Dear Insiders,
Initial industry figures from Paris show that hotels are experiencing dropping occupancy despite the European Football Championship. France is going through a difficult time.
Partners of the Chinese HNA group might also be facing hard times should it react more often as extremely as it did this week: The company issued a press release stating that it was not involved in any discussions whatsoever with AccorHotels concerning investments. In order to avoid speculations of this kind in the future, the paper concludes with the following threat: "HNA Hospitality Group reserves the rights to pursue any legal rights available should any individual or company discuss project acquisition in the name of HNA Hospitality Group without authorization." With regard to the media, the European-Chinese friendship might take a little while longer to grow ...
Nonetheless, China is not giving up for the most part. The appetite for European know-how and the financially strong European clientele is too strong. Two Asia experts at DLA Piper Hong Kong and CBRE London explain today the players in the ongoing wave of mergers and acquisitions in the tourism sector. Insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, hotel operators and mining companies have already spent impressive seven-figure sums to enter the European market and will continue to do so.
The "fund summit" in Berlin revealed the current problems faced by mutual funds, but it also opened up new doors with the start of its new fund online platform. The struggling sector is drawing hope again.
Hope for more and in particular for the right employees is what the new recruiting methods are giving hotel groups: Lindner, Vienna House, and Derag Livinghotels tested casting and other types of job interviews and are happy about it. Uwe Kanning, professor of business psychology, does not think much of such practices however. From the world of distribution: Austria will overturn the best rate clause of Booking.com and others by law next year. Germany's business travel analysts expect travel to drop in the future. Romantik Hotels does it like the chains: The consortium has joined forces with Châteaux-Hotels from France with the aim of conducting marketing campaigns together.
Derag Livinghotels introduce a new independent brand: Soulmade – hotels made of wood offering a lot of warmth and soul. And the Progros procurement company is increasingly becoming an all-round partner of the hotel industry.
Last but not least, hospitalityInside itself has some good news to report: So far, 28 companies have registered for our "World of Hospitality" joint booth at the coming Expo Real in Munich, among them nine new companies! You can an update on activities, schedules and opportunities to join Europe's largest real estate and investment trade fair in October on page 1. - The full editorial...
