The News Review:

- Best Western expects to be the largest in Asia.
- Travelling with children in Phuket
- Carving out a career with fruits vegetables
- Rene Teuscher Appointed General Manager f rchard Hotel Singapore
- Tipping can trip up any globe trotter

Best Western expects to be the largest in Asia.
4Hoteliers – Sep 10, 2007
ver the next six months – Best Western will sign 17 new hotel contracts in China Japan Indonesia and Thailand among other countries and is on pace to have more than 200 properties by 2010. The chain’s Asia presence has expanded from just six hotels in 2001 to 106 today. "As the world’s largest hotel chain we bring scale reach and a billion-dollar reservations system to our international partners" said David Kong Best Western president and CE. The brand’s global sales and marketing initiatives quality assurance programs and Gold Crown Club International loyalty program make it popular with Asian developers and hoteliers he said. While most of the chain’s North American hotels are considered to be in the mid-market segment Best Western is positioning itself as a four-star chain in Asia.

Travelling with children in Phuket
TravelBite.co.uk – Sep 10, 2007
A room designed like a castle is perfect for an aspiring princess filled with turrets and draped in pink and purple whereas budding marine biologists will be fascinated by rooms with built-in aquariums. Two swimming pools are also on site one of which includes the biggest waterslide in Thailand along with a ‘Kids Paradise’ zone which has free ice cream all day long. Another good choice is the. Kids receive goody backpacks on arrival at the resort filled with all sorts of treats to keep them entertained throughout their time at the hotel. Resident elephants Yum Yum and Lilly are on hand to interact with visitors and alongside a full range of water-sports and out door activities there is also the Very Important Kids Club offering a myriad of activities.

Carving out a career with fruits vegetables
Houston Chronicle – Sep 10, 2007
com • Telephone: (281) 794-1681 Five years ago on a vacation in Cancun chef Vladimir Smirnov came face to face with his first carved fruit – and if it didn’t rock his world it did give it a modest jolt. He was in the buffet line at a resort hotel when he saw the face of an Indian carved into a watermelon. He turned to his wife Ksaniya. I like that” he told her… It was like having a crush on a girl he says. He couldn’t get it out of his mind. At last he ordered special knives from Thailand where fruit carving is a venerated centuries-old art and painstakingly plunged in at first on potatoes (the price was right) and dinged-up melons. “And I am practicing since. Every carving (is) step up step up step up. If you’ve attended an event catered by Smirnov — a party for AT&T employees a bat mitzvah — you may know his oeuvre. He includes carved fruit with every job.

Rene Teuscher Appointed General Manager f rchard Hotel Singapore
Hospitality Net – Hospitality Net (press release) – Sep 10, 2007
In Singapore Millennium & Copthorne International Limited manages the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel rchard Hotel M Hotel Copthorne King?s Hotel and Copthorne rchid Hotel. In other Asia-Pacific it manages The Heritage Hotel Manila in the Philippines Millennium Hotel Sirih Jakarta in Indonesia Copthorne rchid Hotel Penang and The Regent Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia Millennium Seoul Hilton in Korea Millennium Hongqiao Hotel Shanghai in China Millennium Sukhumvit Hotel Bangkok ? scheduled to open in last quarter of 2007 and Millennium Beijing – scheduled to open in 2008. Additionally Millennium & Copthorne International Ltd owns several other chain-managed hotels including the Grand Hyatt Taipei in Taiwan the Nikko Hotel and JW Marriott Hotel in Hong Kong and Millennium Hilton Bangkok in Thailand.

Tipping can trip up any globe trotter
USA Today – Sep 10, 2007
In China some tipping already occurs at big-city hotels but it “will still be a novelty” when the lympics begin next August says P. Forni author of the 2002 book Choosing Civility: The 25 Rules of Considerate Conduct… Frequent business traveler Robert Grimes who is the chairman of a consulting company says he angered a taxi driver in the United Kingdom when he rounded off the fare to the next pound. The cabbie thought the tip was too small and threw coins out the window at him. Though tipping is not generally practiced in Thailand Grimes says this month a taxi driver in Bangkok seemed insulted that he wanted change. The best way to avoid insulting or embarrassing a service worker is to ask a hotel concierge about local tipping customs when checking in abroad Forni and Staneff say. If no concierge is available it’s K to tactfully and graciously ask the worker or the head of the service whether tipping is acceptable.

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