In August, we will be introducing Passport to Luxe, a private, LUXE Hotels Members Only web site providing timely information on upcoming promotions, deadline dates you don't want to miss and a complete overview of all that Luxe has to offer, including Consortia information, Leonardo Digital Library, and opportunities for individualized promotional campaigns.

Watch for the email announcing the grand opening of this exciting web site next month.

Noam Gafni, Director of Business Development and Sales

We are proud to introduce Noam Gafni, Director of Business Development and Sales. He will be responsible for east coast hotel development as well as selling all of our Luxe members to corporations on the east coast.
New York Office
14 E. 60th Street, Suite 400
New York, NY 10022
(P) 212-421-0444
(F) 212-421-7827
noam@luxehotels.com

Ricardo Lambertini, South American Sales Office

In Buenos Aires, Argentina we have a new extension to our Luxe Family, the Lambertini Family! Ricardo Lambertini will be leading the South American office. Ricardo will be focused on adding new member hotels throughout South America as well as driving business to our members from this important market.
South American Sales Office
Av. Santa Fe 830 Piso 1
C1059ABP Capital Federal
Buenos Aires, Argentina
(P) 54 11 45767851
ricardo.lambertini@luxehotels.com

We are anxious to put their expertise to work on behalf of Luxe and expect GREAT things to be happening in East Coast, USA, and South America!

John Gomes, National Sales Manager

It is with great pleasure we announce the appointment of John Gomes to the position of National Sales Manager. John is an 18 year veteran of the hotel industry whose background includes positions with the prestigious Westin St. Francis, Ritz-Carlton Group, Seascape Resort Monterey Bay in Northern California, and the Millennium Group.

John received the prestigious CMP (Certified Meeting Professional) certification in 2001 and has built very strong relationships with top clients including Charles Schwab, Sun Microsystems, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Deloitte & Touche, and Clorox. John will be spearheading the development of corporate and high-end groups for our hotel members.

The spring months were filled with a host of sales activities including trade shows and sales missions.

Phoenix was the first stop as Roselyn Cosentino, Luxe VP Sales & Marketing, Michael Potts, Director of Sales for Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, and Michelle Rubin, Sales Manager for the Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard, visited Signature Destinations, Systech Environmental Corp, AAA, Navigant Luxury Vacations/TQ3, Protravel, All World Travel, Helms Briscoe, Camelback Odyssey Travel, and Hagar's Journeys. Important relationships were forged with many of these top accounts that are already producing leads for Luxe properties.

April took Roselyn to the windy city where, accompanied by Keith Murphy, Director of Sales and Marketing for the Lenox Suites Hotel; and Kari Skulstad, Group Sales Manager of the Lenox Suites Hotel, she visited top high-end leisure accounts such as Beale Travel, Rex Travel Organization, Paul Klein Travel, N.E.W.S. Travel, Diners Fugasy Travel, and Carlson WagonLit Travel and mega-travel agencies focusing on corporate travel such as TQ3Navigant, Travel 100 Group, World Travel/BTI were visited. The volume and importance of accounts handled by these agencies is staggering. TQ3Navigant alone handles accounts such as Crate & Barrel, Clausen Miller, DSC Logistics, Fujisawa, Johnson Publishing, Spiegel, State Farm, Stepan Company, TTX, Zebra Technology, Banco Popular, and Piper Rudnick.

The trip was rounded out by attendance at AFFORDABLE MEETINGS in Chicago, where the Luxe team met and mingled with meeting planners from all over the country, especially those in the Midwestern US.

Roselyn next led a very successful sales mission to Dallas in April. She was joined on this trip by Valerie Mortimer, Director of Sales and Marketing for The Stoneleigh Hotel; Jared Montague, Director of Sales and Marketing for Grand Lodge Crested Butte; Ed Conway, General Manager of the Sedona Rouge Hotel & Spa; Michael Potts, Director of Sales for Morongo Casino Resort & Spa; Erik Richard, President and CEO of Lake San Marcos Resort and Country Club; and Thanos Economou, Sales Executive of the Astir Palace Vouliagmeni, Athens. The group received a very warm welcome in Dallas at The Stoneleigh Hotel were they stayed and were hosted to a lovely dinner at the hotel by Callan Hamann, General Manager and Valerie Mortimer.

Roselyn and the other hotel representatives visited a combination of corporate accounts and top travel agencies, including many Virtuoso agencies. Some of the accounts called on were World Travel/BTI, TQ3 (Carlson/WagonLit), Precision Travel, Travel Time Advisors, Strong Travel, Eagle Travel, Rudi Steel Travel, Sanders Travel, Alcatel (Carlson WagonLit), Affiliated Computer Services, and Navini Networks.

Lucia Sirotich-Lebon, Associate Director of Sales, traveled to Argentina in May and visited some of Buenos Aires' top tour and travel agencies such as Garcia Fernandez Turismo, City Service, Eurotur, Lambertini Reps, Biblos Travel, South American Tours, Sur Turismo, Carlson WagonLit, Organizacion Piamonte, Swan Turismo, and Lihue-Expeditions.

Luxe also participated with Michael Potts and Morongo Casino Resort & Spa in a very successful, fun-filled travel agent familiarization trip to Morongo. Participants included representatives from top regional travel agencies.

Lucia, John Gomes, Luxe's newly appointed National Sales Manager; Michael Potts, Director of Sales for Morongo Casino Resort & Spa; Todd Brown, Group Sales Manager for the Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard; and Nanci Winkley, Assistant Hotel General Manager of Lake San Marcos Resort and Country Club, participated in AFFORDABLE MEETINGS WEST in San Jose California, where many leads for group and corporate travel were obtained. Roselyn accompanied Anissa Burnett on sales calls in the San Jose area, visiting Luxury Travel, Peak Travel, and Kintetsu Travel.

Leilani Meimandi, Senior Sales Manager for the Luxe Hotel Sunset Boulevard; Wendy Krueger, Director of Sales for the Luxe Hotel Rodeo Drive; and Renee DeWalt, Corporate Sales Manager for Lake San Marcos Resort and Country Club joined Lucia at the KNBC TRAVEL AND LEISURE SHOW held at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

These shows and sales calls are extremely valuable and are available to every Luxe member hotel. Please let us know if you would like to participate in future events by contacting Lucia Sirotich-Lebon at lucia@luxehotels.com

Time is almost up! If you haven't signed up for the 2006 Consortia season, click here NOW:
Consortia Sign Up

This process only happens once a year. As many of you already know, joining the Consortium that are best equipped to provide the business that fits your property's guest profile will increase your hotels' visibility and bookings!

Consortia rates are accessible only to agencies who are members of the consortia and book via a special rate access code in the GDS. Your hotel will also be listed in their program directory. Increased visibility in the GDS means increased revenues because your hotel becomes a partner with the Consortium and thousands of affiliated independent travel agents around the world.

By forging these valuable partnerships with travel agencies, you are forming priceless relationships that will generate even more global exposure for your hotel.

For more information on how to take advantage of the Consortia season, please review our Consortia Information Page and contact Anja Eller at anja@luxehotels.com with any questions.

We are delighted to extend a very warm welcome to the Luxe family to the following outstanding hotels and resorts:

Anyone who watches television probably saw the story about Russell Crowe and the hotel "phone incident" in New York. As news of Mr. Crowe's apology reached Australia - Melbourne's leading boutique and Luxe member the Adelphi, took steps to ensure that such risks were eliminated by handing out "stress phones". If guests have a particularly stressful day and have no time for a massage, they are invited to throw the phones at whatever or who ever they like. The phones are made of soft rubber. Guests responded with fits of laughter!

Fiona Rose, VP Business Development for Luxe in Australia and New Zealand attended the Oztalk tradeshow held in Auckland, New Zealand. The show is held to promote Australian product to the New Zealand market.

Congratulations to the Sedona Rouge Hotel & Spa for being listed in Spa magazine's May/June issue as one of its five Best New Spas!

More congratulations are in order to Canyon Ranch in Lenox for again being chosen top destination spa in North America and the Caribbean by Conde Naste Traveler Magazine. Other honors went to Canyon Ranch Tucson, who placed third! Canyon Ranch Lenox also received recognition for its programs & facilities and treatments, cuisine, location & setting, rooms and the exceptional quality of the staff and service.

The Scarlet was featured on the cover of Conde Naste Traveler with a great photo and write-up on the cover "Hot List 2005" May issue. Congrats to The Scarlet!

Whitesands in Kenya, Africa was honored with the World Travel Awards' recognition for the best resort and golf hotel in Kenya. Our congratulations to Whitesands for receiving this top honor!

A new program will be introduced later this month that will offer rewards to planners who book groups with Luxe members hotels. If your hotel has meeting space, you will soon be receiving a call from John Gomes, Luxe National Sales Manager, as well as an email announcing this exciting new program. Be sure to have John include you in the global promotional campaign. You won't want to miss this opportunity!