Dateline Monday 14th January 2025

Happy Monday morning greetings from the slightly sunny but still chilly but not as chilly as last week streets of London W10, I hope you and yours are all well.

Frosty and freezing or what ? I do accept that we need a few sub-zero days during the winter to kill of the bugs and stuff but a whole week of near enough zero degrees C is a bit too much, happily I do not live in Scotland they had -14 degrees of a few nights. Regular readers of this rant will know I am not a fan of the cold, I am a sunny sunshine person although in my hotel career I did live in Aberdeen for four years, I survived because electricity and gas were a lot cheaper than today, I just cranked up the thermostat to nuclear heat. 

At last poor old and dead President Jimmy Carter has been finally laid to rest, he was schlepped from pillar to post last week first Plains Georgia then Washington the back to Plains. The ceremony at the State Cathedral in Washington DC was done with pinpoint precision I wonder, as all the living Presidents filed into the Cathedral, took, their seats and watched the ceremony though “hummm that will be me one day”, except for Obama after all is only 63 years old. Bush and Clinton are 78 years old both have way to go.

OMG the horrific fires in Los Angeles, according to the BBC News there is an area of 50 square miles that has been totally destroyed, tragically16 people so far have been killed and a number are missing. It is difficult to understand the trauma of losing one’s home and being totally unable to do anything about it except to be told it has burned to the ground and nothing is left but ashes. Sure, houses can be rebuilt, property can be replaced but it is the memories that the places and building hold that cannot be replaced I guess new memoires can be made in the new houses built.  

Soap box time

Today is 466 days since Israeli and other nations’ citizens were on 7th October 2023 wrenched violently from their homes, streets, fields and places of leisure in Israel and taken to be held hostage as pawns of war held in squalid conditions in the Hamas terror tunnels in Gaza. Israeli babies, toddlers, children, teens, women, men, seniors and other nationalities are being held captive by a group of evil blood thirsty barbaric terrorists called Hamas.

Off the soap box now

That is about it from a David point of view for this week at least.

MM and Company news update

Florida

Clem, Nora and the tam at C Florida Hospitality DMC have told us that Palm House, Palm Beach’s first new hotel in four years, is now open. Located steps from the beach on Royal Palm Way, between Worth Avenue and the Royal Poinciana Plaza The three-story hotel has 58 guestrooms and 21 suites across a variety of room categories.

Guests enter from the grand porte cochere directly into the Palm Bar. The light-filled bar and lounge serves cocktails and gourmet snacks. Check-in happens discreetly, either at the desk or in the comfort of their room. To the right of the bar is Palm House Dining Room, whose menu fuses Japanese cuisine with Peruvian ingredients.

The view from Palm Bar is through an arched doorway, past the outdoor dining patio, to the centrepiece of the hotel: Sunset Pool Deck, complete with a sunken, heated pool and patio.

Paris and Amsterdam

Pascal and Enrica and the team at NACARA DMC France together with Alexandra and Andreas of DELTA DMC Amsterdam are delighted to tell you that Mandarin Oriental is set to expand in Europe after signing an option to take over existing hotels in Paris and Amsterdam from early 2025.

The company will take over the Hôtel Lutetia in Paris and the Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam Once the transaction is completed, Hôtel Lutetia will be rebranded as Mandarin Oriental Lutetia, Paris, while the Conservatorium Hotel which is in Amsterdam’s Museum Quarter, has 129 rooms and suites will undergo a “comprehensive upgrade” before being renamed as the Mandarin Oriental Conservatorium, Amsterdam in January 2026. The property will stay open throughout the renovation. Hôtel Lutetia will become Mandarin Oriental’s second property in the French capital alongside the existing Mandarin Oriental, Paris. The historic 184-room hotel on Paris’ Left Bank was founded in 1910 and reopened in 2018 following a major refurbishment.