regional and international travellers will continue to play a significant role in the growth of the tourism and hospitality industry in the UAE. In fact the number of foreign visitors arriving in the UAE is forecast to total nearly 19 million by 2022,” he said.

“Our upcoming pipeline reflects the ongoing diversification of the UAE, not just in terms of the brands available to consumers but also in terms of destination. Whilst Dubai and Abu Dhabi have traditionally been the hubs of the UAE, new opportunities are opening up. Ras Al Khaimah is a prime example of this and we signed Crowne Plaza Ras Al Khaimah Resort [last] year.”

The new RAK hotel is also set to be the first Crowne Plaza Resort in the UAE, Gauvin added.

Durango, CO, USA: Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites (Brand New) opening March 2, 2013
 

A brand-new Holiday Inn & Suites Durango Central is now accepting reservations for arrivals after March 02, 2013. The hotel is located at 21636 Highway 160 West, Durango, Colorado 81301, which I believe is next door to the Residence Inn Durango.

Here is a newspaper article about the brand-new HI:
Durango Herald:
Durango gets its first new hotels since 1997
Article Last Updated: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 7:51pm

In an earlier post (quoted below) I noted that the previous HI Durango had gone independent. Here is an old article from two years ago about that move:
Durango Herald:
Durango hotel drops Holiday Inn franchise name
Article Last Updated: Tuesday, January 25, 2011 7:51pm

Wow, I am shocked. I stayed there often, the rooms were beautiful and huge.

Our travel agent just told us a week ago that CP KL is on request only, but still bookable (for Jan/Feb). They even gave us a price, but I decided to send my staff to the IC.