(2 of 3)
The scarcity and high cost of money in the U.S. have barely affected the overseas hotel surge. Both Hilton and Inter-Continental use local partners as sources of funds. Loew's followed that pattern in London by taking a lease on the Churchill, a luxurious hotel that opened last month. Sheraton is building a 1,200-room luxury hotel in Munich as part of an $865 million expansion program backed by the huge resources of its parent, International Telephone and Telegraph. Sheraton's 1,000-room hotel in Paris' Montparnasse, due to open in 1974, will be France's largest; the company is also erecting hotels in Stockholm and Buenos Aires. Jose Melia, Spain's largest hotel operator, is also building the 1,000-room Melia Castilla. in Madrid. Some governments follow Berlin's example by giving tax concessions on tourist construction. Results vary: 25 hotels are under way in Singapore while three are rising in Rio de Janeiro, including the circular Nacional, a 38-story tower.
While U.S. hotelmen build almost entirely for the luxury market abroad, they place less emphasis on ornate decor than on such modern conveniences as escalators and automatic elevators, TV sets in rooms and ice-cube machines in corridors. Construction costs overseas— $30,000 to $40,000 per room —are as high as in many U.S. cities, and few new U.S. hotels abroad match the grand luxe service of the best of the older foreign-owned hotels. But traveling Americans like U.S.-style hotels for their informality, speedy checkin, reliable phone service and fast meals. Europeans, who have been accustomed to more elegance, unction and haute cuisine, also seem to fancy the same American touches. Hilton's steakhouse in Paris to which beef is flown from the U.S. —is often so crowded with French patrons that hotel guests cannot get a table.
Georg Walterspiel, co-owner of Munich's famed old Vier Jahreszeiten, predicts that new U.S. hotels will create "murderous competition in the top class." To meet the American competition, five foreign airlines—BOAC, British European Airways, Lufthansa, Alitalia and Swissair—have teamed up with the London investment banking house of S.G. Warburg and four Eu~-ropean banks to form European Hotel Corp. The combine plans $50 million worth of hotels for the neglected low-price end of the market in London, Paris, Rome, Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich. The American challenge last month prompted a merger by two of Britain's hotel giants, Forte's and Trust Houses, into one of Europe's largest operations Complains Chairman Charles Forte: 'Too many people are dashing into the hotel business thinking it's easy money. They poach our top-class men and damage the industry."
Competition has become so fierce that some London hoteliers have taken to writing glowing references for deadbcats on their staffs. They have managed to unload many on American rivals. One well-recommended doorman hired by a U.S. hotel turned out to be a real liability: he spent his spare time slashing the tires of cars that he had just parked.
A Guide to the Space Race Abroad
Despite widespread building, good-quality hotel space is scarce and in some cities virtually unobtainable without early reservations. A summer sampler of tourist centers abroad
CITY AVAILABILITY PRICES* EUROPE & NEAR EAST