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ANNOUNCING A BRAND NEW (AD)VENTURE

cape hotel

EXTREME HOTELS HERE WE COME!! Extreme Group; one of the world’s fastest growing youth brands, Istithmar Hotels; one of the world’s leading hotel investment and asset management firms, and Protea Hotels; Africa’s leading hotel operator are very pleased to announce they have signed HOT documents (heads of terms) and secured initial funding for up to £200 million for a new (Ad) Venture set to create and roll out a new ground-breaking and revolutionary hotel brand and chain called Extreme Hotels.

Our mission is to build Extreme Hotels into one of the world’s leading lifestyle based hotel brands, offering something new, different and exciting in the hotel sector. Delivering affordable, high value, great service, entertaining, active, cutting edge life-style based hotels located in the finest extreme sports and urban destinations around the world. Extreme Hotels are where the Extreme brand and everything it stands for meets hotels delivering great service, high quality innovative design, cutting edge technology, a revolutionary social bar concept and as you’d expect the best local advice, access to extreme sports facilities, packages & equipment for all our guests.

Revolutionizing what’s on offer in an almost stagnant hotel sector today, Extreme Hotels is set to become the ‘maverick’ of hotel brands. The creation of this new hotel is the inspired vision of Al Gosling, CEO of Extreme Group and founder of the Extreme Sports Channel. “We have formed this unique and powerful partnership, with two of the hotel industries ‘big guns’ and innovators to deliver an international forward-looking proposition that promises to transform what’s presently on offer in the hotel industry today,” said Gosling. The deal will be concluded for this exciting joint venture once definitive agreements are signed, which is expected to occur in 60-90 days.

 

So You will never guess what but the first EXTREME HOTEL IS ALREADY OPEN.
extreme cape

The all new 130 bedroom Extreme Hotel in Cape Town South Africa, burst onto the scene on the 1st of November 2006, opening its doors to international and domestic travellers alike. With a collection of things on offer to give that all important point of differentiation from being the only hotel in the world with a fully functional 5 star climbing wall up the outside of Hotel to the best collection of Extreme sports and adventures on offer anywhere in town. Strategically located in the city centre with the awesome Table Mountain as a backdrop, the hotel certainly delivers something new and the ultimate adventure platform for even the most demanding guest. “We had the idea for Extreme Hotels in January this year and i have never known a new business come together so fast, its just incredible to be launching our first Extreme Hotel. I could not have picked a better location in the world to launch our new hotel brand, not only is this one of the world’s leading extreme sports destinations, but is perfectly positioned to ride the wave of attention that South Africa is attracting,” outlines Al Gosling, CEO of the Extreme Group and founder of the Extreme Sports Channel.

The innovative design of each individual hotel is combined with the most up-to-date technology, a great new burger restaurant format and a progressive social bar concept is designed to make this a place where both guests and locals really want to hang out.

No more china plates and tea cups. Extreme Hotels caters for people who are looking for something away from the norm. These people live, love and revel in the lifestyle that surrounds the sports. This means good food, great technical facilities and equipment all delivered with high value for money and stylish settings. We’re talking about the thrills and spills of extreme sports being trapped and released into the world of hotels. It’s time to push the limits.

Recognising that the world presently holds more than 165 million extreme sports participants worldwide, and that extreme sports are the fastest growing market sector in the sports arena, Extreme Hotels has a clear market positioning and target audience craving this product. The locations will be focused around three main environments, namely surf, snow and street where extreme sports are part of the culture such as Cape Town, Rio and Sydney. “Geographical positioning is key to this brand to ensure its rapid growth,” adds Gosling.

The partners or ‘heavy weights’ have ensured three key elements: a killer brand and captive target market, sound financial backing and of course the big daddy in hotel operations with international experience. Istithmar Hotels will facilitate the funding for this new (ad) venture and will add their experience and expertise in sourcing the most funky, sound and progressive locations and opportunities while adding their own flava’ to drive this home. Ultimately, Istithmar Hotels will manage the assets and thus contribute to the fine tuning and development of the Extreme Hotels brand……basically the big boy stuff!

Istithmar Hotels is the international powerhouse whose focus is on two main sectors, the luxury ‘top dog’ hotels and the budget hotels, to cater for those whose wallets are a little more slim-line. Istithmar Hotels’ goal is to asset manage hotels in key cities such as London, Paris and New York along with the objective of adding to their portfolio hotels in emerging markets like China, India, Pakistan, the Middle East and North Africa. Joe Sita, CEO of Istithmar Hotels said, “Extreme Hotels is a unique opportunity in line with one of Istithmar Hotels’ key strategies of providing accommodation at the more affordable end of the market. We believe this concept will target a niche market that has little direct competition.”

The other key partner is Africa’s Kingpin of hotel operators, Protea Hotels, who are the 21st largest operator in the world with 12,000 strong team and more than 20 years of experience. They really know their stuff and provide all the particulars! They will ensure the success of Extreme Hotels from the management and operations to the developmental aspects. “With hotel markets and concepts changing constantly Protea Hotels have consistently sought to identify these changes and develop hotels concepts that meet and exceed these demands. We believe that by teaming our hotel marketing and operational expertise to that of the globally recognised Extreme brand we are on line to achieve a chain of exciting, energetic, ground breaking but affordable new age hotels located around the world.” explains Arthur Gillis, Group Managing Director for Protea Hotels. “This is an incredible opportunity for us as we have built one of the worlds leading hotel operating companies but predominately active in Africa, Extreme Hotels will give us the opportunity to build our business, deliver and compete all over the world.”

Gosling, Extreme Group, passionately believes that this new model will revolutionise what’s on offer presently in the market place, he adds, “We will provide guests with an environment that is extraordinarily social, a real laugh and hopefully strike a chord with travellers who are young at heart and that crave style, fun and the extreme.”

Want to know more? Click Here

Extreme Cape Town – Opened on the 1st of November 2006

For more information about Ex Hotels pls check out http://www.extreme-hotels.com or contact:

Gemma Parkinson (t): +44 (0) 20 7886 0758, (e): gemma@extremeinternational.com

Notes to Editors:

About Extreme Group

Extreme Group was started in 1995 by Al Gosling, founder of the Extreme Sports Channel and is a collection of businesses, with a shared brand and shared values. Aged 24, passionate about extreme sports and unable to find a job that interested him, Al set up Extreme.

Today Extreme delivers a range of branded lifestyle products and services including, Extreme Entertainment (TV), Extreme Stores, Extremepie.com, Extreme Mobile (an MVNO mobile phone network), Extreme Drinks, Extreme Hotels, Ex Parks (sports based theme parks), Ex Space (Restaurants), Ex Eyez and Extreme Cred. Extreme employs 247 people and operates in more than 70 countries around the world.

The Extreme Sports Channel gives the Extreme brand continuous 24/7 exposure and reaches over 40 million homes in 60 countries around the world. http://www.extremeinternational.com

About Istithmar Hotels

Istithmar Hotels is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Istithmar. It was established in April 2006 with the objective of managing the hospitality assets within Istithmar’s investment portfolio. Istithmar Hotels’ mission is to create value through the strategic management and development of these hospitality assets.

Istithmar Hotels manages assets in a number of segments or markets, being the high-end luxury, boutique, as well as budget hotels, in strategic locations – key gateway cities such as London, Paris and New York as well as in the emerging markets of China, India, Pakistan, the Middle East and North Africa.

About Protea Hotels

Founded in 1984 with just 4 hotels, Protea Hotels today operates over 120 hotels throughout Africa in over 10 countries and is the largest hotel operating company in Africa and the 21st largest in the world. At the 2005 and 2006 World Travel Awards Protea Hotels were voted best hotel brand in Africa by the world’s travel industry.

Operating three brands, Protea Hotels, African Pride Hotels, Lodges and Country Houses and Extreme Hotels, Protea offers a diverse range of hotels and continues to grow with 9 new hotels set to open in 2007.