Northstar

www.travelweekly-asia.com 7 ITB ASIA Official Dailies | Travelport Smartpoint provides travel agencies with real-time access to 400 airlines, including the leading LCCs and 610,000 unique hotel properties. Its smart features and user-centric design enable agents to sell more, earn more and give their customers the right travel choices. Find out more at travelportsmartpoint.com or email team.apac@travelport.com We're redefining your selling experience smartpoint ad_244x152mm.indd 2 6/10/14 1:19:04 PM Next month marks a significant milestone for Dorsett Hospitality International. Its official launch party for Dorsett Shepherd's Bush will not only mark its first London hotel but also the first foray outside Asia for the Hong Kong-based hotel group. "Our mission has always been to bring four-star Asian hospitality to the west and this is just the beginning," said Philip Schaetz, senior vice president, sales and marketing. The group plans to have at least five properties in London. Schaetz is visibly enthusiastic about Dorsett Shepherd's Bush, which soft opened in June, saying it's the first Dorsett that's on brand. And that means a mix of Asia meets Britain – the interior design blends Asian-inspired elements with London playfulness and quirkiness. "You could also call it eccentric," he said. The fact that the hotel has a rich history of having been a theatre called Pavilion in the 1920s, a bingo DORSETT PLAYS UP HISTORY AND CHARACTER OF SHEPHERD BUSH hall and later a concert hall lends itself to playfulness. "Shepherd's Bush is BBC town and before TV came along, people came to watch the news in the Pavilion and during the war, it was a community hall where people came to get updates. "So we have played with the movie theme. The hotel is decorated with prints of celebrities. In the private dining Red Room, there is a commissioned portrait of Audrey Hepburn which is made of film screens. We wanted to bring the heritage of the building inside." The spa on level 8 is called Pavilion and its restaurant named Pictures. Beyond the hardware, Dorsett's priority is to deliver "a genuine approach that exists in five star but at four star prices". Rates for the 317-room hotel range around £230 a night. Dorsett's president and executive director Winnie Chiu bought the building sometime 2010 and as Schaetz tells it, "in 2013 when she saw the property next to it which is Walkabout, and which was THE Australian bar in London, she said, we'll have to do something about it, and two days later, she bought it." The plan is to convert the Walkabout bar into an extension, possibly residences, similar to its Dorsett Singapore model. "Shepherd's Bush is an up and coming area, it is bouncing back. Factors that are driving this include the appearance of the Westfield Mall, plus it's close to Heathrow, Hammersmith and Chiswick Park, and it's in an area full of theatres and walking distance to Notting Hill and Portobello. On how hard it is for an Asian brand to go global, Schaetz said, "It depends what you want to do. We want Asian travellers to follow us where we go and today, the Asian and Chinese consumers are travelling globally. "The advantage is we are playing in the four star market where there is no Asian brand doing this and we don't take a cookie cutter approach to our hotels. London marks group's first foray outside Asia Left: Dorsett Shepherds Bush; Top: Audrey Hepburn in the Red Room hospitality

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