The Axel Hotel in Barcelona has now reopened and, according to the hotel chain in Spain, has been “totally renovated”. The company maintains it worked hard during the renovation to retain the Axel concepts of “style, design, comfort and cosmopolitan atmosphere”. In this regard, and with clear references to the Modernist period, the hotel has retained the architectural style of its spectacular original facade.

This Barcelona hotel now boasts 105 rooms that mix “avant-garde style, warmth and elegance”. The rooms have been created with a view to developing a unique atmosphere of style and comfort. The interior design of all the rooms combines past and present through the integration of materials that evoke the decoration of the Modernist period with the latest design elements. All the rooms maximize the use of natural light, have air conditioning, soundproofing, king size beds, Plasma TV and Wi -Fi. The hotel also features four new suites with private terraces on the top floor where guests can enjoy the exceptional and privileged views of the city of Barcelona and the Mediterranean sea.

New areas have also been added designed to make the hotel “the most hetero-friendly, urban, trendy and fun meeting point in Barcelona”. The ‘Kitchen Restaurant’ and the new ‘Ground Bar’ both face onto the Eixample area of Barcelona and offer guests the chance to mix with the locals whilst enjoying excellent cuisine and the best cocktails all to the beat of fantastic music in a unique Axel environment. Guests can also relax and unwind from the frenetic pace of the city of Barcelona in the all new ‘Wellness Club 33′, a 500 square meter space complete with fitness and water areas, personal trainers and all types of treatments.

The Axel Hotel Barcelona was named “Best gay hotel in the world” by readers of U.S. travel magazine ‘The Out Traveler’ for its “exceptional location, spectacular design and cosmopolitan atmosphere”.

The popular tourist destination of Costa Adeje in the south of Tenerife experienced a 2.7 percent growth in the numbers of guests in the first half of this year when compared to the same period last year. According to the Councillor of Tourism for this part of Spain, Miguel Angel Santos, a total of 815,312 guests stayed in the area of Costsa Adeje in the period. He went on to explain that, in the whole tourism sector, the Tenerife hotels in this part of the island benefited most from the increase in tourist numbers and recorded a growth of 6.3 percent.

This changes the trend recorded in 2009 when the hotel sector in Tenerife and, more specifically, the five star hotels on the Costa Adeje were hardest hit by the drop in guest numbers due to the economic crisis. This year hotel occupancy among the four and five star hotels in Tenerife has increased by 10 percent and it is in this category that Costa Adeje has the largest number of hotel beds. Overall hotel occupancy levels were around 68 percent, an increase of 4.8 percent over the same period last year.

The Costa Adeje area of Tenerife receives around 35.2 percent of the total number of tourists who visit Tenerife. These guests mainly stay in hotels as only 11 percent of them choose to stay in apartment type accommodation.

In relation to the nationality of the guests who stayed in hotels in Tenerife in the first six months of 2010 the highest growth was experienced among guests from other parts of Spain whose numbers increased by 17 percent. “These visitors from other areas of Spain represent 21 per cent of all the guests we receive in Tenerife” declared Mr Santos. But the UK continues to provide the largest number of guests who visit the Costa Adeje part of  Tenerife with 34 percent of the total volume and a 1.7 percent growth in the first six months of 2010. Councillor Santos also stated that “the figures show that the German market has begun to recover and recorded growth of some 5.7 percent meaning it ranks third after Spain and the UK with 14% of the total volume”.

The hotel chain Iberostar Hotels & Resorts has just added a new hotel in the region of Malaga to its portfolio of hotels in Spain. The Iberostar Coral Beach hotel in Marbella will be the first hotel to be run by the company in the Malaga region.

Although Iberostar has already started to manage the hotel it is expected to close in mid-October to undergo a complete renovation of its facilities and services. The planned renovation will mean a complete revamp of all the rooms in the hotel, as well as the kitchen, reception areas, restaurants, gym and the outdoor areas such as the pool and the Beach Club. In spite of the scale of the undertaking the hotel management has stated that they are confident that the hotel will be ready for the start of the new season in April 2011.
The Iberostar Coral Beach is located right on the sea shore of the Costa del Sol in one of the most exclusive residential areas of Marbella. It is just a mile from Puerto Banus and just 45 minutes from Malaga International airport.

The hotel was built in a Mediterranean style with Arabic and Andalusian influences. There are 170 spacious rooms spread over four floors all with their own terrace and views of the sea, garden areas and pool. The portfolio of rooms consists of 136 double rooms, 10 junior suites, 10 suites and 14 single rooms. In addition, the facilities of this hotel include a spacious lobby where the reception is located, a restaurant, a Beach Club Bar, two swimming pools, a wellness centre, gym and three conference rooms with a capacity for 200 people.

In the new season the Iberostar Coral Beach hotel Marbella will be transformed into a “hotel for relaxation”, ideal for couples seeking tranquility and peace and quiet in a unique environment. The hotel will also offer the possibility of practising many different sports nearby including golf, water sports, paddle, tennis and horse riding.

According to the Hotel Association of Benidorm and the Costa Blanca (HOSBEC), hotels in Benidorm achieved occupancy levels of very near 90 percent during the month of August this year. This means, therefore, that the hotels in this part of Spain improved their occupancy rates by three percentage points more than was achieved in the same month last year.

More specifically, the information recorded in the report by HOSBEC shows occupancy rates of 89.7 percent in the four star hotels of the area, 88.9 percent in the three star hotels and 88.8 percent in the two star hotels. The report also shows that the majority of guests who stayed in hotels in Benidorm in the month of August came from the domestic market in Spain which accounted for 58.2 percent of the total. The rest of the guests staying in the hotels of Benidorm came mainly from various European countries. The great majority of foreign guests came from the UK with Brits accounting for some 27.4% of the total. 5.1% of guests who stayed in hotels in the area in August came from Portugal, 3.0% from Belgium and the remainder of visitors came mainly from the Netherlands, France and Germany. Tourists from Eastern European countries account for a mere 1% of the total.

The town of Denia on the Costa Blanca recorded very similar figures to those of Benidorm. Occupancy levels in the hotels there increased by 5 percent this August in relation to the previous year. The Tourism Department indicated that this exceeded their forecast for the month of August with hotels in the area recording 90.4 percent occupancy rates compared with the projected figure of 74%. Denia is located halfway between the international airport of Valencia in the north and Alicante in the south. It boasts a modern marina and a ferry terminal so from there visitors can easily travel to the nearby islands of Ibiza, Menorca, Mallorca and Formentera.

NH Hotels has become the first hotel chain in Spain to show faith in the possibilities of harnessing the power of the iPhone. The group has just made a new app available at the Apple Store that allows iPhone users to access a new information and reservations service. The application is very easy to use and will help users find hotels belonging to the group by using map technology as well as the ability to locate the closest hotels to a user’s current location through the GPS functionality included in the phone.

The new application also provides details and descriptions of all the hotels that the chain operates in over 25 countries and allows users to see hotel photographs, as well as manage reservations, access NH Hotel offers and promotions and register quickly and easily in the “NH World” loyalty programme.

NH Hotels are currently third in the European business hotels rankings. There are 394 hotels in total with 58,982 rooms throughout Europe, America and Africa. The chain currently has 35 new hotels already under construction which will bring an additional 6,000 new rooms when completed. NH Hotels offers the most advanced technologies as standard to provide guests with all the necessary entertainment and working facilities.

Restaurants are another priority for hotels in the group offering guests high quality cuisine at many locations. NH Hotels in conjunction with prestigious restaurant owners and chefs in Spain such as Ferran Adrià and Paco Roncero have created pioneering spaces in the hotels that combine food, entertainment and innovation that all go to ensure a pleasant stay in many of the chains hotels in Spain.