Worldwide Briefing

The Small Luxury Hotels of the World consortium has picked up its first members in Delhi and Calcutta (both The Park hotels), and extended its coverage of France (with Château L'Ile and Le Prieure) and Japan (the Nikki Club).

LaSalle Hotel Properties, a new real estate investment trust, has bought the Camberley Plaza Sabal Park hotel near Tampa Airport, Florida, and leased it to an affiliate of Radisson Hotels. LaSalle will spend $1.3m (£784,000) converting it into the Radisson Hotel Tampa at Sabal Park.

Orient-Express Hotels has reopened the Hôtel de la Cité Carcassonne in the Languedoc region of south-west France. It has spent £2m on merging and upgrading to five-star standard the Hôtel de la Cité and adjacent Hôtel Dame Carcas, which it acquired in April 1997.

The Royal Garden Harbour View Hotel & Office, a 127-bedroom hotel and 10-storey office complex which opens in Haiphong, Vietnam, in July, is the first project outside Thailand for the Royal Garden Resorts Group of Thailand.

August sees the opening of Radisson SAS Hotels Worldwide's first property in Dublin. The Radisson SAS St Helen's Hotel Dublin is a listed property with 150 bedrooms.

Choice International says it will open 25 Mainstay Suites hotels in the USA by the end of the year. The chain is aimed at long-stay guests.