Editorial
Dear Insiders,
In future, man and machine will be a pair. The bosses of the Sabre Lab, based in Dallas, are certain of it. The experts are working on ensuring that both get on well. Philip Liken, Director of the Lab, and the Research Director Timothy Hagues together with Richard Wiegmann, the CCO EMEA from Sabre Hospitality, explain today just how their own work has changed and why they sometimes hesitate as regards many start-ups and certain new technologies.
The interview is also an introduction to subjects which will form the focus of our first think tank on 10/11 June in Berlin. I must say, I find it extremely pleasant that we have partners on board – like Sabre – who are prepared to discuss and propose contents without an attempt at product PR. Only this brings investors, operators and suppliers forward in their search for solutions. In the sense of transparent, faithful reporting, in the context of HITT we refer to the respective role of the conversation partner in focus articles.
What would an event be without last minute changes? Bryson Koehler from IBM Watson had to cancel. He will be replaced by his colleague Rob High, Vice President & Chief Technology Officer from IBM Watson and Cloud Platform portfolio in New York. More on this on page 1.
Again and again, experts stress that success is about not missing a trend, about finding the right timing and benefiting from this. Data reveal here the enormous potential harboured by the business guest looking to expand his business trip into a leisure experience. Sarah Douag interprets market data from Phocuswright.
The potential is also great in Romania. Using tables and assessments from market experts, Macy Marvel makes clear what hotel operators are present and where and where there is still room for new projects. There is meanwhile also a demand for new quality hotels outside Bucharest.
And in the news this week: According to the STR Data Analysis, Europe has come through the year 2017 well. Tourists have returned everywhere. Germany remains stable. Despite the falling number of transactions, the hotel market continues to grow and with it the average value per room, as one large investment company has noteld.
Business travellers love bonus points and at the same time fear intruders in their hotel rooms. This was the finding of a global survey. Austria is making headlines with the next theme hotel group: Waldness ("forestness"). And last but not least, Deutsche Ferienhausverband is pleased to announce huge revenue increases among its members. TUI, on the other hand, is less pleased by the recent negative headlines on its flagship resort Castelfalfi in Tuscany.
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Follow us on LinkedIn / The Think Tank www.hitt.world
Dear Insiders,
The holidaymakers are happy about it, the industry is not: In Austria, chalets, alm and stadl villages are just popping out of the mountain meadows. Real estate and construction companies are joining the business, also from Germany. This way, the competition for pure hotels is increasing even if some hoteliers are building chalets themselves as an addition to their offer. The number of overnight stays of commercial holiday apartments, which are second homes in many cases, increased twice as much compared to the other accommodation segments in Austria in the last winter.
This sounds very similar to what we reported last week – that the real estate and construction industry is also heating up the segment of Serviced Apartments, also with dumping rates. If you look at the examples and the websites and especially the pictures of the chalets and mountain villages presented today by Fred Fettner, you can see immediately, where a dedicated hotelier and host is in charge and where a yield-driven builder-owner.
Many are talking about start-ups, a study provides figures now: In the last 10 years, more than 1,600 start-ups were globally founded in tourism, one third of them in Europe. The hospitality industry is the most wanted among start-up founders, but Europe is not the most preferred region for investors. Sarah Douag explains the development of the start-up scene and also presents three new start-up businesses.
Foreign investors love Germany, because they love the clear legal framework. This is, what I hear repeatedly. By the same token, lawyers tell me about totally frustrated newcomers to the market, who are dumbfounded, when they learn the details of German employment law, for example. For them, our expert Dr Anton Ostler from the law office Arnecke Sibeth Dabelstein has summarized German employment law today.
While Airbnb approaches the hotel segment, Booking.com attacks Airbnb's apartment segment with its newly founded Home Division. In order to do so, the OTA simply headhunted the Airbnb's EMA Director. Sarah Douag heard Olivier Grémillon, master of five million flats and apartments at Booking.com, talk in public for the first time.
It is hard to understand why Minor International only slightly increased its stake in NH Group; this only leaves room for speculations right now. The "European Tolerance Talks" in Carinthia had a slight touch of a spectacle, where the topic of overtourism was being discussed. It became obvious that this topic ends – very intolerantly – where the self-serving mindset of hoteliers and destinations starts. Food for thought for the upcoming hot travel season.
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Follow us on LinkedIn / The Think Tank www.hitt.world
Dear Insiders,
The EU Data Protection Regulation, effective from June 2018, is keeping everybody on their toes. We asked the experts of the US franchise chain Choice Hotels how they have dealt with regulation up to now and how it will now organise data communication between two continents seemingly at odds as regards data protection. Meanwhile, HOTREC has asked the EU for mercy and to delay compliance for medium-sized hoteliers.
These are times in which entrepreneurs and top managers need daily massage breaks to ease the tension of their souls. That really would be luxury. "Soul luxury" is indeed the name for the new luxury trend, and so we have asked luxury and lifestyle consultant Claudia Roth and the Horwath HTL consultant Emanuel Tutek how business can be conquered with this mega trend. Both have together compiled a report which explains the core of soul luxury – and have today made this available to our readers ahead of general publication.
Just how hectic things have become on the market is clear for Serviced Apartments. Residential housing has now pushed forward into the segment with mega complexes and compact micro-apartments at dumping prices. The niche is taboo. Now the big players are in on the game. And so also lots of people who have no idea about operations. Anett Gregorius explains the new and dramatic changes in the Serviced Apartment sector; the annual Market Report compiled by the Berlin-based consultancy will appear once again over the next few days. The hype regarding transactions also fits well here: Of the EUR 525 million that investors have invested in Serviced Apartments in Europe, almost half of it will be spent in Germany.
In Italy, tourism outperformed national economic growth last year and even Greece is posting new records. In Essen, Germany's hyper-dynamic Novum Hotels officially launched its lifestyle brand niu, a colourful playground for the new generation. Zurich Tourism has now also concluded a tax deal with Airbnb: The platform will automatically levy a City Tax on guests and forward this to Zurich Tourism. Whether Airbnb invoices correctly, Zurich Tourism is not able to check. I can't believe it! And even worse: In return, Airbnb also becomes a member of Zurich Tourism.
I wish a few actors had taken more time for consideration!
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Follow us on LinkedIn / The Think Tank www.hitt.world
Dear Insiders,
Today, it's all about chances, opportunities, possibilities... The world seems full of them, most of which are driven by the enormous progress in technology. In future BNP Paribas will present real estate to its customers by Virtual Reality; the initial tests were a great success. Researchers believe VR will be the next big revolution after the smartphone. But caution: VR impacts on people's behaviour because the brain can't separate reality from fiction. Though this can also boost revenues, especially in the dream factory tourism. Baerbel Schwertfeger describes the trend - how you can now sit on the sofa next to a monster, whilst robots fall out of the ceiling...
Italy still hasn't reached 2007 levels as far as real estate prices are concerned. This screams with potential. Indeed, Italy is only slowly attracting powerful capital providers from abroad. In parallel, more and more hotel operators are presenting their concepts, as a forum in Milan made clear. Behind the scenes, there's a lot happening, our Italy correspondent Massimiliano Sarti says.
China's new Culture and Tourism Ministry sees its opportunities in outbound tourism. By allowing its citizens to make more trips abroad, the state is increasing its soft influence outside China – and again sees where it can make new hotel and tourism investments. Recent regulation has admittedly brought the costly hunt for trophy assets to an end, but not the desire to make investments, our China expert Prof Wolfgang Arlt says.
From the news this week: The MICE market in Germany is growing, as the annual study before the IMEX in Frankfurt next week revealed; technology means even smaller meetings are becoming even smaller here. Mallorca's tourists pay twice as much tax in high season, Austria's luxury hotels in winter sport destinations have increased their RevPAR massively in 2017, and TUI announces that "all trends are intact" in its semi-annual report. Also, the many mergers play into Global Hotel Alliance's hands in establishing a stronger brand alternative. And our news mix from the Middle East reveals what huge possibilities the hotel industry has there.
The next big opportunity to understand the possibilities offered by technology will come from our HITT Think Tank in exactly four weeks' time. Our seminar ship in Berlin will set sail with representatives from renowned companies from all across the world of hotel operations and hotel real estate. Would you like to be on board? All information on our Page 1 and at www.hitt.world.
Till next Friday!
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Follow us on LinkedIn / The Think Tank www.hitt.world
Dear Insiders,
Moevenpick Hotels will not be AccorHotels' last acquisition. The new deal worked because the two shareholders of the Swiss brand currently have other problems. Billionaires are also thankful for pocket money in difficult times, it seems. The bridge from Paris to Zurich passes through Riyadh, to Prince Al-Waleed. Meanwhile, it's become part of the monthly routine for Accorians to keep lookout for "new business". This not only means new hotel groups for acquisition, but also tech and service companies which supplement the hospitality industry, Laurent Picheral, Deputy CEO AccorHotels Europe, explained to us yesterday. CEO Sébastien Bazin already has new ideas – and still EUR 1.5 billion in the war chest. Hopefully he won't forget the operational implementation of the new sister hotel out of sheer creative distraction!
Marriott, the giant from Bethesda in the US, has been almost silent since the Starwood acquisition. Over recent months, staff have partly left little uncriticised when it comes to Marriott, which otherwise refers to its employees so lovingly as "associates". Even more informative then was the conversation with Reiner Sachau, COO Europe for Core Brands in Munich. "These are not normal conditions for us," he says of the situation since the merger. His region gained 176 hotels overnight from Starwood. Since then, Sachau has been "on the road” and in 18 months has managed to speak with all owners. I take my hat off! His words also show what an acquisition ultimately means. AccorHotels should speak to its colleagues.
Hoteliers that don't have operations under control will be whisked off on a rollercoaster ride. This is the fear in Dubai: RevPAR there is pathetically low, supply is growing and growing and there is no end in sight. So the success-spoiled Arabs are keeping quiet again. Where there's no sparkle, there's no communication and no critical questions. Although – a few superlatives were again announced, but the city urgently needs these as bait. Otherwise, the beds and the cash registers will remain empty before 2020 – because fixed costs consume profit. By the way, food waste is 50% higher during Ramadan, an expert has found out. He recommended waste management as part of the future cost control strategy. Astounding that he was allowed to speak about this at the ATM.
And other news: The EU is contemplating charging every British national entering the EU a fee. If this happens, the tables will presumably be turned again... This and more in today's edition, whose contents move between ecstasy and fear of the future.
And an aside on a personal note: Our HITT community is growing, we look forward to the Think Tank on 10/11 June in Berlin – and also to your registration. I'm still missing a few names.
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Follow us on LinkedIn / The Think Tank www.hitt.world
Dear Insiders,
European tourism is booming, and in this issue, we are focusing on two markets that are currently much talked about: the Austrian capital of Vienna and Poland. Vienna is experiencing investments as never before. We see young, fresh concepts as well as luxury hotels, hostels, serviced apartments and budget hotels. But there are still cautioning voices about excess capacities, justified by dropping average rates. Martin Schaffer, a marketing expert of the MRP Hotels consultancy, now counters saying that the slight drop in rates did not occur because of a lack of occupancy, but due to a shift in hotel categories. The Viennese market needs even more hotels to stay attractive in the long run, analyses Schaffer.
In Poland, the political situation causes the EU quite a headache, but investors are extremely keen on this country and its many desirable destinations, which are experiencing an extraordinary tourist boom. Our author Marcy Marvel looked inside the development of the Orbis hotel group which has a lock on the country and is in the process of expanding to CEE more strongly.
Talking about AccorHotels: Last night several media reported that AccorHotels is interested in acquiring Moevenpick Hotels. Sébastien Bazin has neither confirmed nor denied it. In Dubai, Maria Puetz-Willems was told two days ago that deal was done. As a listed company AccorHotels will probably soon confirm it, in particular when the CEO starts speaking about it.
Exactly, Maria went east this week visiting the Arabian Travel Market and reporting on the latest curiosities in this region today, which is still tumbling in a construction boom and recently discovered a new way of releasing new endorphins: artificial intelligence and Smart City. Dubai is fiercely experimenting in collaboration with partners to seize digital control over travellers. The hotel industry suffers from the ever-increasing supply, but firmly believes in the final redeemer named Expo 2020. Only a handful of CEOs are preparing their owners for many years of rollercoaster riding afterwards. Today, Maria will provide initial impressions, while there will be more to read next week.
From the USA, Airbnb is now facing a lot of pushback. The mighty American Hotels & Lodging Association is demanding politicians to reveal covert tax agreements. After all, Airbnb is now becoming a hotelier itself. Marriott’s decision to enter the home-sharing business on a massive scale is also meant as an action against Airbnb, but it is also a catch-up race against its own hotel competitors. Fred Fettner looks at the situation around the sold financial disaster of Grand Tirolia in Kitzbuehel and the entry of a real estate shark at Klagenfurt Airport and in the hotel industry. And a young, unsecure travel generation prefers booking at a travel agency rather than via mobile phone. And finally, there are a few interesting staff changes.
Yours, Susanne Stauss, Senior Editor
Your opinion? susanne@hospitalityinside.com
Follow us on LinkedIn / The Think Tank www.hitt.world
Dear Insiders,
Today is Friday – hospitalityInside day. Correct! But this is also correct: yesterday evening, you received additional mail from us, for a good reason! The programme of the 1st HITT, our think tank taking place in Berlin in June, is complete. IBM Watson's chief technology officer confirmed his participation as the final top-notch speaker. Moreover, the circle of sponsors and partners grew by four renowned companies: the HSDS software solutions specialist, the Drees & Sommer project controller, Expo Real Munich and its Real Estate Innovation Network, and the Hotelschool The Hague. You can find all the details presented in a new way under www.hitt.world. Including a booking form. Seven weeks from now, our seminar ship will cast off in Berlin!
Hot of the press this morning: Ctrip.com, China's leading OTA and provider of travel related services in china, covering two third of the travel market, announced that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding regarding its partnership with AccorHotels. It will allow Ctrip’s over 300 million registered users to access AccorHotels’ global brands portfolio with 4,300 hotels and
10,000 private homes in 100 countries, to join their loyalty programmes and make the companies cooperate on IT. Both companies will embark on a deeper cooperation, AccorHotels' press release said at 7 a.m.
In our hotel magazine, the daily routine continues, which mainly consists of chains that get bigger: accordingly, Louvre Hotel Group has reached the mark of more than 2,600 hotels and faces its next brand explosion announcing four new luxury brands. But there is more. CEO Pierre Frederic Roulot talks about time-consuming mistakes in detail among other things.
Last week, we discussed new recruiting ideas and the future of GMs, while today, Baerbel Schwertfeger analysed what algorithms are useful when it comes to selecting employees. Furthermore, she gathered critical and good aspects with respect to facial recognition. There is a great desire to use this method, which is already being used in certain industries, but there is also a lot of data abuse going on.
There are already initial mergers in the field of co-working: two giants from the US and China just found each other. Big Marriott achieved an initial milestone: the chain has managed to combine the loyalty programmes of Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Starwood. In Italy, an increasing number of investors is interested in design hotels and student apartments, while German business travellers are upset about things other than what hoteliers might assume, and the former head of A-ja Resorts, Holger Hutmacher, is now building up "Moon New Era Hotels" ... a totally crazy name that will hopefully become a brand with substance ...
Keep your feet on the ground!
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Follow us on LinkedIn / The Think Tank www.hitt.world
Dear Insiders,
That the hotel industry is quite immovable is reflected today in two contributions on the subject of HR: At the first specialist fair "TalentPro" in Munich, Baerbel Schwertfeger collected ideas from other sectors. There, scouts look for talent at events, filter photos of candidates via Google Image, major companies use chatbots for telephone interviews and career websites commit themselves to providing information within three seconds. And what does the hotel industry do on the very same afternoon at this fair? It removed itself to discuss old HR approaches away from other participants in a closed circle of HSMA members. Congratulations!
Compared to this, the German Hotel Directors Association is progressive. A discussion round comprised of GMs and HR professionals on the "operational Wunderkind” at least raised awareness of change at the HDV conference – away from the chef and towards the academic – and at the same time placed in context the future role of the director in a sensitive and practice-oriented way. Such exchanges at least help to move things forward.
Our HR focus today is also reflected in a number of the news. Sarah Douag has also taken the time to summarise the most interesting statements from the two CEOs Arne Sorenson and Chris Nassetta from their balance sheet call with analysts. Details on the subjects of Loyalty, Technology, China and Trump reveal differences between Marriott and Hilton.
Acquisitions continue in the industry. The Israeli Fattal Group is about to acquire a Dutch hotel group with 12 hotels. Fattal didn't officially announce the name yet, but we found trustful sources. Fattal Holdings therefore continues to grow silently and consistently. They meanwhile count 170 hotels with 33,000 rooms in 17 countries.
US franchise giant Choice has succeeded in taking a huge leap in Spain and Latin America with an agreement with the Spanish Sercotel Group. This makes sense, even if not all details of the deal are clear. AccorHotels chief Bazin can in future make a reservation for dinner meetings online. Their group has now acquired the table reservation specialist ResDiary.
From the world of hotel consortia, interesting news from Vienna this week. There, Heritage Hotels of Europe formed as new umbrella association – because Historic Hotels of Europe is disintegrating.
Hotels or hotel groups may, meanwhile, more often change brands or owner, though the flood of beds is not abating anywhere. In Germany, even the hotel association is warning of overcapacity.
We wish you pleasant reading!
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Follow us on LinkedIn / The Think Tank www.hitt.world
Dear Insiders,
The mood at the real estate fair in Cannes was similarly super-optimistic to that at other sector events up to now. The get-together on the Côte d'Azur also revealed that the exciting mega-projects are mostly located outside Europe. "Think big" is the message which Beatrix Boutonnet took with her.
Mandarin Oriental is also thinking about growing from S to M, from a niche player to a boutique hotel group of reasonable size. Slow, organic growth almost guarantees being able to integrate innovative ideas at the same time. COO Christoph Mares is thinking less of high-tech here and more about classic elements – about trendy bars, smaller more flexible spas and the new guest recognition programme "Fans of M.O.".
Just what will become of the pop-up concept at the Lovelace Munich when the temporary hotel project comes to an end remains to be seen. It's not very easy to find new suitable frameworks for such creative concepts – in strong contrast to the ease that the word "pop-up" exudes. Baerbel Schwertfeger interviewed the Lovelace founders Gregor Woeltje and Michi Kern.
AccorHotels again acquired 50% of a hotel group, HNA now sells its Hilton stake, Blackstone plans the acquisition of Spanish Hispania Hotels, TUI acquired a young destination management company, Juventus Turin builds its own hotel... The mergers, these and other hotel plans are unending. We have summarised the most important news from the last two weeks.
As regards Airbnb, Europeans should finally take a stand: The "sharing" platform now shares its guest data with the Chinese out of sheer fear of otherwise failing to get a piece of the pie in this country. Pressure from dictators is of course one thing, but how far can you get with ueber-tolerance? Airbnb simply laughs at efforts to persuade.
The hotel transactions in Spain are increasing. Cruise holidays are more popular than ever, companies continue to spend their money on business travel, Sabre Labs has published its Technology Report, Design Hotels and Orascom have reported their results for 2017.
And we will explain more today about our seminar ship, on which the HospitalityInside Think Tank will take place on 10/11 June. In case you're worried about missing the board or not being able to get off – we have a solution at hand. Swimming through the Spree and Havel can certainly get your thoughts flowing on "emerging technologies”. See here our Page 1 at hospitalityInside.com and the event detail on our floating forum at www.hitt.world. You will find the registration form there. The number of participants is limited for reasons of quality.
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Follow us on LinkedIn / The Think Tank www.hitt.world
Dear Insiders,
This week, an unusual deal was completed in the German hospitality industry: The men's fashion specialist Hirmer, headquartered in Munich, acquired the operating company of Travel Charme Hotels with retroactive effect as of 1 January. Hirmer has for years also been active – in individual cases – as hotel developer and investor. Now, it’s taken the leap into hotel operation. Lifestyle connects. hospitalityInside.com was informed early and was able to speak extensively with the new owners and with Giuliano Guerra from Travel Charme. The exclusive story now for you.
The other topics today have a very strong focus on technology and digitalisation. The issues raised in Berlin took us by storm, and we report this week on the Blockchain – including assessments by hotel groups. It really is a difficult subject, seemingly with its own logic and giving rise to lots of questions. But it's something we must all face!
Learn, question, dig deeper – and this is exactly what Cllinton Anderson has been doing, as of this year Head of Sabre Hospitality. He explains, amongst other things, how Sabre deals with data. A sample: "My traditional approach to data analytics is having a hypothesis and then analyzing the data and asking why somebody does something. When you have big data and analytics, you no longer care why. You are just looking for the correlation and you say if A then B. You don't have to know why B?"
Welcome to the future! In 2025, we human beings will no longer be kept waiting on the service hotline. A bot will be there for us. The customer has no more direct communication with the company. Also realistic is that in 2030 we will be flying around in drone-taxis or being shot through hyperloop high-speed tubes to our next destination.
Progress in distribution is comprised of many small elements in the hospitality industry. Louvre Hotels praised its new booking tool for groups as revolutionary innovation. It will go online in May.
Is that all too fast for you or is it too muddled? Then you're not alone. 89% of managers in Germany in many sectors share your frustration. They all reach their limits when it comes to the subject of digitalisation.
To relieve this frustration, I recommend our Think Tank in June in Berlin. In this unconventional, personal framework, you can ask all your questions, discuss uncertainties and work out solutions. Today, we present two of our high-calibre speakers – two professors who themselves look for answers: Andriew Lim, Professor for Technopreneurship and Innovation at the HotelSchool The Hague, on the subject of Artificial Intelligence and the Chine expert Wolfgang Arlt from the COTRI Research Institute on the Chinese perspective as regards Emerging Technologies. We'll provide further details after the Easter break, the current update can be found at www.hitt.world.
hospitalityInside.com will next appear on Friday, 6 April.
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Follow us on LinkedIn / The Think Tank www.hitt.world