Orient-Express Hotels

Financial Main Page | IGHRM Main Page
Disclaimer:

International Guild of Hospitality & Restaurant Managers

Orient-Express Hotels (OEH)

Orient-Express Hotels Ltd. (OEH) is a hotel and leisure group focused on the luxury end of the leisure market. The Company owns and/or operates 30 highly individual deluxe hotels worldwide, four restaurants (one of which is a local group of four outlets), six tourist trains and a river cruiseship. OEH acquires distinctive properties in areas of cultural, historic or recreational interest in order to provide luxury lifestyle experiences for the elite traveler. Hotels and restaurants represent the largest segment of OEH's business, contributing 84% of revenue in 2001. Tourist trains and cruises accounted for the remaining 16%. OEH's worldwide portfolio of hotels currently consists of 2,900 individual guest rooms and multiple-room suites, each known as a key. A majority of OEH's customers are leisure travelers, with approximately 55% of guests in 2001 originating from the United States , 32% from Europe and the remaining 13% from elsewhere in the world.

Owned Hotels

The Company's hotels in Italy include Hotel Cipriani and Palazzo Vendramin, Hotel Splendido and Splendido Mare, and Hotel Caruso. The Hotel Cipriani and Palazzo Vendramin, with 102 keys, in Venice were built for the most part in the 1950s and are located on three acres on Giudecca Island opposite the Piazza San Marco. The Hotel Splendido and Splendido Mare, which contains 84 keys, overlook picturesque Portofino harbor on the Italian Riviera . The Villa San Michele, with 45 keys, is located in Fiesole , a few minutes drive from Florence . Originally built as a monastery in the Fifteenth Century with a façade attributed to Michelangelo, it has views over the historic center of Florence and the Arno River Valley . OEH owns and is redeveloping the Hotel Caruso in Ravello on three hill-top acres overlooking the Amalfi coast near Naples . Parts of the property date back to the 11th century.

The Company's hotels in Portugal are Reid's Palace Hotel, Hotel Quinta do Lago and Lapa Palace Hotel. Reid's Palace Hotel, with 164 keys, is a hotel on the island of Madeira and has been substantially refurbished by OEH. The Hotel Quinta do Lago, with 141 keys, is located near Faro in the Algarve region, an area known as a European golf destination and more traditional summer holidays. OEH owns the Lapa Palace Hotel, containing 109 keys, in the embassy district of Lisbon, near the city center and overlooking the Tagus River . It opened as a luxury hotel in 1992 after extensive conversion and expansion, including the addition of conference facilities and underground car parking.

The Company's owned hotels in North America are the Windsor Court , Keswick Hall and Inn at Perry Cabin. The Windsor Court , with 324 keys, opened in 1984 and is located in the central business district of New Orleans near the French Quarter and the Mississippi riverfront. Facilities include three restaurants and lounges, a rooftop ballroom, several other banquet and meeting rooms, an outdoor swimming pool and a health club. The hotel's interior décor features a collection of historic European art and antique furniture. Keswick Hall, which contains 48 keys, is located in the rolling countryside of central Virginia, near Charlottesville and Monticello and is popular for weekend breaks and business meetings because of the surrounding area and the adjacent Keswick Club which features several tennis courts, an Olympic-sized swimming pool and an Arnold Palmer golf course. The Inn at Perry Cabin, which contains 41 keys, was built in 1812 as a country inn and is located in St. Michaels , Maryland on the eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay .

The Company also owns hotels in the Caribbean , France , Mexico , South America , Southern Africa , Australia , French Polynesia and the Mediterranean .

Hotel Management Interests

The Charleston Place has 442 keys and is located in the heart of historic Charleston , South Carolina , a destination for tourists, groups and business meetings. Opened in 1986, the hotel has two restaurants, banqueting and conference space, including a grand ballroom, a health club with swimming pool and tennis court, and 27 retail shops leased to third parties. OEH has a 19.9% ownership interest in the hotel, manages the property under a long-term contract, and receives interest on partnership loans, which it assumed in the original transaction.

The Monasterio Hotel, with 123 keys, is located in the ancient Inca capital of Cusco , a tourist destination in Peru . OEH has embarked on a program to upgrade and expand the property substantially and in that connection has a long-term lease on the adjoining Nazarenas convent, a total site of about three acres.

The Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, which contains 31 keys, is a hotel in the vicinity of the mountaintop Inca ruins. The joint venture also has a lease on a seven-acre site by the river at the foot of the ruins, close to the town where tourists arrive by train, which OEH plans to develop as a larger hotel, but this is unlikely to be open for several years given the time required for permits, design and construction.

Restaurants

OEH owns '21' Club, a restaurant in New York City . Originally a speakeasy in the 1920s, this restaurant is open to the public, occupies three brownstone buildings in midtown Manhattan and features gourmet American cuisine. It serves à la carte meals in the bar restaurant and also has a number of banqueting rooms used for functions. It was during Prohibition that '21's secret wine cellar was built, with its two-ton door operated by placing an 18-inch wire into a tiny key hole in a certain brick.

OEH also has a 49% interest in Harry's Bar, a private dining club in the Mayfair area of London . The majority partner manages the restaurant with assistance from OEH's Italian hotels. Its menu features gourmet Italian cuisine.

Tourist Trains and Cruises

OEH's principal European tourist trains, called the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, operate in two parts in a regularly scheduled overnight service between London and Venice and on short excursions in southern England . OEH owns 30 railway cars originally used on the historic Orient-Express and other famous European trains. All have been refurbished in original 1920s/1930s décor and meet modern safety standards. The services offered are a continuation of, and are marketed as, the Orient-Express trains of pre-World War II years. One train is based in Great Britain composed entirely of Pullman cars with a capacity for up to 250 passengers. The other on the Continent is made up of Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits et du Tourisme sleeping cars and day coaches with capacity for up to 180 passengers. They operate once or twice weekly principally between London and Venice from March to November each year via Paris , Zurich and Innsbruck on a scenic route through the Alps .

OEH's other luxury trains are the Eastern & Oriental Express in Southeast Asia, and the Great South Pacific Express in eastern Australia . Both are operated under exclusive management contracts with OEH having a 25% shareholding in the Eastern & Oriental Express owning company and a 10% shareholding in the Great South Pacific Express operating company.

OEH also owns and operates a deluxe river cruiseship on the Irrawaddy River in central Burma, or Myanmar, called the Road to Mandalay . The ship was a Rhine River cruiser built in 1964, which OEH bought and refurbished. It features 66 air-conditioned cabins with private bathrooms, spacious restaurants and lounge areas and a canopied sun deck with swimming pool. The ship travels between Mandalay and Pagan up to eight times each month and carries 126 passengers along the river and guided shore excursions to places of historic interest.

Disclaimer:
The data included within the Financial section is solely for information and does not construe a recommendation and/or endorsement by IGHRM or its members to invest funds with any of the companies listed. You are strongly advised to obtain professional advice with qualified individuals or corporations for any investments of funds.

IGHRM Main Page