Crowne Plaza to Make First Foray in Portugal

The Crowne Plaza Vilamoura, set to open in January 2010, will be the first Crowne Plaza hotel in Portugal.

The historic deal is the first franchise agreement between InterContinental Hotels Group and the Grupo Marope, a Portuguese property and hotel owning company. The hotel will create more than 200 jobs when it opens.

The new hotel is right on the Vilamoura beach, near the Vilamoura Casino, 300 meters from the Algarve’s main marina, Marina Vilamoura, and 20 kilometers from Faro Airport. The hotel is within walking distance of five golf courses in Vilamoura, and only a 20-minute drive from other major courses in the Algarve.

The Crowne Plaza Vilamoura will have 327 rooms and suites, and conference facilities with 1,200 square meters of meeting room space. There is a 760-square-meter meeting room divisible into three, a 275-square-meter meeting room also divisible into three, an executive boardroom for 12 people and 22 guest rooms that have been designed for use as meeting rooms when needed. A beautiful garden with large palm trees makes the hotel ideal for hosting outdoor events.

Crowne Plaza Vilamoura will also have a variety of entertainment facilities and restaurants, including one al fresco restaurant open most of the year, a 1,000-square-meter outdoor swimming pool and a driving range supervised by the hotel’s golf pro. The hotel was previously the Vilamoura Beach Hotel. The construction team stripped the building down to its original steel structure and floors and then rebuilt the hotel.