The FINANCIAL -- The
former Ramada London Heathrow hotel has been rebranded as the DoubleTree
by Hilton London Heathrow Airport , following the signing of a franchise
agreement between Focus Hotels and Hilton Worldwide.
Focus Hotels took over the management of the 200-bedroom hotel, along with sister property the Ramada Hotel Bristol, from the administrators of Ramada Jarvis after both properties went into administration in October 2011.
As Caterer and Hotelkeeper reported, total revenues for the Ramada London Heathrow hotel have since increased 29% during the first six months of 2012, year-on-year.
Chief executive of Focus Hotels, Peter Cashman, said that the exceptional turnaround in the performance of the hotel was a testimony to the company's expertise and management style.
"Although it had not been performing to expectation since opening three years ago, there has been no special investment in the property since we took over its management," he explained. "We simply repositioned the hotel to make it more competitive in the Heathrow Airport market, established a new on-site sales and yield team, led by locally-recruited yield and sales managers, and then provided ongoing close support and guidance to the hotel management team, who were then quickly able to transform the property's performance."
Cashman said that Focus Hotels, which offers management to both management and branded properties, is looking for further opportunities to take over the running of underperforming hotels. The company has achieved an average of 12% growth in like-for-like revenues, year-on-year, for the past three years, across their whole portfolio of 14 properties.
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