Luxury hotels take collaborations with fashion designers to another level At Langham Place Mong Kok, big spenders have access to Thomas Pink's vintage Morgan, as part of the Elevated Experiences service. High fashion and luxury hotels have always been connected. But it was, of course, Versace who took this to the next level, opening his first branded hotel in 2000. He paved the way for others, such as Armani, Moschino, Ferragamo and Missoni. Last September, Versace's hotel chain announced plans for a new grand hotel in Macau, designed by Donatella Versace and billed to open in 2017. Sending an online purchase to a luxury hotel ... the concept was irresistible  DEAN WINTER, SWIRE HOTELS   The designer hotel trend has evolved in recent years. Big names such as Diane Von Furstenberg, Karl Lagerfeld, Barney Cheng, BAPE and Vivienne Tam - who worked with Hong Kong's Hotel Icon - started to design exclusive suites, rooms or uniforms for h...

The best may be over for Singapore's booming hotel market as tightening corporate budgets and bank job cuts leave more luxury rooms empty, crimping profits at firms such as CDL Hospitality Trusts. Singapore runs neck-and-neck with Hong Kong for the title of the world's busiest hotel market, with both boasting occupancy rates that exceeded 85 percent for 2011, according to the two cities' tourism boards. That's higher than in global tourist hot spots such as New York and London . Hong Kong's occupancy rate may pull ahead of Singapore's in 2013, largely because it has fewer new  hotels  slated to open. If Singapore's demand stays lukewarm next year, as many hotel operators expect, room rates and profits will slip. "We will see a slight drop in occupancy rate (in Singapore) mainly due to new supply that is about to come on board in 2013," said Jonas Ogren, Asia director at hotel data provider STR Global , based in Singapore. "In Hong Kong,...

Singapur ya cuenta con una sucursal del Banco Santander El Banco Santander ha abierto una sucursal en Singapur como parte de su estrategia de expansión en la zona de Asia Pacífico. La Autoridad Monetaria de Singapur le concedió el pasado mes la licencia para actuar como banco mayorista, lo que significa que sólo puede aceptar depósitos de más de 250.000 dólares singapurenses y está limitado a una única sucursal en el país. Previamente, el Banco Santander había estado operando a través de una oficina de representación. De esta manera el Banco Santander desarrollará servicios financieros para empresas así como servicios de tesorería, centrados principalmente en operaciones de financiación comercial, estructura de activos y capital y préstamos corporativos. Además, ofrecerá oportunidades de inversión en sus mercados principales, el europeo y el latinoamericano, a inversores locales. El Santander también cuenta con sucursales en Hong Kong, Shangai y Sidney, y oficinas de represent...