Husband and wife team Kit and Tim Kemp of Firmdale Hotels reopen their first hotel on June 18, in time for the Olympics.

Back in 1985 the Kemp’s acquired their first hotel, the Dorset Square Hotel, which was going to be the start of their succesful Firmdale chain, which now has seven hotels in London and one ‘across the pond’ in New York City. All are members of marketing consortium Design Hotels™  In 2002 the Kemp’s sold the Dorset Square Hotel only to acquire it back again last year.

“Always in their heart” the hotel since then has gotten an overhaul by Kit, famous for her signature style which includes bold, contrasting, colours and textures and being filled with bespoke and one-off pieces and

original art collected from around the globe. The property itself is a beautiful Regency townhouse with 38 bedrooms, many of which look onto the leafy private garden square which was originally the site of Thomas Lord’s first cricket ground. Each bedroom is being individually designed to feature WiFi, flat widescreen TVs and iPod docks while bathrooms are of marble and oak, have freestanding showers and luxurious Miller Harris bath products. There will also feature a sumptuous guest drawing room with a fireplace and a fun all-day bar and restaurant.

The Dorset Square Hotel is situated in the north of Marylebone, just doorsteps away from the Regent’s Park and Marylebone Station. Marylebone is an affluent inner-city area of central London. The neighborhood has recently become one of London’s most urbane and exciting residential areas, with fashionable shops, cafés and restaurants lined up as well as world-class galleries, all within easy reach of London’s theatre-land and financial district.

Sheraton Hotels will be opening 20 new hotels, 12 in China alone, this year. The iconic brand will mark a milestone later this year with the opening of the nearly 4,000-room Sheraton Macao, which will be the largest Sheraton, as well as the largest Starwood hotel in the world. Offering three restaurants with poolside cafes, 140,000 square feet of meeting space and two outdoor swimming pools, Sheraton Macao is a highly anticipated addition to Cotai Strip, also known as the “Las Vegas of Asia.”

Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group and Edwardian Group Limited, announced they will rebrand all Radisson Edwardian Hotels, a portfolio of 13 hotels in the United Kingdom and Manchester, to the Radisson Blu brand by the second half of the year.

Lonrho plc, London signed a 10-year agreement with the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to manage and renovate 450-room Grand Hotel Kinshasa, located in the country’s capital.

The Grand Hotel Kinshasa, formerly the InterContinental Hotel, has 450 guestrooms, of which 238 are currently operational. The management agreement includes a commitment that the hotel will undergo a major refurbishment to re-open the closed 212 additional guestrooms and create new lounge, lobby and two new restaurants. The refurbishment is scheduled to be complete over the next twenty-four months. The hotel also includes a casino, nightclub, shopping mall, swimming pool and recreational facilities that will be reinstated. The hotel has a conference capacity for 2,000 people.

“The 450-room Grand Hotel Kinshasa is one of the finest hotel properties in Africa and we are delighted Lonrho Hotels has been chosen to manage the hotel and the refurbishment of the property. The hotel is an important asset for the government and its refurbishment of the hotel reflects the economic progress that is being seen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” said Geoffrey White, Lonrho Plc’s CEO.

Viceroy Hotel Group announced that The Jalousie Plantation in St Lucia and the Tides Zihuatanejo, Mexico, will be rebranded as Viceroys.

More Viceroy news: HNA Group Co., Haikou, China has purchased the 165-room Cassa Hotel and Residences, located in New York City, and signed an agreement for Viceroy Hotel Group to manage the property. The hotel, completed in 2010, is located on 45th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. The amount of the transaction has not been released. The previous owner, Waterscape Resort, New York City, filed for bankruptcy in April 2011.

Mandarin Oriental is to make its debut in Turkey, increasing its presence in Europe to seven countries. The Hong Kong-based group is to manage the Mandarin Oriental, Bodrum, which is expected to open in 2014 on the Bodrum peninsula, on Turkey’s Aegean coast. The resort will have 82 guest rooms, 20 suites and 214 private residences.

Swissotel Hotels & Resorts is to open its fourth property in Germany. Joining its sister hotels in Berlin, Bremen and Düsseldorf/Neuss, the 235 room Swissotel Dresden Am Schloss is due to open on 1 April 2012 opposite Dresden Castle, at the centre of the city’s medieval Old Town.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts has announced its first Sheraton Hotel in Madrid:  the 180-room Sheraton Madrid Mirasierra Hotel & Spa. The existing Mirasierra Suites Hotel is currently being adapted to Sheraton standards and is expected to be rebranded this spring.

U.K. trade publication Construction Enquirer reported that two years after stopping work due to a fiscal dispute with the property’s previous owner JJW Hotels & Resorts, Shepherd Construction has won a £33 million (US$52 million) contract to convert the former Berners Hotel, located in London’s Fitzrovia neighborhood, into a Marriott Edition to open in 2013. The Edition brand has had a rocky start with only two Edition-branded hotels opened so far in Istanbul and Honolulu, and the Honolulu hotel has since rebranded amid legal acrimony between the hotel’s owner and Marriott. However since then Marriott International Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, announced it would commit US$800 million to develop the Edition brand, an atypical move for the company that is primarily focused on managing hotels. The lifestyle brand was created with famed hotelier Ian Schrager.

The U.S. General Services Administration has chosen Trump Hotel Collection and Colony Capital’s proposal as the winning bid to develop the historic Old Post Office and Clock Tower in Washington, D.C. into a 250-room luxury hotel. The new hotel will be named Trump International Hotel, The Old Post Office, Washington, D.C. and include restaurants, a bar and lounge, banquet, ballroom and meeting facilities, a library, curated museum, indoor and outdoor gardens and spa facilities. Approved by the U.S. Congress in 1880 and completed in 1899, the massive Richardsonian Romanesque Revival edifice is located at Pennsylvania Avenue and 12^th Street, in downtown Washington.

And more DC hotel news: HEI Hotels & Resorts, Norwalk, Connecticut, announced on Wednesday that it bought the 154-room Hotel Palomar Arlington, which it rebranded as Le Meridien Arlington, for an undisclosed amount.

Melia’s contemporary city-centre Innside brand, which it acquired in 2007 has signed its first hotel in the UK. Construction is set to begin on the four-star, 208-bedroom Innside Manchester Hotel during the second half of 2012. The hotel will form part of the new multi-use First Street North development. Innside by Melia currently operates nine properties in Germany and one is set to open in Barcelona.

The Rezidor Hotel Group and Al Jassim Group have announced a 2015 opening for the Hotel Missoni Doha (Qatar). The luxury lifestyle hotel will be exclusively designed by Rosita Missoni and feature approximately 200 rooms and 70 serviced apartments. The hotel will be built along the C Ring Road in the heart of Doha, just 10 minutes from the International Airport. The extensive food and beverage outlets will comprise Hotel Missoni’s signature restaurant “Cucina” with a traditional yet creative Italian menu, a second all-day-dining restaurant, Bar Missoni, a pool bar and a lobby lounge. Guests will benefit from an 800 square meter Spa- and fitness area, an outdoor swimming pool, approximately 1,500 square meter conference- and banquet facilities including ball room, and a business centre. Hotels Missoni are operated in Edinburgh and in Kuwait; further properties are under development in Oman, Turkey, Brazil and Mauritius.

Rezidor also announced this week the rebranding of the 583-room Ramada Plaza Doha Hotel into a Radisson Blu Hotel in the third quarter of 2012.

Even more Qatar hotel news: the June, 2013 scheduled Nikki Beach Resort & Spa, The Pearl-Qatar has already won an AAA five-star diamond award as best design for a boutique beach resort in the Middle East. That is slightly odd for a hotel which even has opened yet. Designed by the award winning Singapore-based ECO ID Architects with interior design by Gatserelia Design, the Nikki Beach is a $45m boutique beachfront resort with 47-luxury villas and spa suites. The development will include Satine, a pan Asian specialty restaurant, NikkiSpa by Espa, Envy, the Ultra VIP lounge, a signature Nikki Beach Club with private plunge pools, a Tone Fitness Center and many other guest amenities.

HotelChatter reports that an offshoot of the Soho House Group will open in Chicago’s West Loop/Fulton Market area inside a vacant warehouse. Soho House would install about 50 rooms, a signature restaurant and a rooftop pool.

Our December 26 report on the Clark Hotel in Los Angeles suggesting that King & Grove was to be the new operator of New York’s Chelsea Hotel was right. This month comes the news that King & Grove are also taking over the management of the brand-new opened Hotel Williamsburg in Brooklyn, New York. The Chetrit Group, owner of the Clark Hotel and the Chelsea Hotel is close to an agreement buying the Hotel Williamsburg, currently operated by Graves Hospitality from Minneapolis.

The ill-fated Cipriani hotel project in Miami Beach finally is getting afoot. Only no longer under the Cipriani name, but under its original name, The Saxony. Argentine hip hotelier Alan Faena of Buenos Aires’ Faena Hotel fame is taking on the project. A condo tower by star architects Foster and Partners is being added and the Faena Saxony Hotel as it is called now is “coming soon” we see at the Faena website.

The Spanish mission styled 97-room Canary Hotel in Santa Barbara, now with The Leading Hotels of the World, is being sold to Kimpton Hotels for $40m.

After it was forced to shut down a decade ago, the 1875 Grand Hotel in Birmingham (UK) may once again rise to its iconic status as Birmingham’s premier hotel. Property company Hortons has revealed plans it will reopen the Grand as a five star, 152 room hotel  before Christmas 2013, if plans are approved by the Birmingham City Council.

In London, Edinburgh-based Apex Hotels will open its third London property on April 1 (no joke) on famous Fleet Street. The 184-room Apex Temple Court will be located in a 12th century building which Apex acquired from professional law association Honourable Society of the Inner Temple.

It is rumoured that Dubai-based Jumeirah Group is close to signing a management agreement with Turkish business woman and entrepreneur Demet Sabanci Centindogan for its first hotel in Turkey: the Pera Palace Hotel in Istanbul, which was acquired by Ms Çetindogan at the end of last year. The 115-room property is Turkey’s oldest hotel; it opened in 1895 to provide luxury accommodation to travellers after the city became the last stop on the legendary Orient Express. In April 2008, the hotel closed for a US$30 million restoration project and reopened in September 2010.

In Miami Beach Kimpton Hotels has (re)opened the Surfcomber Hotel. Kimpton brands itself as a boutique operator. With 186 rooms we think the Surfcomber is a bit to big to be boutique, but goodlooking it certainly is. With size comes a range of five-star facilities and a location right on the beach on South Beach’s Collins Avenue.

DLF to HNA. Indian real estate giant DLF is finalizing its sale of the Amanresorts group to China-based HNA Group. HNA is reported to be one of the five bidders for the 25-unit ultra-luxury group and is expected to pay $449 million for it. Aman is a household name in the boutique hotel operators market and considered a real trophy assett.

Scandic, the Nordic countries biggest hotel operator has been opening some very interesting hotels lately in Stockholm and Oslo. Maybe Stavanger, Norway, will be on the list to in 2013 when a second Scandic is open, a 210-room “architectural unique” property near the city centre.

For the W Jakarta we will have to wait untill 2015. Located in the Ciputra World Jakarta 2 mixed-use complex, the W Jakarta will feature the well-known W Hotels amenities. It will have 300 rooms and will be Starwood’s 12th W hotel in the Asia-Pacific region and 60th worldwide.

Hyatt announces the opening of the Hyatt Capital Gate Hotel, Abu Dhabi. Already declared by Guinness as the world’s leanest building with its  18 degree lean – more than four times that of the world-famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. The Hyatt Hotel occupies levels 18 (where the ‘twist’ starts) to 35. The hotel’s ‘sky lobby’ is suspended 80 metres above the ground on the 18th floor, offering panoramic views of the city. The spa and fitness centre on the 19th floor will include a swimming pool which cantilevers from the side of the building with 270- degree views of the surrounding horizon. Due to unique shape of the tower, each room on the floors above will have a different shape and orientation. There’s a restaurant serving Easter Mediterranean specialties, a lounge for drinks and snacks and on the ground floor a restaurant catering to the adjacent exhibition center offering a unique à la carte menu that revolves around small baked pastries with sweet or savory fillings. Shown here is the Capital Gate Tower (on the left), exhibition center and Aloft Hotel (on the right). See the Aloft profile for another image and nighttime angle of the Capital Gate Tower.

After the recent take-over by the Andre Balasz Hotel Group the Cooper Square Hotel in New York City’s East Village is now managed and part of Andre Balasz’ The Standard chain and renamed The Standard East Village – New York.

Rezidor announced the 2014 scheduled opening of the Missoni Hotel on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. It will be the 66th country where Rezidor is present. Missoni Hotels in the collabaration between the Italian fashion house and the Rezidor group, which operates several Carlson brands in the EMEA region under such names as Radisson Blu and Park Inn. Missoni Mauritius will have 80 suites and will be designed in the iconic, colourful style for which Missoni is known. Missoni Hotels in Edinburgh and Kuwait are already open. Oman, Brazil and Turkey are planned.

The Shelborne Hotel in Miami Beach renovated the first 50 of its 200 rooms. And the look mighty fine! When making reservations be sure to opt for one of these Premiere rooms.

Morgans Hotel Group announced its 7th hotel for the Mondrian brand. The 128 room is scheduled to open in 2014 in Istanbul’s, Turkey, old town near such sites as the Topkapi Palace, the Hagia Sophia, the Sultanahmet Mosque (or Blue Mosque), the Grand Bazaar and the 1,500 year-old Basilica Cistern. The hotel is expected to include original food and beverage options, function space, a spa renovated from an existing historic Turkish bath and additional facilities and amenities indicative of a lifestyle hotel. Already this year Morgans announced it has entered into hotel management agreements for Mondrian-branded hotels located in Doha (Qatar), Nassau (Bahamas), and London (UK).

Twenty Five Hours hotels will open its first hotel in Berlin in 2013. 25hours currently operates two hotels in Frankfurt and Hamburg each, one in Vienna and one is coming soon to Zurich. The 149 room project is located in the city centre west of Berlin, right in front of the famous Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church or Gedächtniskirche. It will enter into some stiff competition in a city already full of style and design hotels.

After taking over the management of the spectacular Yas Hotel in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in July, US-based Viceroy Hotels & Resorts has now rebranded the hotel as the Yas Viceroy Abu Dhabi. The 499-room hotel is the group’s first property in the Middle East.

Viceroy currently operates hotels in Santa Monica, Palm Springs, Snowmass, Miami and Anguilla. Further Viceroy Hotels are planned in Beverly Hills, Maldives and Bodrum (Turkey).

8Hotels announced it has entered into a long-term operating agreement for the 30-suite Regents Court Hotel in Potts Point, Sydney

Australia’s largest boutique hotel operator 8Hotels was chosen by the new owners to reinvigorate the hotel and the Regents Court brand with the mission to reclaim its title as Sydney’s preeminent boutique residence hotel.

8Hotels CEO Paul Fischmann commented; “As a service focused hotel management company, the opportunity to manage Regents Court and to re-engage its great history and rebuild its former reputation is a dream assignment. The magnificent building and residential amenity creates a truly unique accommodation experience and we look forward to welcoming guests for both overnight and longer term stays.”

Regents Court is superbly located in the heart of Potts Point where guests can enjoy stunning views of the city skyline and harbour from the roof top garden. This eclectic and cosmopolitan neighbourhood is home to many of Sydney’s finest cafés, restaurants and boutiques and is just a stone’s throw to Kings Cross nightlife and central to the CBD, Woolloomooloo and Darlinghurst.

Originally built as gentlemen’s chambers in 1926, the establishment was converted into a 30-room boutique hotel in 1990 by the MacMahon family. Well ahead of their time, they focused on enhancing the original character of the building and evoking the sense of being in an inner city apartment rather than a hotel suite. For almost twenty years, Regents Court was more home than hotel, to many guests from all walks of life all over the world. It was a fusion of old and new, each studio with muted colours, modern furniture classics, and artwork from many artists who stayed over the years including Tracey Moffatt, Barbie Kjar, John Wolseley and Allan Kaprow.

This brings to 15, the number of properties managed by 8Hotels and is the sixth Sydney-based property in the collection.

The story of the troubled Hotel Se San Diego now seems to have a happy ending, with Kimpton Hotels taking over and rebranding it to the Palomar brand.

The Palomar San Diego is Kimpton Hotels second property in San Diego, after the Hotel Solamar. The Se San Diego had a troubled reputation. A year ago it was accused of illegally operating and in december 2008 it changed its name from The Setai to the Se to avoid confusion with the hotel of the same name in Miami Beach, which it had no relation with.

Things at the Hotel Palomar San Diego seems unchanged, exept for the restaurant now called Saltbox, headed by Simon Dolinky, previously with the Palomar in Los Angeles.