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• tony says:

  3 Mar3 March 06:46

  What brand was the Grand Central operating as pre-lockdown? I was surprised to see it was an IHG when I needed a hotel in Glasgow just over a year ago…

  • Chrisasaurus says:

    3 Mar3 March 07:01

    Principle, like wot it says in the article 🙂

  • Ryan says:

    3 Mar3 March 07:25

    I don’t ever recall it being called Principal Grand Central. It was sold via the IHG platform as simply Grand Central.

    • Rob says:

      3 Mar3 March 08:48

      It was unbranded because Principal hadn’t finished the work it wanted to do. IHG has added some extra bedrooms by scrapping meeting rooms since it bought it.

      • tony says:

        3 Mar3 March 08:58

        So i’m still confused. What brand was it under when IHG were selling rooms on their website at the end of 2019? I thought it was a voco back then…..

        • Aston100 says:

          3 Mar3 March 10:36

          Wotton House is also unbranded.

        • TGLoyalty says:

          3 Mar3 March 17:25

          As is QO in Amsterdam

        • Rob says:

          3 Mar3 March 21:25

          QO was signed as a Kimpton but IHG backtracked on opening the first two in Europe in the same city, so this ended up with this weird hybrid brand.

• Tariq says:

  3 Mar3 March 06:49

  Was only a couple of days ago when I was searching for hotels in Ibiza and the Hilton app showed no results – couldn’t remember what the hotel was called though and had assumed it had been reflagged. The Design Hotels option has disappeared from the Marriott app too, but now there are two new Marriott options including a W.

  I found the Madison in Washington DC to be a nice Hilton option when I stayed a couple of years ago, was good value on points too IIRC.

• G says:

  3 Mar3 March 07:17

  IHG has lost the intercontinental Carlton Cannes. Now trading as simply Carlton Cannes.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    3 Mar3 March 07:27

    Thought it was going through a major refurb as an IC

    Owned by Katara who own Amstel and a few other IC properties so that would be a big piece of news

    • TGLoyalty says:

      3 Mar3 March 08:21

      The main website still redirects you to IHG it’s just closed for refurbishment

  • Anna says:

    3 Mar3 March 09:10

    There are a couple of other properties in the area with the name Carlton so they would pop up on a general web search.
    I’m still wondering about The George, it’s now not taking point OR credit card free night bookings, previously it was allowing the latter.

• Nick says:

  3 Mar3 March 07:41

  The MHBiz Pro website appears to be broken with the creat new account link not working.

  Anyone else having any problems?

  • memesweeper says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:07

    Keep trying? just worked for me on a refresh — first time the capture was broken

  • J says:

    3 Mar3 March 11:33

    The layout is borked on iPhone so you can’t get to the form. Works better on iPad but then submitting the form goes nowhere. Gave up after a few attempts.

• kitten says:

  3 Mar3 March 08:02

  Are the deflags we’re seeing from IHG caused by similar issue to Sonesta where it appears IHG wasn’t paying minimum guaranteed amounts in their contract to the hotel – so it appears IHG lost over 100 hotels in the US? Or is it the other way round in that hotel was not paying required amounts to IHG or decided they didnt want to do so going forward.

  TBH sad to lose the chance to do an IC Ambassador night at the Carlton Cannes but having stayed there many years ago it never struck me as a good fit for a widespread chain like IHG.

  • TGLoyalty says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:25

    It hasn’t deflagged, yet.

    The owner of the iconic Carlton Hotel in Cannes, the Qatar-based Katara Hospitality, has taken the slow down caused by the pandemic and, since last September, closed the hotel for renovations until May 2023. It will reopen in time for the Cannes Film Festival.

    The U.S. $303 million renovations were planned 10 years ago in view of the decaying condition of the hotel, no longer fit for a five-star status. Because of the complete closure the works will take up to 26 months, instead of the 36 months required by a partial closure of its 343 rooms.

    But deflagging for a number of reasons on either side including but not limited to minimum revenue guarantees not being met (iHG and Marriott decided the extra payments weren’t worth what the sonesta properties bought to the brand), lack of investment from either party, just the end of a contract and losing out to another operator etc etc

    • Lady London says:

      3 Mar3 March 09:47

      Thanks for the info TG.
      It’s amazing what Qatar owns in Europe now…. things keep popping up it turns out they own.

      • TGLoyalty says:

        3 Mar3 March 10:26

        Katara owns some other top properties too.

        Savoy London
        JW Marriott London
        Raffles Paris
        The Pen Paris
        Excelsior Milan (Marriott luxury collection)
        Weston Rome
        Raffles Singapore

        To name but a few

        Other Qatari investment companies also own large stakes in Claridge’s, The Berkeley and The Connaught, IC Park Lane, IC le grand Paris, IC Barclay NYC

        I can’t see them dumping IC in Cannes.

  • Rob says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:44

    I doubt Hilton was giving revenue guarantees to Curio / Tapestry hotels. It is more likely that they felt the 5% or whatever they were paying Hilton was not justified by the extra business and the need to make reward nights available, upgrade HH elites etc.

• Ja says:

  3 Mar3 March 08:32

  I stayed at the Graham in DC. Loved it. Wasn’t long after Rob’s review. Good location. Is it now going to be an independent? Would stay again.

  • Rob says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:37

    Seems so, yes.

• marcw says:

  3 Mar3 March 08:34

  IIRC Gran Hotel Montesol Ibiza left Curio last summer.

  • Rob says:

    3 Mar3 March 08:37

    Very likely – no-one ever makes a song and dance when hotels leave.

    • TGLoyalty says:

      3 Mar3 March 08:40

      Perhaps a 33 rooms would have been better served as an autograph or luxury collection property than curio.

  • Mike says:

    3 Mar3 March 12:49

    Quick Google shows it on FlyerTalk on 1st October 2020. So HFP is only 5 months late in learning that.

• Anna says:

  3 Mar3 March 09:12

  According to Emyr the IC O2 is no longer taking Bon Vivant bookings so this might just be the start of the post-pandemic upheaval!

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