Eurostar Launches Guaranteed Boarding for Business Class Passengers

Eurostar, the high-speed passenger service linking London, Paris and Brussels has launched a guaranteed boarding service for its flagship Business Premier class.

The Eurostar Business Premier Boarding Guarantee, will exclusively offer Business Premier passengers guaranteed access to the train of their choice regardless of their reservation.

The guarantee means business customers can feel confident that if they arrive late or even early for their train they will be able to board another service, without going to the ticket office.

Parisian luxury hotels: From gloom to boom?

With record room prices of EURO 1,000 (USD 1,297) and occupancies of 95 percent, the luxury hotel sector in Paris is flourishing. But is the market ready to absorb a string of new openings forecast for the coming two years?

It's back in October 2006, when hotel news headlines in France announced that Parisian palaces—ultra-luxury hotels, such as Hôtel de Crillon and Hôtel Plaza Athénée—were going "full sail."

In those days, Paris’s six legendary luxury properties—Hôtel Le Bristol Paris, Hôtel de Crillon, Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris, Le Meurice, Hôtel Plaza Athénée and the Hôtel Paris Ritz—were notching up average occupancy of 77.5 percent, room prices of EURO 725 (USD 940) and 15 percent hikes in revenue per available room post 9/11, according to a study from French hotel industry consultants, MKG Consulting.