VIPeople *Geoff Chesire has been appointed vice president of sales and marketing for Millennium Hotels and Resorts, headquartered in London. Chesire most recently served as senior vice president of U.K. and international sales for Forte Hotels.

*Kenneth B. Soerensen has been appointed vice president, sales and marketing, Asia-Pacific, for Swissotel. Soerensen, who will be based in Bangkok, Thailand, previously served as director of sales and marketing for Groupe Montreux Palace s.a. in Switzerland.

*The Westin Rio Mar Beach in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico, has announced several staff changes. Dan O'Byrne has been appointed director of marketing and sales. O'Byrne, who will be based in the new Orlando, Fla. regional sales office, is a former Rio Mar staffer--he had served on the pre- and post-opening sales teams. Most recently, he worked with Ernst & Young Real Estate Group, where he was a consultant to the hospitality industry. Tara Shannon has been named national sales manager. She will be based in New York City, and will cover the New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania markets. Shannon joins from ITT Sheraton, where she served as national account director, responsible for corporate and incentive groups.

*The White Oaks Conference Center in Charlotte, N.C., has named Debbie Emore Taylor director of sales and marketing. Formerly, Taylor served as an account executive in the audiovisual group of Caribiner International, a meeting services company in Charlotte, N.C.

*The Sheraton Biscayne Bay in Miami has named David H. Krech director of group sales. He formerly served as senior sales manager with the Westin Miami.

*Craig Jacobs has been appointed director of sales and marketing at the Hotel del Coronado in Coronado, Calif. He had served as vice president, western region, for the Plasencia Group, a hotel transactions and consulting company.

*Ellen Slade has joined the Coronado Island Marriott Resort in San Diego as director of marketing. Previously, she served as director of marketing with the La Jolla (Calif.) Marriott.

*The Palmer House Hilton in Chicago has appointed Laraine A. McCormack sales manager. She joins from the Hyatt Regency Indianapolis, where she served as senior sales manager.

*The Four Points by Sheraton in Bangor, Maine, has named Saxon L. Aube director of sales. She previously served as senior account manager with MBNA America, a credit card company in Belfast, Maine.

*The Atlanta Marriott Marquis has named Mark Vaughan director of marketing. A 14-year Marriott veteran, Vaughan joins from the Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Marina Marriott, where he served as director of marketing.

*Mercedes Garde has joined Seascape Resort in Aptos, Calif., as director of group sales. She was director of sales with Total Rebound Interactive Games & Team Building Company in Benecia, Calif.

*Walt Eatman has been named southeast regional sales manager for Marriott Bay Point Resort Village in Panama City Beach, Fla. Eatman will be based in Atlanta, responsible for corporate and incentive clients. He most recently served as regional sales director at Marriott Frenchman's Reef in St. Thomas.

*The Hyatt Regency Scottsdale (Ariz.) has promoted Jennifer Farrell to meeting connections manager. She had served as public relations coordinator.

*Sue Hocking has been appointed convention services manager at the Adelaide Convention Centre in South Australia. She has served at the center since 1987, most recently as function coordinator.

Going Places *The 197-room Club Hotel by Doubletree at Bayside in Boston will open next April next to the Bayside Expo and Conference Center. Bayside Expo features 270,000 square feet of exhibit space and 30,000 square feet of meeting space. An additional 18,000 square feet of space comprised of 10 new meeting rooms and a ballroom will open at the end of this year adjacent to the hotel. The Club Hotel by Doubletree concept features a "Club Room" designed to offer business travelers access to an office environment while on the road.

*The Fontainebleau Hilton Resort and Towers in Miami Beach, Fla., has launched an $18-million renovation program. In two of the hotel's three buildings, the Normandie and the Versailles, soft goods will be replaced in all 640 guest rooms and corridors. (The hotel's original building, the Chateau, recently received its own facelift.) The hotel also will renovate two floors of suites often used for hospitality suites and will redo its dining rooms.

*The 1,055-room Park Central Hotel in New York is undergoing a $60-million restoration. The 1928 hotel will reopen in March 1999 after a total redo, to include an executive club lounge, 250 executive club rooms, and a wellness center. All executive club rooms will include a personal fax machine and a safe large enough for a laptop, while all renovated rooms will have two-line phones, dataports, irons, and ironing boards. Plumbing and electrical systems are being replaced and the building's facade, with original animal friezes, is being restored.

*PGA National Resort and Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is in the midst of a $5-million renovation program set to wrap up by the end of the year. The project includes updating the resort's 339 guest rooms and a new Don Shula's Steakhouse restaurant. The resort's five 18-hole golf courses will get new putting greens, reshaped bunkers, and improved rain shelters and rest stations.

INTERNATIONAL BEAT *The 430-room Radisson Slavjanskaya Hotel in Moscow, Russia, recently completed renovations to its 17,870 square feet of meeting space. New soft goods and state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment have been added to the hotel's conference space, capable of accommodating up to 800 attendees. The hotel's 550-seat theater, which offers simultaneous translation in five languages, was also redone.

*Marriott International has been named to manage the 317-room Shanghai Marriott Hotel Hongqiao, set to open next summer near Hongqiao International Airport in Shanghai, China. It will offer 19,700 square feet of meeting space, including a 12,900-square-foot ballroom divisible into nine sections. Amenities will include four restaurants, an executive floor lounge, a fitness center, and a business center with a boardroom. The Chongqing Marriott Hotel is set to open in mid-1999 in southwest China. The 531-room property is part of a mixed-use development. *