Courtyard by Marriott has opened its fourth hotel in Russia, the Courtyard Kazan, under a management agreement with Transstroibank. The hotel is conveniently located in the heart of Kazan, near the Kazan Kremlin, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and close to the offices of many international corporations. Located steps from the Kremlevskaya metro station, the hotel allows guests to move easily throughout the city.

The Central/South America hotel development pipeline comprises 146 hotels totaling 22,438 rooms, according to the January 2011 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report released this week. “It is interesting to see that hotel development across Central/South America focuses on upscale and midscale properties, whereas in other developing tourism markets the higher-end brands enter key markets first,” said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global.

Caribbean hotels keen to boost their bottom lines and strengthen their position in the international marketplace are being offered big incentives by one of America’s leading lodging companies.

Located at the southernmost tip of the Baja Peninsula where the Sea of Cortes meets the Pacific Ocean, Grand Solmar Land's End Resort & Spa officially opened its doors on Feb. 13, 2011. Currently accepting reservations, Grand Solmar will proudly holds the title of the only new resort opening in Los Cabos this year.

Sandos Caracol Eco Resort & Spa, in the Riviera Maya, Mexico, opened its newest eco-chic ocean front accommodations and facilities. The property’s 128 newly renovated rooms maintain the resort’s ecological standard of reducing CO2 emissions by 70 percent. New accommodations feature luxurious and modern, green and white décor.

W Hotels Worldwide will open six new W Hotels around the world in 2011. Design has been at the forefront of W Hotels since the opening of the David Rockwell-designed W New York, the first W Hotel, more than 12 years ago and has evolved with more recent hotel openings by designers such as Patricia Urquiola (W Vieques), United Design (W Doha), and Ricardo Bofill (W Barcelona), among others. As a way to further fuel innovation in design, W Hotels has also forged design partnerships such as its “W Hotels Designers of the Future” award with Design Miami/Basel.