Dear Insider, 

For two years, Ruby and IHG have been working together on the deal announced this week. Ruby founder Michael Struck sells his Lean Luxury brand for €110 million. Ruby is to grow globally with IHG, but Ruby remains Ruby, across the whole globe. Standard changes, for example, can only be made jointly by the parties involved. Struck has fixed many of the finer points in the contracts, as he told me. And he is delighted with the giant’s global system power. Ruby is the seventh brand born in Germany to be sold to a chain in a decade: Innside to Melià (2007), Steigenberger to Huazhu/H World (2019), prizeotel to Radisson (2019), 25hours to Accor (complete takeover 2020), me and all to Hyatt (2024), Novum (2024) and Ruby (2025) to IHG.

While some are looking ahead, France and Germany, among others, are calling on the EU to row back when it comes to taxonomy. The financial burden of implementing the regulations is generating deep frustration. Experts warn against wanting to spare 80% of companies from the taxonomy - this could lead to two-tier competition, to the detriment of the climate. Sarah Douag brings us the details. At the same time, the WTTC published the announced new roadmap for Travel & Tourism - combined with a call to implement more climate measures and faster too. Simply paradoxical.  

The latest RICS analyses confirm that the economic situation in the European real estate and construction sector will remain tense for some time to come. Globally, there are a few rays of hope, but Beatrix Boutonnet has also heard that the "alternative" asset class hotel can still increase its value despite the crisis. Hard to believe. 

Is this reading coffee grounds or reality? In any case, 2024 was not a great year for Germany's hoteliers and restaurateurs, as the latest annual statistics show. Although the Swiss are reporting a record year for overnight stays, the large number of absent foreign guests is hurting. Contrary to this: The global hotel pipeline reached a new high in Q4 and hotels in Italy remain the second most popular among investor darlings. And all the chains that published their 2024 balance sheets this week (Accor, Choice, Scandic, Hyatt, IHG, Minor / all on our page 1) are unanimously celebrating mega figures, record margins and dynamic expansion. 

It is a bizarre picture of the industry that is emerging in Europe. Finding a solid strategy for this year is like winning the lottery - just like finding employees. That's why the tourism experts from Schladming-Dachstein in Austria are asking pensioners to return to work. And conversely, the Germans are proving to be mega-sluggish in one respect: Since January, the obligation to provide a registration form has been waived, at least for German domestic guests - and what is the majority of the hotel industry doing? It is sticking to the old procedure.

Germany will elect a new government on Sunday. How bizarre will it be after that? 

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief