The Heritage Auckland's signature restaurant, Hectors, has received a refreshing cuisine makeover, with executive chef Jinu Abraham dedicating a good proportion of his menu to plant-based or meat-free items.

Last year, Abraham took on the challenge to create an entirely vegan menu for the hotel's lobby café in Hobson Street. His career includes many Salon Culinaire successes: winner of the Unique New Zealand Dish category in 2005, a silver medal in the Restaurant of the Year in 2006, and sliver in Chef of the Year in 2009.

'My aim is for the ingredients to take the starring role. I aim for honest, non-pretentious food with good fresh seasonal, locally sourced ingredients cooked properly with the perfect combination of flavours,' says Abraham, pictured left with Heritage Hotel Management's Brigid Tarr.

With committed vegans, vegetarians and regular diners welcoming the range of meat-free meal options at the café, the plant-based menu has been transferred to a large part of the cuisine on offer at Hectors. Read about Heritage Auckland's Fresh Start' luncheon event held recently.

Guests staying at a Sudima Hotel at Auckland Airport, Lake Rotorua, or Christchurch Airport can access unlimited broadband internet for 24-hours for $10 (incl. GST). Chief executive officer Sudesh Jhunjhnuwala says that with the world becoming increasingly connected, the internet is less of a luxury and more of a necessity. 'We hope that this drop in price will make it accessible to all our guests.' The new pricing is effective immediately.

Two years after opening, Hilton Lake Taupo has been recognised with the Qualmark Enviro Gold award, New Zealand’s highest award for Environmental and Social Sustainability in Tourism. The property places strong emphasis on both environmental and social sustainability, and the award recognises, amongst other things, commitment to the environment and local community. Hotel manager, Clinton Farley says they are pleased with what has been achieved in the past two years. 'We have won numerous industry awards and this recognition of our robust sustainability practices is well received.'

Hilton Lake Taupo’s Qualmark Enviro Gold recognition compliments the recent Hilton Worldwide announcement of achieving ISO 9001 (Quality Management) and 14001 (Environment Management) certification. ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 are international standards that provide a set of standardised requirements for quality and environmental management systems, respectively.

Of some credit is the Hilton Worldwide Light Stay application, a Hilton owned system of measurement that calculates sustainability performance for each property, across a global portfolio of 3,800 hotels in 88 countries. The system’s data is used to reduce impact, improve the guest experience and drive economic returns.

Accor has purchased the hotel business of Mirvac for Euro195 million. The agreement includes the purchase of Mirvac Hotels & Resorts, a management company of 48 hotels (inc. two owned hotels), representing 6,101 rooms, for Euro149 million.

Also in the purchase is a 21.9% stake in the Mirvac Wholesale Hotel Fund (MWHF), an investment vehicle with ownership of seven of the hotels, for Euro 46 million. The 48 hotels are located mainly in Australia, in key cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Four of the hotels are located in New Zealand. Mirvac’s hotel brands include Quay West, Sea Temple, Sebel and Citigate. The acquisition of Mirvac is in line with Accor’s ambitious development strategy announced last September, which includes a target of 40,000 room openings each year in 2012 and 2013, mostly in an asset-light capacity.

Peppers has expanded its New Zealand network with the launch of an exclusive country estate in the heart of Martinborough wine region. Located just minutes from Martinborough Village and one hour’s drive from Wellington, Peppers Parehua Country Estate features a range of luxurious accommodation options with 30 exclusive suites and villas or garden and lakeside cottages. Peppers Parehua Country Estate is the latest addition to Mantra Hotel Group’s collection of Peppers hotels, resorts and retreats.  It joins Peppers on the Point Rotorua in the North Island and Peppers Beacon Queenstown, Peppers Clearwater Resort Christchurch and Peppers Bluewater Resort Lake Tekapo in the South Island, to offer a boutique getaway for wine lovers in picturesque Wairarapa.

A personalised user space, 'My Mercure,' is one of the new features on Mercure's - Accor's midscale hotel brand - revamped website, allowing guests to create their own profile and manage their reservations, preferences and personal information.  Five clearly visible themed tabs: business travel, leisure travel, meetings and events, themed trips and special offers, make navigation easy for clients to browse information that matches their requirements.

Mercure has 700 hotels in 49 countries and each hotel has its own comprehensive mini website on one page, complete with all the requisite information to assist the customer. The new search function is more comprehensive and allows users to narrow their search, reserve at negotiated rates or book a meeting room.

The Mercure website now recognises its visitors’ geographical location and tailors information to their needs, for example special offers, services available in their country, destinations, etc. The website is available in six languages: French, English, German, Italian, Dutch and Portuguese, with a Spanish version due next May.