🔎 Trend of the day: the great rotation of hotel assets. Ruling families, private equity funds, indebted developers and billionaires weary of seasonality: owners everywhere are rebalancing their portfolios and crystallising value, while new buyers position themselves.

Elmira Amdiy, a former investment banker whose career took in Barclays Capital, Nomura and UBS, is the driving force behind London restaurant group Wild Group. She is now launching two projects on the French Riviera: a seven-bedroom private art villa at Hostellerie La Farandole, expected by the end of 2026, and Hôtel Les Chardons, a restored ensemble of historic buildings centred on wellness and longevity. Both projects take beyond London a portfolio valued at around €23 million (more than £20 million).

On 22 September 2026, Burkinabè Prime Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo launched construction of a 300-room, ground-plus-five sports hotel at the Étalons Multi-Sport Training Centre (COMET) in Ouaga 2000. Entirely publicly funded, the approximately €38.4m (XOF 25.2 billion) complex will bring accommodation, training and sports medicine for the national teams together on a single site.

MGallery Collection, Accor's boutique hotel collection, is coming to New York with the signing of Ink 48. The 222-room lifestyle hotel in Hell's Kitchen, overlooking the Hudson River, is owned by Leyad and asset-managed by Capstone Equities. Following a renovation programme, it will become the brand's flagship hotel in the United States in 2028, one of its top five markets worldwide.

dnata Travel Group, the travel division of aviation services provider dnata, signed 12 partnership agreements at Arabian Travel Market 2026 in Dubai. The deals cover hotel distribution, cruise, luxury hospitality, destinations and travel technology. The group is also bringing together two of its UK brands and investing in its Dubai experiences offering, combining external partnerships with the strengthening of its own businesses.

Scenic Group has announced a long-term partnership with Indian operator Assam Bengal Navigation (ABN). The agreement opens the Brahmaputra to its ultra-luxury cruises. The group aims to have two river ships in service in India by 2029-30, following the launch of Scenic Aura on the Hooghly in October 2027.

Father and son Burt and Alex Cabañas, who head Benchmark Resorts & Hotels and Pyramid Global Hospitality respectively, are launching Astound Ventures in the United States, a collaborative investment fund dedicated to hospitality. Based in The Woodlands, Texas, the vehicle aims to raise around €26 million from industry investors to finance solutions capable of improving hotels' net unit margin (NUM). The initiative reflects a clear ambition: to have hotel innovation funded by industry professionals themselves rather than by capital from outside the sector.

IHG Hotels & Resorts has signed a franchise agreement with Al Ameed Coffee to open a Noted Collection hotel in Amman, built entirely around Jordanian coffee culture. The 50-room property will sit on one of the capital's main gateway corridors, linking the city centre to Queen Alia International Airport. Announced on 21 September 2026, the signing reflects the rapid rise of IHG's brand-new premium brand and deepens the group's footprint in the Kingdom.

IHG Hotels & Resorts has been named Official Hotel Partner of the 2027 Men's Rugby World Cup, which will bring together 24 teams in Australia from 1 October to 13 November 2027. The agreement, announced jointly with World Rugby, draws on a network of more than 160 million IHG One Rewards loyalty members. It extends more than two decades of the British group's involvement with international rugby.

Mulpha Australia has completed the acquisition of a one-third stake in the Novotel Sydney Darling Harbour and the ibis Sydney Darling Harbour, alongside Sun Hung Kai & Co. Limited and Wentworth Capital. The deal, settled on 21 September 2026, covers two properties totalling 781 rooms, both of which remain under Accor's operational management. It forms part of a disciplined portfolio strategy the Australian group has been pursuing over recent months.

Deputy editor-in-chief of Le Figaro's Art de Vivre desk, Alyette Debray-Mauduy died accidentally in Paris on 21 September, aged 57. For several years she had covered hospitality and gastronomy news for the newspaper.

INTURSA, the hotel arm of Peruvian group Breca, has entrusted Vicente Flores Razuri with leadership of its Luxury & Lifestyle portfolio, comprising five properties under the Aloft, AC Hotels and The Luxury Collection brands in Lima, Paracas and the Sacred Valley. The appointment, effective since September 2026, caps a career of over twenty years built entirely within the group and its partner brands in Peru.