HOLLYWOOD, Calif.
Paramount Pictures is lending its name to a group of investors building as many
as 50 Hollywood- and California-themed luxury hotels worldwide.
“We will offer something unique,” Paramount Hotels & Resorts Chief
Executive Officer Thomas Van Vliet said in an interview in the hotel-management
company’s Dubai headquarters. “In addition to luxury and services, our hotels
will add Paramount entertainment and technology as well as elements of the
California lifestyle.”
Paramount Hotels, owned by a group of investors from the U.S.,
U.K., Russia
and the Middle East, hasn’t announced its first hotel opening.
The company is in talks about locations in Brazil, the U.K.,
the Caribbean, Russia, Qatar, Oman, South Africa
and Indonesia, Van Vliet said. The hotels will be opened in large cities and
tourist destinations and some will be part of theme parks, resorts or casinos.
Paramount’s logo, the mountain and 22 stars, has been seen by about 5 billion
people and that provides a powerful attraction, Van Vliet said.
“There is a lot of interest simply because of the attraction of Paramount,”
said Van Vliet, who was an executive at Accor SA (AC), Europe’s biggest
hotel company, for more than 20 years.
Each of Paramount’s hotels will feature mini-theaters for guests to use for
private screenings and a library of Paramount films will be available for them.
Van Vliet said he expects typical room rates to be around $250 to $350 a night.
“It’s not like we are trying to develop something that looks like Planet
Hollywood or Hard Rock Hotel,” Van Vliet said. “It will be a more subtle and
creative adaptation of the Hollywood element into the concept."
