Ritz-Carlton to pull down German hotel

A hotel that Ritz-Carlton had planned to open in Germany this year following extensive refurbishment will instead be demolished.

The Breidenbacher Hof in Düsseldorf was due to open in May following a 12-month renovation. It did not open.

Nigel Beckett, Ritz-Carlton's regional director of sales for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, said it remained closed because of "problems with the bricks and mortar".

It will be destroyed later this year and rebuilt. It is not expected to open until early 2003. The hotel is owned by the Pearl Investment Company of Kuwait.

General manager of the Breidenbacher Hof was Carsten Rath. In January this year he left his post as general manager of the UK's first Kempinski hotel, in London, partly in disappointment at the postponement of its opening.

Kempinski has since reversed its decision to open the hotel in Harrington Gardens, South Kensington (Caterer, 27 July, page 4).

Rath then moved to the Düsseldorf hotel.

When it was decided it would be destroyed, he took up the post of general manager of the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida.

He said: "It might seem that both London and Düsseldorf were unfortunate for me, but I have no negative feelings."

by Louise Bozec louise.bozec@rbi.co.uk

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 10-16 August 2000