Editorial
Dear Insiders,
It is done: Germany is in full chaos. To appease the angry people, Angela Merkel decreed "resting days" on Monday night instead of a rigid lockdown before Easter, bringing the entire economy to a standstill. Apparently, lawyers thwarted her plans as it remained unclear of how are businesses supposed to book Covid-19 resting days? On Tuesday, she apologised to the people for this mistake and withdrew the order.
Now, the politicians in Berlin are really going wild and the people are just shaking their heads. Just in time for the peak of discontent, RKI's Head Lothar Wieler reported another record number of infections yesterday: 22,657. He demanded a hard lockdown, immediately. But after this week, this can no longer be enforced politically. Now, the people and the politicians are dancing with the virus, at full risk."Men do not stumble over mountains, but over molehills," said Confucius.
In the country, the nerves are frayed. Many things are unfair and disproportionate. Especially for the hotel industry, since thousands of Germans have flown to Mallorca, but vacation homes are not even allowed to open in Germany. Those who go in Easter holidays endanger the summer vacation of us all, said Olaf Scholz last weekend. "This is how citizens are redefined from victims of circumstances to their culprits," said columnist Gabor Steingart, boiling it down to the essence on Monday. We have summarised this incredible Covid chaos for you.
And we tried to capture the diffuse mood across the sector. How long will the hotel industry hold out? Our experts – lawyers and consultants – don't see any bailout money in the accounts, instead they see proud hoteliers who would rather maim themselves financially than give up their life's work. Therefore, there are no distressed assets yet and almost no insolvencies, says our insolvency specialist. But they warn that not all the medium and large players will get away. So, the vultures will have to wait.
The death of companies lurks in legal details: experts believe that many hoteliers are blindly running into the insolvency trap when the application obligation will be reinstalled at the end of April. Two thrilling stories from the seven-month prison period of the hotel people politicians convicted already in November through the Infection Protection Act.
But entrepreneurs remain optimistic and are preparing for the re-launch. How do you get employees back after a year? Sylvie Konzack asked hoteliers how they communicate and train successfully in lockdown. However, an HR coach is appalled at how many companies do not care about their employees at all.
According to the report, Motel One receives good grades, among others. Moreover, at a press conference on Wednesday the budget chain announced that its founder and CEO, Dieter Mueller, will make way for the new executive team consisting of the two current Co-CEOs Daniel Mueller and Stefan Lenze. Covid will continue to challenge both: The virus ate up 100 million euros in equity last year, leaving 28 instead of 77% occupancy and 2 instead of 82 million euros EBITDAR.
In addition: Kempinski draws a line under the deal with 12.18, Four Seasons wants to grow further, and the co-living sector saw a takeover of Habyt, which attracts attention among insiders.
I have a great idea against depressions: For a change, don't think about politics this weekend!
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
The chaos in Germany is hard to beat. People simply want to get out. That is why in Mallorca, Easter bookings by Germans are increasing drastically. Airlines are stepping up their capacities ... At home, the vaccination campaign continues to drag on – apart from mutations, there is now also the threat of thromboses, the number of infected pupils is increasing, but there are still not sufficient rapid tests, and virologists are already warning 50-year-olds not to fall victim to the viruses of the third wave ... Representatives of the people are enriching themselves via mask deals and Angela Merkel remains silent.
When she speaks again on Monday after the next meeting with the leaders of the federal states, her lips will likely be forming the L-word again: the extended Lockdown for the hotel industry.
I hear from my political channels that hotels are not to open before Whitsun. The federal government knows that hotels are not the spreaders, but it doesn't know how to control the masses in front of their doors.
This is Germany for Dummies. The non-existent digitisation and the slow bureaucracy are the main reasons for each delay that is slowly provoking economic deaths. In the refrigerators, the expiration date of hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses is running out ... I now consider this to be gross negligence. Where is the advocate of the people?
At least, tourism and hotel associations are raising their voices, and finally even Dehoga is making its rant audible after 13 months. But when are they ALL going to show up together in front of the Brandenburg Gate? All segments including their employees? Politicians only react to voices that endanger their election.
Enough ranting and demanding! One could also observe this chaos from a different perspective. For example, the following quote by the Canadian entrepreneur, philanthropist and best-selling author Bruce Poon caught my eye this week:
"We can rethink everything we thought was normal. Why fight so damn hard to return to normal
when the opportunity to transform travel is on the other side of this mess?"
If you agree, you should better not read the ITB travel analyses, in which tourism experts are still pining for the land of milk and honey of 2019 – just like the Italians, who expect even more real estate transactions this year than in 2020.
Cosi's plans to become the world's biggest hotel chain announced 18 months ago have so far turned into 750 residential rooms, a kind of standardised Airbnb. The startup involving numerous tech and investment experts just received 20 million euros from VCs and other tech believers – for its totally digitised product and scalable profits. Soravia, an investment company in Vienna, also got on board. The busines model: zero employees, rooms without kitchenette and no breakfast, and all tools can be found in the cloud. Triple RevPAR "guaranteed". Cosi's CEO, Christian Gaiser, patiently answered my many questions.
Similar to Limehome, Cosi is on the verge of making new models acceptable – at least on the real estate and financial side. Whether non-hoteliers will be able to handle the rapid expansion in terms of operations remains to be seen.
B&B Hotels acquired five Letomotel and already rebranded them. Max Luscher, B&B, and Stefan Bader, Letomotel, reveal the details. Owners are also on the lookout for new operators in the meantime – and in doing so, the headhunters of Konen & Lorenzen in Duesseldorf, together with Lindner Hotels and Hanseatic, use their gigantic database. Moreover, you will find a summary of the most recent higher regional court rulings in the field of rents/leases, a plethora of market news and, finally, once more the longing for the feel-good vacation of spa & wellness...
Last but not least: data freaks should attend the first-ever global Hotel Data Conference by STR next Thursday, March 25th. The Edition will feature 78 speakers across 12 hours, following the time zones to five world regions. Check our front page for details or click the banner there.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
This week, ITB took place. Did you realise that? With three editors, we participated in and spread out over various online sessions. The output is moderate, because it is very exhausting to scroll though pages of programmes. Vivid discussions, comparable to those on real convention stages, were not apparent to me.
A virtual ITB is somewhat unreal. Too often, the sessions drifted off into PR unfortunately. Even at the "Café", which sounds like communication, only self-promoters were present. And "Networking" simply cannot be initiated via button. Everything is a learning process, for sure, but the core question remains for me: Do we really want to conduct such mega trade fairs in a virtual format?
For 12 months now, corona has been dictating our lives; therefore, we are picking out new trends from ITB NOW, which might be able to contribute to a better re-start of the hotels. Most are expecting "revenge travel", a martial-sounding term for an exponential boom, which fuels direct booking and opens up new sources of revenue. This is one aspect of our tech trends today. And the Israelis explained how vaccinating and opening up goes hand in hand. Apart from that, only one thing remains: Travelling in the safety bubble and your digital vaccination passport safe in hand.
And those who do not want this, will find a comfortable bed at sweet Auntie Alma. Tante Alma is the name of a new German brand displaying crochet tablecloths, knick-knacks and grandmother's pong. Very cool because it is kitschy and weird, and hopefully in high demand as the brand wants to attract students, amongst others, who are no longer able to afford rents in shared flats in university cities. Behind the concept of old hotel properties, where little is being invested, is Stephan Gerhard, among other people, who is one of the founders of 25hours and always good for a surprise.
Tante Alma will surely appreciate the free-of-charge booking links Google surprised the world with this week. Sarah Douag puts this "present" in a critical perspective. In the meantime, scientists have analysed the Luca app and found it to be basically good and almost risk-free: Thus it could replace the failed government app – the sooner the better!!! The chaos squad in Berlin managed to miss yet another date: Now they are postponing the nationwide rapid vaccination via family doctors by two weeks until mid-April. Poor Germany.
IBM was ordered to create a digital vaccination passport. The process is to be completed in eight weeks. In the meantime, financial aids from the EU and/or Berlin have still not arrived. The national media are dutifully repeating the banter of the election campaign heads, but are not checking further. We are. Arabella, Motel One, and Dorint explain why the third bridging aid is deficient once again. In Austria, too, people are asking questions in astonishment. An overview.
Meanwhile, the German hotel and restaurant association of Dehoga is coming up with increasingly horrific survey figures: 72% of hospitality professionals fear for their existence while one in four is about to give up. However, shared problems do not halve the suffering according to a status quo comparison between the German-speaking countries.
You will find this and much more in our news section! The past weeks have been unreal and just as impossible to grasp as a virtual ITB as the fate of many companies becomes more acute. Nevertheless: Stay strong and persevere!
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
If there is one image of political arrogance, it was encapsulated in the demeanor Angela Merkel as she announced the extension of the lockdown in Germany late on Wednesday night, albeit with initial, incremental easing. With the deepest contempt towards tourism and the hotel industry, the iron chancellor didn’t say the word "hotel" even once during the hour-long press conference. Why? Mobility is precisely what she doesn’t want and she aims to suppress and prohibit any inkling of it - no matter what the cost.
Just on time for each cabinet meeting, the infection and/or death rate rise, and the day after, virologists loyal to the chancellor like Christian Drosten stir up even more fear, this time because of the British mutations. Yes, a balancing act is what's called for. The public know that best. The lockdown has given everybody plenty of free time to watch talk shows, read the newspaper, debate and analyse. And they’re now fed up of being treated with contempt, being lied to, and locked up at home. The vast majority of people are prepared to take responsibility - even when eating in restaurants and hotels.
Infections, r-rates, hygiene rules, vaccination offers, vaccination deliveries, vaccination promises, the promise of quick provision of rapid tests - nothing fits together logically anymore in this Germany 2021. And above all: Politicians do not keep their promises. And with that, all credibility is lost.
The new phased plan is a difficult-to-understand creation of ifs and buts from which only a new patchwork of chaos can emerge, with the rules differing from region to region. Only vaccination and testing will stop a possible third wave. Yet the government is simply unable to provide tests up to now. All the more astounding then, that the discounter Aldi does: 5 tests for 25 Euro are available for everyone on Saturday, throughout the whole of Germany!
What really is a bitter pill to swallow is the contempt for hotels. Forgotten and despised, they've been overlooked and given no perspective whatsoever for the umpteenth time. If only the financial support payments would arrive, but not even that. And so it becomes a race with insolvency and for employees.
Our edition today: The German Corona Warning app has failed, but not before costing the taxpayer €63 million. The new app Luca - which we present to you in detail today - costs almost nothing, is free for hoteliers and guests to download and overcomes all previous digital hurdles up to the link with the health offices. Sounds good. The first Minister President is already implementing the tool.
After all, the desire to travel does not diminish. This is why many hotel groups want to expand further. Marcus Bernhardt, CEO Deutsche Hospitality for four months now, explains precisely in an interview with me why the IPO is not yet coming as quickly as some media stated that it would and why he is basing the brands on a platform economy. He will also take a closer look at his hotel owners in the future: Many large institutional players have simply been too arrogant for him in lease discussions.
$100 billion is what Airbnb is worth on the stock market today. A lot of money for a start-up whose founder Brian Chesky recently raised $3.5 billion this way.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
"Here rests a tourist business". This is the phrase across a poster commissioned by the hotel association of the Baltic Sea island of Usedom. Positioned on the poster under a picture of a cross, in which the dreamlike sandy beach in the sunset is immortalised. This motif precisely reflects the current, anguished mood that prevails at least in Germany and Austria. People want out - and they are indeed going out, as the images of crowded city-centres and local tourist spots showed last weekend.
The streets are full. Hotels and restaurants though will probably remain closed for longer. Yet hairdressers and DIY stores will be allowed to open on Monday. Meanwhile, even the Robert Koch Institute says in its current strategy paper that this sector is not a driver of infection.
The response simply doesn't fit with the evidence. Injustice and disproportionality can no longer be explained logically. The falling, stagnating and then slowly rising numbers are also unintelligible to the public. And so measurement criteria have once again been changed.
Politicians feel the public's restlessness, but they must hold firm for longer, because that's what they do - think too late, act too late, overreact too late, overdiscuss too late, and then ultimately mess up the vaccine purchases: A civil servant again holds the reins here. Why not get a professional on board like Boris Johnson did?
Our media landscape is a headline circus this week, and reflects the confusion exactly - adding to the frustration of hotel groups: Despite all the announcements, financial support payments are still not flowing, or at best only in dribs and drabs. This is active euthanasia for the hotel industry and the tourist sector, tolerated by the Christian and social parties.
Because the vultures are circling, discussions are piling up within the hotel and real estate industry about how to convert hotels in the future. Beatrix Boutonnet shows today how difficult that can be. Often it fails already at construction details, but also at discrepancies in price expectations that currently persist. The latter is also reflected in JLL's global investment analysis.
The impending doom is countered in the most blatant form by people's desire to travel: "They're sitting on packed suitcases," say the latest market research figures from Vienna yesterday... If you can make it to Milan, why not check out the Benetton brothers' latest hotel? 21WOL mixes trends, brands and categories.
The balance sheets of the global chains today with their sometimes billion-dollar losses are also clear: The sector is bleeding. It’s nailed to the cross. Sacrificed. The day after tomorrow, on 28 February, it will be exactly one year since ITB 2020 was cancelled.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
Today, we take a look at testing methods: spitting, swabbing, sampling. And we certainly won't be picking our noses in boredom. The Austrians are already committed to large-scale testing, with success. Every second hotel would set up its own test corridor. In the meantime the government has allowed all companies to have their own test corridors.
Without testing and vaccination, there will be no more travel and normal daily life. That's for sure. Switzerland has also given priority to testing; the canton of Graubünden has launched a major pilot for 20,000 people.
And the Germans? Now that the government has announced that it will allow rapid and self-testing on a large scale from 1 March, the authorities are already complaining about their next logistics problem.
Fred Fettner looked at the Austrian successes and the next plans, Macy Marvel concentrated on pandemic measures in Switzerland - in conversation with Andreas Züllig, President of Hotelleriesuisse. "The Swiss way is the right way," Züllig stated with complete conviction. The Swiss hoteliers I interviewed gave the association good marks, but they all described the snails-pace approach of politicians as disastrous. Financial support has not been available to hotel groups there either, but open hotels and white slopes make guests happy. They just want to get out of the doldrums, no one complains about restrictions, spa registrations and mask checks.
Without foreign tourists, Austria is lost; and it's a similar story in other countries. That is why the borders must stay open, the virus must be fought and the political interventions must be corrected!
Wide awake and legally versed entrepreneurs like Dirk Iserlohe obviously notice tiny legislative changes faster than entire industry associations. He noticed that the German Ministry of Economic Affairs was not using EU funds correctly and in full. The Germans have been applying the wrong EU provision thus far it seems: Brussels has not set down limits for Bridging Aid III - but rather Germany is keeping the lid on things! This really is scandalous. It means that fewer companies will benefit from aid that they are absolutely entitled to receive.
An insubstantial mistake with substantial consequences? The Ministry of Economics has already - quietly at least - reacted, as Iserlohe found out yesterday through a call at top EU level: Berlin has retrospectively removed the caps for November and December - but not yet publicly announced the move. So why isn't that also available from January 2021?
We are not the only ones watching politics today, others are too: A scientific study undertaken by the TU Berlin is able to show clearly why a restaurant is not a virus hotbed. And the latest protest action by 19 Sylt hoteliers and colleagues shows just how urgent things are: They have established their own - functioning - "Corona" app and have started building rapid tests... If the next wave comes, it won't be the fault of such entrepreneurs.
Hyatt, Marriott and Scandic are of course struggling with corona, as their 2020 results show, but the rest of our reports on real estate, markets, digital and robotics trends contain as little corona as possible.
Hang in there, ask questions, follow up! It's vital for survival.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
Everybody is silent. They are agonising over the most recent interim aids, quietly checking how much is left on their accounts and fear daily for their existence. The associations utter a few words of outrage, but otherwise? Have any measures been taken? Any fighting back? Are they getting loud? Yesterday, a tourism politician asked me, why no one in Berlin knew the important hotel groups and the brains behind them.
To make sure the industry is heard again, I spontaneously interviewed Dirk Iserlohe, as he talks plainly after the most recent disaster called Ueberbrueckungshilfe III interim aid: The failure of the current entrepreneurs is expected... We are collateral damage ... We have been tricked, he accuses politicians. Read the crisp interview on our page 1 and please share it with your friends and opponents in politics.
Almost every conversation I've had in the past three weeks began or ended with the phrase: "I don’t want anymore, either." Not only do these words express the nerve-wracking tension of entrepreneurs, but above all they show the desire for a real, honest roadmap. Governments are not giving hoteliers an opening perspective because they lack all practical reference. Therefore, even after 12 months, they still don't know which aids truly help hoteliers.
The other way round, as professional hosts, you know very well how to implement the health rules – they have been well-prepared for a long time. Now they just need quick test runs. You should demand them! They are the only way out of the rigour and into controlled mobility. Lifestyle hotel variety, food and drinks are, after all, part of well-being in our lives, not just haircuts.
The analyses of 2020 from a tourism and hotel perspective are reflected in several news today – concrete figures and comparisons included. This spring will be an even bigger drama than the one in 2020.
To cheer you up today, we've got a few crazy wellness trends from the US as well as an interesting article on the upcoming initial virtual ITB in Berlin. Who will "be going"? As always, there are the convinced visitors, but there are also many who shy away from the anonymity and high prices attached to an online presence. The world's largest tourism trade show is turning into the world's largest PR event. Because the format is not suitable for serious business. The first ITB on screen is currently the biggest experiment in global tourism marketing.
It is essential to save tourism in 2021. This is the cause taken up by Pierre & Vacances Center Parcs, Europe's largest leisure provider. It is right, as the company also wants to save its 45,800 holiday apartments and homes from the home-made financial crisis. Franck Gervais, formerly Accor, is to clear the 350 million euro mountain of debt. Sarah Douag delved deep into the strategy so far.
Dear hoteliers, if you continue to be silent, you will continue not to be taken seriously and you will be tricked. Today is Friday. Let yourself be inspired and re-think your own role in the market and how you want to make sure the industry will speak with a louder voice in the future.
And finally, something new on our page 1: Loss of turnover in the pandemic makes rent and lease payments an ongoing issue. The contracting parties have to negotiate solutions. For a free initial assessment from a legal perspective, the lawyers of the Munich law firm GvW Graf von Westphalen have created a tool with which you can check your rent and lease reductions online. Launch the banner here on our homepage.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
Israel and Dubai are on their way back to everyday life, thanks to extensive vaccination efforts. Sylvie Konzack kept her ears open there and recognises: Rapid tests are likewise an important part on the path towards a revitalised economy. But the truth is also this: "Everyone follows the rules without discussions," says an Austrian citizen in Dubai.
In Central Europe, testing still remains a difficult topic at the moment. But why? I was really annoyed when I listened to an economist this week who showed that every nation-wide planned and consequently carried out testing strategy would only cost a fraction of the 750-billion-euro structure package drafted by the EU.
And even worse: If one sticks to the current strategy, a new third lockdown could loom after Easter. The Institute for the German Economy supports the test strategy: otherwise a week of standstill like the first lockdown will cost the German economy ten billion euros per week.
But who thinks about the population? For two weeks now, plans about a "No-Covid strategy" or "Zero Covid strategy" have been circulating in Germany: in the end, these are all plans to gradually reactivate the currently closed industries. What happens? Three federal states join in – and all of them define their own incidence thresholds. Again, there is ZERO consensus. Therefore, we will have 16 different models in the 16 federal states soon. The state premiers are repeating their mistakes from the accommodation ban, which, last October, led to hysteria, trade fair cancellations and the next lockdown – and the lockdown is still in place to this very day. Virus eats brain.
Therefore, I prefer stalwart CEOs. They seemingly have to be born with foresight and a change in thinking in order to lead their hotel groups out of the crisis. "We all have to think in new ways," says Stefan Leser, CEO of the Asian Langham Hospitality Group for two years now. So far, the group has always been profitable and has started a shopping spree in the middle of the crisis: Europe is a white spot on Langham's map. However, luxury can only be maintained with good staff members. Therefore, Leser commutes between hardware and software and asks himself – and his colleagues – in the luxury segment self-critically: "Did the hotel fulfil its purpose or did we only sugarcoat it?"
Today's edition sways between various perspectives: Amongst others, travellers reveal where they want to travel to this year in Europe; and by way of contrast to that, individual countries sway back and forth between opening and closing, following the motto: Do we travel to Italy or France to go to the hairdresser?
Whether travellers are going to leave classical booking channels à la Booking.com for the benefit of local channels remains unclear after analysing a platform and asking two experts. In any case, the holiday hotels are preparing themselves – therefore, Falkensteiner presents a new family-only hotel in South Tyrol whose features include an all-year "ski slope" that spreads out across the building's entire roof! A new superlative and super expensive.
And we sway back again to the sobriety of everyday life. A new ruling of the Regional Court of Munich again creates different precedents than the last ruling: In future, operators are to save up huge reserves and finance every crisis themselves.
It simply remains amusing. Like in kindergarten.
On our own behalf: Preparations for Expo Real 2021 have begun. Those who would like to exhibit at the World of Hospitality joint stand should apply for their requirements now. The registration is preliminary and only used to determine the space requirements. Contact Michael Willems and Anne Greisel please.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
Individual countries are already in the process of closing their borders – and this time the airports as well. The virus mutations must stay out. And even more so as there is not enough vaccine anywhere. Particularly not in the chaos of Germany. We are about to lose our good image.
The mismanagement of the pandemic, however, does not keep people from thinking intensely about travelling as analyses show – even after the horrors of 2020, which caused 11 times more damage to tourism than the Lehman crash in 2009.
At this new brink of panic it is about time to think in a radical way. To rethink. How should we deal with our clingy friend Covid? How can we live freely again? 13 experts and consultants have developed a NO-Covid strategy, for Angela Merkel. The goal: Pushing incidences to ZERO and creating virus-free zones – "green zones” – closed off and rigorously controlled, of course, "only" for a few weeks ...
The idea sounds convincing and the Chancellor thinks it's a good one, too. But will it be well received in the midst of the misery? Amid the struggle for survival of hotels whose coffers are empty? And at the emotional low point of the people who are psychologically at the end of their tether after more than three months? We have shed light on it and Professor Christian Buer comments.
And promptly, another federal state comes around the corner with its own anti-Covid method. Schleswig-Holstein is pushing ahead and would already declare a city or a region "green” at an incidence of 35. These ego trips are really unbearable.
When will Germany finally come to a national solution? When will the EU finally come to a uniform one? The USA and China are big enough to recover from their own domestic market. But for Central Europe, it is all about the EU, including Switzerland. If you block the borders, you block the domestic economy and kill yourself. Actionism over ratio, the mistakes repeat themselves after 12 months.
We’re providing some help today. Apart from uniformity, you can fight the virus with technology: with high-performance filters, reliable quick tests, with tags that can detect virus spread in gastro/hotel rooms. There are innovations that even politicians haven't heard about yet. We explain why these are so important and introduce you to three inventions – available for all to read in front of our paywall. Because this knowledge counts NOW and should be used.
Sarah Douag has intensively analysed the consequences Brexit will have for the hotel industry. At the moment, Covid-19 is drawing all the attention, but hotel managers need to look across the Thames and the Channel towards Europe. Risks and opportunities are apparent. Wyndham, IHG, Colliers and others on post-Brexit travel.
Our news mostly revolve around the EU subsidies for the large, affiliated companies, which the EU even topped up yesterday afternoon. German hotel managers are nevertheless reticent. Switzerland was also happy about more aid, but just as much about a changed test strategy that should lead out of the crisis.
HospitalityInside, like many people and hoteliers, hopes for more relaxed months that allow personal contacts again. That is why we are pushing our Think Tank from June to 13/14 September. Since the Corona requirements limit a presence on our previous event ship in Berlin, we have decided on Munich! "On land" we can welcome up to 50 people physically under Corona conditions - and the whole world virtually as well!
Please note the date and the topic: SUSTAINABILITY & DIGITALISATION: THE CHANGE DRIVERS. The Decade of Action: How Sustainability leads the agenda, how Digitalisation enables it. I am sure: This topic fits fantastically into this year! Detailed information coming soon.
Keep reading HospitalityInside! It's worth it.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
The reckoning with politics in the article by Alexander Fitz of H-Hotels last Friday was followed by many comments, also on LinkedIn. Nonetheless, there are still people who discredit hoteliers as cry-babies. Today, we will provide these people with a few facts – not from a hotel operator, but from hotel investor Dr. Joerg Haas from Bonn, who himself owns 5 hotels, 12 catering businesses, 2 conference centres and 5 fitness studios. His group is also suffering massively. Therefore, he decided to disclose every single failed measure using his own company’s figures.
His disastrous experience with the financial aids is symbolic of all major groups and companies. It is a disaster that could well be used as a blueprint for a Netflix show … After all, this disaster turns 2020 from a 5-million-euro profit into a 16-million-euro loss for Haas' Invite Group.
We will publish this article in front of the paywall today, as we want these figures to be etched on the memories of incompetent politicians. Please distribute this article across all your channels, particularly to the representative in your constituency who will soon cross your path and encounter your unemployed former staff members on the street.
In our article on the lockdown extensions in Germany and Austria, we will take another look at the financial aids that will once again fail to save any larger group or company. Small, debt-free family hotels will likely survive thanks to corona aids while the internationally competitive, high-quality, creative and professional city hotel sector is dangling over the precipice. After all, medium-sized and large chains are still those who accommodate the majority of corporate travellers and MICE visitors!
Central Europe should watch out: Other countries are already overtaking the region. In Dubai, Emirates Airlines has already vaccinated the crews this week; two hotel groups have also already vaccinated their employees and family members. They are getting their vaccinations done in record-time – because they want to enable travel again. They go for BUSINESS!
And what about big Germany? Complains and keeps on babbling. Economically, Central Europe will fall massively behind, even in comparison to smaller but more decisive and purposefully acting countries. Competition is now being decided via vaccination strategies.
Today, Richard Adam, who is known as a very critical tourism expert to our readers, is holding up the mirror to the cumbersome and sated destination managers: "Shutdown of the old marketing" simply is a must-read.
Concerning Kempinski Hotels, I cannot give you much news five weeks after the dismissal of the CEO: The lawyers are currently preoccupied with the era of Martin Smura. It remains exciting.
With these reports and other colourful news about the market, we say goodbye until next week, the last one in January. At the end of January in 2020, the first Covid-19 cases emerged in Italy.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com