Thistle hires marketing chief for new position

Thistle Hotels has appointed Tony Dangerfield to the new post of sales and marketing director for its 60 UK hotels.

Dangerfield joins at the beginning of December from Hilton International in the Americas, where he was vice-president of sales and marketing. He has worked for the company since 1985.

He will report to chief operating officer Andrew Bould and will be based at Thistle’s headquarters in London.

At the beginning of September, Thistle Hotels sold 30 provincial hotels for 66m to its former chief executive Robert Peel. They will be called Peel Hotels and are backed by Pamco, a subsidiary of Lehman Brothers.

The chain’s 60 remaining four-star hotels will be renamed as part of a three-year programme to streng-then the brand.

Thistle Hotels reported a pre-tax profit for the 28 weeks to July 12 of 44.5m on a 168.9m turnover. The figures do not take account of the 27.2m loss on the sale of the hotels.