Latest news: Elbow Beach deal; IHG adds Crete; BWH manages in Australia

Elbow Beach sold. The Loren Group has acquired the Elbow Beach Hotel and Fritholme Garden Residences in Bermuda. The resort has remained closed since early 2020 and The Loren Group plans to undertake a comprehensive redevelopment of the property. Detailed plans will be shared in the coming months and will deliver a mix of luxury real estate, an expansion of the Loren Hotel, restaurants, member and wellness facilities. The Loren Elbow Beach will participate in the brand’s Roots Initiative, a program designed to capture carbon through biodiverse reafforestation. This acquisition builds on The Loren Group’s growth with a portfolio that includes the Loren at Pink Beach in Bermuda, The Loren at Lady Bird Lake in Austin, and the upcoming Loren at Turtle Cove in Turks & Caicos set to open in 2026.

IHG adds Crete. IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed two properties on the island of Crete, Greece – the 39-room Chania Hotel Crete, Vignette Collection and the 76-room Kimpton La Mer Crete. Both properties, owned by Gelasakis Group, mark brand debuts in the country and are expected to open in 2025 and 2026 respectively. The hotels join IHG’s leading luxury and lifestyle portfolio, which has grown in recent years to six brands, over 530 open hotels and a pipeline of more than 370 properties. IHG has five open properties in Greece as well as two Six Senses resorts under development.

BWH management in Australia. BWH Hotels has announced the signing of its first hotel management agreement in Australia with the Cambridge Hotel Kununurra in Western Australia. This agreement marks BWH Hotels’ expansion into hotel management operations across the Australia and New Zealand region. Under the agreement, BWH Hotels assumes hotel management rights in May, with a complete rebrand to Best Western Cambridge Hotel Kununurra scheduled for completion in June. The hotel is taking a three-stage approach to its relaunch. Stage one sees the hotel open with 49 fully refurbished rooms; stage two presents an extension of the hotel’s facilities, including a conference center, wellness center and a pool bar; with the final third stage of the relaunch almost doubling the hotel’s capacity with an extra 48 new guest rooms by the end of 2026.

CapMan-Minor deal. CapMan Hotels II (CMH II), an open-ended core plus fund investing in Nordic hotel properties in capitals, growth cities, and select leisure destinations, has signed lease agreements with Minor Hotels and Citybox for two of its newly acquired hotels in Copenhagen. CMH II, as part of its acquisition of Midstar Fastigheter AB, will convert the Grand Joanne Hotel Copenhagen to an NH Hotel and the Best Western Plus Airport Hotel Copenhagen to a Citybox hotel. The 162-room Grand Joanne Hotel which opened its doors in 2023 after a full renovation and repositioning will be leased to Minor Hotels under its brand NH Hotels & Resorts. Citybox, a modern budget hotel operator from Norway, will assume the operation of the 240-room Best Western Plus Airport Hotel in Kastrup, supporting the current hotel team. The hotel will eventually undergo a full renovation and reopen as a Citybox hotel under a long-term lease.

Duetto buys HotStats. Revenue management software firm Duetto has acquired hotel profitability benchmarking tool HotStats for an undisclosed price. Duetto said the deal accelerates its ambition to become a more definitive revenue and profit operating system for the hotel industry, equipping hoteliers worldwide with a differentiated view of both their top-line revenue and operating performance across rooms, food & beverage and ancillary services.