Thomas Kochs to leave Hotel Café Royal for the Corinthia Hotel London

Leading London hotelier Thomas Kochs is to step down as managing director of the Hotel Café Royal to take up the same position at the Corinthia Hotel London.

The announcement was confirmed by the hotel this week, 14 months after he joined the 160-bedroom hotel. Kochs has previously worked for five years as general manager at Claridge's until his departure in November 2015.

He will leave the Hotel Café Royal at the end of this week and is expected to take up his new position at the five-red-AA-star, 294-bedroom Corinthia in the near future.

Eliot Sandiford, director of public relations at the Hotel Café Royal, said: "We would like to thank Thomas for his valuable contribution. Working alongside the hotel's dedicated team and leadership, his experience and expertise has played a key role in the hotel's growth and firm positioning as one of London's premier luxury hotels. We wish him all the best in his new role.

"We look forward to announcing the new candidate who will continue to safeguard this iconic London landmark and one of London's finest luxury hotels shortly."

The hotel is one of three properties within the Set hotel collection â€" alongside the Conservatorium in Amsterdam and Hotel Lutetia in Paris (due to open this year) â€" owned by Alrov Properties, an Israeli company owned by property and design entrepreneurs Alfred and Georgi Akirov.

In his new role, Kochs will oversee one of London’s largest luxury hotels which features an extensive food and beverage operation that includes the Massimo and Northall restaurants, Crystal Moon lounge, and Bassoon bar; and the ESPA Life spa with swimming pool, 17 treatment rooms and gym.

Located between Northumberland Avenue and Whitehall Place, the Corinthia originally opened as the Metropole hotel in the 1880s, before being reinvented as office space occupied by the Ministry of Defence. It returned to its original use as a hotel in 2011, following a £300m renovation undertaken by Corinthia Hotels, which is owned by International Hotel Investments (IHI), a publicly listed Maltese holding company founded by Alfred Pisani.

Today Corinthia Hotels has eight properties in Europe and one in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, with further openings planned for Brussels and Dubai.

Until recently the Corinthia London was headed by general manger Thomas Fischer, who joined the hotel in 2015. Matthew Dixon, the opening general manager of the hotel and now commercial director of the group, is currently running the hotel in an interim role.

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