Locally, Jeffrey van Vorsselen, Langham Hospitality Group’s regional vice president of operations for the Pacific and managing director of The Langham Melbourne, provided an update on business in Australia and what he called the “long-awaited” refurbishment of The Langham, Melbourne, a majestic old-world property beside the Yarra River, well-located for Southbank, Melbourne’s convention centre and the city’s central grid.
“We’re having definitely the best winter that we’ve had post COVID and we’re seeing that in all of our hotels in Australia,” said van Vorsselen.
“Not just all of the people from Melbourne and Sydney that go up to the Gold Coast to get away from the winter weather…but actually a lot of international business still coming through.
“And certainly that is helped by concerts, it’s helped by sporting events but [also] very, very strong domestic leisure and domestic MICE.
“You know we really typically struggle a bit during winter in Australia in these big cities but this year it’s going to be a record.”
On the topic of refurbishment in Melbourne, van Vorsselen said the hotel brand had “pushed reset” on a redesign of the guest rooms.
“We’ve just found five new designers for our guest rooms so we’re going to actually go back and completely redo the guest room design. We’re going to complete that within this year,” he said, telling micenet later that the design was being revisited with a slightly larger budget in mind.
The hotel’s ballroom and other event spaces are also getting a revamp and “all going well” both the event spaces and guest room renovations should be complete by the end of 2026.
For New Zealand, van Vorsselen flagged that Cordis, Auckland would soon be featuring check-in kiosks, helping to move traffic in New Zealand’s largest hotel during peak periods.
Taking a broader view, Langham Hospitality Group’s vice president of marketing and communications, Shelley Tso, provided an update on a number of impressive projects in the pipeline for The Langham brand.
The nearest opening of four new properties is The Langham, Customs House in Bangkok, which will see the old combined with the new to create a 78-room hotel featuring a ballroom and two of The Langham’s signature experiences: another outpost of the three Michelin-star Cantonese restaurant T’ang Court and The Langham’s Chuan Spa. The Bangkok property is set to open next year.
There was also a sneak peek of the splendour of The Langham, Venice, which is set to open on Murano Island in the Italian city with 142 rooms in the first half of 2027.
“We are preserving the historic fresco in the ceiling that’s all the way from the 1600s,” said Tso of an exquisite looking lobby at the Venice property.
“We are working with a very renowned Italian architect, Matteo Thun and his team, to preserve the heritage of Italy’s golden era.”
Further ahead still, The Langham, Diriyah is scheduled to debut in Saudi Arabia in 2029 with 200 rooms, right next to a new Royal Opera House, on what is being positioned as the Champs-Élysées of Saudi Arabia, according to Tso. Diriyah as a destination is currently undergoing a major master-planned transformation.
“While we are not the one and only hotel in the Diriyah project, we definitely have the best location,” Tso said
Meanwhile The Langham, Kuala Lumpur, is expected to open in 2028 or 2029 with 198 rooms near the famous Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia’s capital.
