Editorial
Dear Insiders,
What a week! A battle of David against Goliath: The world's second largest franchisor (Choice) wants to acquire the largest (Wyndham). Now the poker between lawyers begins. The question is whether Wyndham is currently worth only $7.8 billion or significantly more. We already provided detailed coverage on Tuesday/Wednesday via Breakings News and a further update.
It's all very reminiscent of Marriott and the 2016 bid from state-controlled Chinese insurance company Anbang, which tried to prevent Marriott from buying Starwood hotels. At stake in this battle was $12.3 billion. Eventually, the Chinese government put an end to such ambitions.
Now, two publicly traded American giants are facing off, and no government is going to call the companies off this time. After all, profit first is the American economic credo. It's getting exciting.
As luck would have it, we recently had an interview with Wyndham CEO Geoff Ballotti and were set to publish it today anyway. We do that now with especial pleasure, given that Geoff reveals many details about the franchise model and how more can easily be made out of the 9,150 hotels worldwide. He talks about the fees used to motivate owners and new brands like Vienna House that bring in new guests. The interview now takes on a special flavour with the takeover game in the background, perhaps showing that Choice Hotels will not have an easy time of it after all.
Another drama is unfolding in the midst of the Dutch hotelier family, the Van der Valks. Refugees are more profitable that tourist, one nephew discovered and cashed in. Professional companies earn millions because they see refugees as cash cows and are able to charge governments additional 100 euros per night. Hotels, holiday parks, cruise ships and others are all in on the game. Sarah Douag describes the family squabble that became public in court, shining a spotlight on a mega-moral issue.
Sarah also takes up ethical and moral issues with her short story for homeless people, to whom Dutch hoteliers open their doors - in stark contrast to America, where in Los Angeles there is a public debate about whether the homeless can be accommodated in the hotel alongside "normal" guests.
There is one thing that Dutch hoteliers are not happy about at the moment: they are complaining loudly about the tax increase for every guest from 2024: from 7 to 12.5%! The city wants to control overtourism this way, but the MICE sector will be hit the hardest. The waves are running high.
Owners and developers would also like to make money, but here through serious business, more specifically though emission-free existing real estate and its increase in value. The panel at the Expo Real hotel conference with Rubus Development, Art-Invest Real Estate, B&B Hotels and PKF hospitality showed that it works. All the same, a multitude of little things and the ever-present bureaucracy frustrate such ventures in practice. It was a very honest discussion about costs, wood modules, heat pumps, lousy communication, and an appeal to owners as well as to operators: Sit down together at last!
Premier Inn has published its H1 and MHP Hotels its Q3 figures. On the new website (Home), we now publish the balance sheets of the chains as soon as they become available. And before we start: On the universally accessible pages you will also find current and diverse news, this week on a planned underwater train as well as the next Hospitality Symposium in Heilbronn, and more.
Otherwise, Accor has been chasing MICE trends, and Hilton has again been researching the needs of different generations of travellers. Not everything is new, but there are a few numbers accompanying the publications. Every Friday we also publish personalia and our News Mix; there, among the little articles, there’s perhaps big news for you.
One personalia you’ll miss today: Kempinski CEO Bernold Schroeder, otherwise rather publicity-shy, announced the day before yesterday in the Süddeutsche Zeitung that he will not extend his contract, "surprisingly", according to the newspaper. Following a little deeper research yesterday, I can only say: A surprise is different. We'll stay tuned and will filter out the important news. We are no copy cats.
With us, you'll certainly not get bored! Today is your last chance to participate once again in our Investment Barometer. Just click here!
And again, the direct link to our new website! Behind the scenes, things are still a bit bumpy, as usual. But that’s no reason to shy away from contacting us if you have any problem logging in.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Dear Insiders,
The discussion on finance and the EU taxonomy requirements at the Expo Real hotel conference involved some very expert participants. Some names will not be known to everybody (Jean-Jacques Morin/Accor, Ufi Ibrahim/EEA, Manuel Ehlers/Triodos Bank), though others will certainly be familiar (Andreas Ewald/E&V and Roland Paar/Soravia). All of them wish to go down the ESG path together. If, yes, if the politicians finally manage to clearly regulate the financing standards! There was a lot of criticism on this point.
Everyone wants to set out into this new era, but they are being thwarted. Ufi Ibrahim from London did his best to provide motivation, to take away the fear of ESG: "It's simple, it's business in a smart way!"
Incidentally, this clear language ran through all the conference panels. We will summarise all of them over the coming weeks. For the first time, the Hospitality Industry Dialogue was dedicated to just a single topic. And the stream of visitors showed that it was high time to communicate more about sustainability. I, for one, still saw many sceptical faces in the hall though. At the other extreme though, the first masters of greenwashing were also noticeable.
The next few years will show who has understood the challenge ahead and how much of it has been implemented. And that goes for those who still need to look up the word cybersecurity. I hosted a panel on this topic at Expo Real 2017 (!). Now, it’s hitting one hotel group after the other. Quite arbitrarily.
Sarah Douag took a broad look at the issue of cyber-attacks, grilled Booking.com and heard from experts: AI and other innovations à la ChatGPT will make hacking attacks even more refined in future.
Motel One gave us a brief statement on the status quo following the cyber-attack it suffered at the end of September. Alexander Fitz, the CEO of H-Hotels, and his team were unlucky enough to fall victim to an attack in December 2022. "A nightmare," he says. Within 10 minutes, 90% of the front office system was scrambled; after that, employees were reduced to pen and paper for months. Thank you, Mr. Fitz, for providing invaluable details and advice on the experience to your colleagues today!
The sector is certainly experiencing ups and downs these days, as reflected in today's issue. What's the surprise of the week? a&o Hotels is being sold for €800 million - as we predicted at the end of March. Insiders confirm this and CEO Oliver Winter did not want to deny our question. In a few weeks, it will be official.
How was the 3rd quarter in Germany? Transactions are at a standstill. Expansions? More and more hotel groups from Spain want to conquer Italy. ESG & Procurement? Accor, Hilton, IHG, Marriott and Radisson want to form a purchasing syndicate in future and check their suppliers according to common specifications. New fish in Berlin.... There will be none.... The mega-aquarium at the Radisson Collection Hotel will not be rebuilt. Also because it is now clear: There was no clear cause of damage.
And what else do we have today? As always, the magazine features personalia and a news mix from the real estate market. And on our new public pages you will find a diverse selection of news including: Guide Michelin is now expanding into hotels, Berlin will soon host Germany's first sustainability summit, TUI is building a digital hub in Portugal, and a clever company has invented cement-free concrete block....
At the end of Expo Real week, we also have a personal message: On the "Expo Real" page, HospitalityInside says thank you! We also provide a retrospective and look ahead for 2024, including testimonials from our co-exhibitors. We have also added some nice motifs to the picture galleries from last Friday (start page).
Stay connected with us - also by clicking on our Investment BAROMETER! The online tool is always available and comes with a gift: we are giving away a brand-new book with questions and answers about sustainability. The key to the book is obtained by answering these questions on investments!
Till next Friday!
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
Chief editor
Dear Insiders, The Expo Real ends this afternoon and the hotel industry is probably the only sector that will go into the weekend with a smile on its face. From the very first day, there was a large crowd of hotel exhibitors, which thinned a little yesterday, but the conclusion was uniformly positive: fewer visitors, but higher-quality discussions.
Dear Insiders,
Will Expo Real next week be a crisis trade fair? For the asset class Hotel, the sun should certainly shine brighter than for offices, shopping centres or the residential sector. "Hotels are unfairly criticised," says a real estate appraisal expert at a time when devaluations are again rearing their heads. But Birger Ehrenberg warns - everyone - not to panic. For eight years, until June 2022, he was Chairman of the Board of the German Association of Real Estate Investment Experts (BiiS). He compares the current situation on hotel real estate market to the game Mikado: In this market, it’s very much a case of whoever moves first loses.
The numbers expert identifies opportunities and risks for hotel investors and operators, knows the connections between concept and personnel costs, and is aware of the various burdens. Still, he says: There is no solid evidence for massive price and value corrections. Beatrix Boutonnet interviewed him intensively and Ehrenberg concludes with four pieces of advice for those active in the hotel sector.
Claudia Sunderkamp and Philipp Linder from Hotour Hotel Consulting also advise increased sensitivity and case-by-case consideration in the hotel industry, and call on investors, operators and asset managers - of whom there are more and more on both sides - for more transparency and communication. And they illustrate with the use of two charts with two different types of hotels that there are several ways to a positive result. Only one thing must never change: a reasonable rent. Susanne Stauss conducted the interview with the two managing directors.
I also found Peter Krueger, CEO of TUI Hotels, an interesting person to talk to this week. He is an investment banker and M&A expert and has pulled TUI out of the corona-induced misery. He, too, will be at Expo Real and will participate at the Hotel Conference, in which all the panels will revolve around sustainability. What is the strategy behind this hotel company, which today has 420 hotels and will soon have 600? The power vehicles behind this are joint ventures, investment partnerships including the company's first own fund, and flexible distribution, even tailored to individual contracts.
It's also very dynamic this autumn: Europe's hotels report super occupancy figures by global standards, even overtaking the U.S.; at the same time, travellers are starting to save, say two market reports. In the Netherlands, the hotel market is moving only cautiously, but Amsterdam is pulling away - despite all the city's plans to curb tourism.
The EU has thrown a spanner in the works for Booking.com: The OTA giant has been prohibited from acquiring ETraveli, a mega-player in flight bookings. Booking.com gave us to understand that they want to continue despite the ban. Sarah Douag analyses the situation.
In Europe, the number of industrial robots is also growing steadily; it is already the second largest market after China. Numa Group is raising $59 million in fresh capital without disclosing exactly what it plans to use it for. And Jaeder Serviced Apartments and Timehouse are two more real estate- and capital-driven newbees getting in on the action and looking to merge hotel and apartment living.
Just in time for Expo Real the project news is increasing again, we add a few more personalia to this issue and new useful and colourful news on our Marketplace. There you will also find the hospitalityInside INVESTMENT BAROMETER: How do you see the future for investment? Cast your vote, preferable right here, online. What does your gut say?
Our marketplace next week is Expo Real! From Tuesday, the team will be on the road in Munich, and from Wednesday, the 27 exhibitors of the "World of Hospitality" are waiting for you for the agreed talks: All info and contacts can be found on our new Expo Real website!
We'll see each other in Munich. Without crisis mood. Panic is not the order of the day in the hotel industry, as our experts believe today.
P.S. If you haven't found your way to our new website yet, click here!
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Dear Insiders,
Our magazine is now also available on the new website for our subscribers. This link will take you to the news on this matter and to the new website. Surf away and let us know what you like and what you'd perhaps like us to add. Your subscription profile is stored on the website, it remains only for you to set a new password.
My highlight of the last week was the 15th Hogan Lovells Hotel Day in Berlin. Marc Werner has once again gathered the crème de la crème of the German hotel real estate world here - by invitation only. However, some members of this "hotel family" were more than a little quiet this year. Among the 180 guests were only three bankers, but quite a few project developers. Consequently, the stage belonged to the operators, all of whom are hugely excited about their record-breaking RevPAR increases in individual markets, but are well aware of the profit crash.
Reassuring: Interest rates are set to fall from here, and the devaluations of hotel properties are still bearable at around -20 percent. Disturbing: No one has an answer on how to make hotel real estate sustainable. Everyone just wants to tinker with the lease. Where is the creativity? Where the next Hotel Day will take place has not yet been determined. Marc, how about a desert island or united in a monastery hotel? With a guard at the door?
The EU sent such "gatekeepers" behind the gates four weeks ago to reflect: Six giant tech platforms, including Google, Meta and Microsoft, will now, as a result of new legislation (Digital Services Act) have to respect the rights of their customers and behave fairly in business. Get keyed up on this important topic with Macy Marvel and make sure the giants don't lay you in chains.
Another key we give into your hands in this edition is our annual Investment BAROMETER which we launch today, 12 days before the Expo Real, for the 10th time together with our cooperation partner Union Investment. And, of course, the questions revolve around investments - currently more exciting than ever. Those who participate have the chance to win a book with questions and answers about sustainability that is as exciting as it is up-to-date. Everyone can participate! See Marketplace.
On our - new, public - Expo Real page you will find everything about the fair: Portraits and direct links to our exhibitors at the World of Hospitality, mini-interviews in the context of BRICKS & BRAINS, and a news item on the hotel conference on the 1st Day of the Trade Fair: For the first time, the Expo Real is dedicating the entire "Hospitality Industry Dialogue" to one topic: Sustainability. A programme with many unknown as well as prominent names.
Our news in the magazine today is as colourful as it is real, starting with Alexa, who can now communicate even better thanks to her own chatbot, continuing with the hotel market in Poland, the reasons for which young people are dropping out of apprenticeships, and ending with the personalia and the weekly news from the hotel real estate market.
And last but not least, there is Dirk Iserlohe of Honestis AG/Dorint Hotels, who, with a lawsuit over the Parkhotel Bremen, has managed to get the Federal Constitutional Court to finally address the unequal treatment of mid-sized, affiliated hotel companies in the pandemic. This is an important step for the entire industry. Dorint is not the only one missing the last payments from the government - amounts running into the millions. Dehoga and the Hotel Association have not said anything on this subject for a very long time.
Surf a little over our new structure - and you will discover many new things. One partner who already feels at home with us and is even launching its second article today is F&B Heroes. They are dedicated to the "Amazing Places" in hotel gastronomy. Worth reading!
And of course we also hope that you, dear readers and users, will also find HospitalityInside a fascinating marketplace where you can encounter many ideas and new names.
Maria Pütz-Willems,
editor-in-chief
Dear Insiders,
Biodiversity is more than the protection of wild flowers, endangered honey bees and others insects. It is also about the deliberate destruction of forests and the erosion of mountain slopes as well as about the hotelier's responsibility for nature on their doorstep. Resorts, in particular, will need to address this. Those who don't will soon find themselves in trouble with the law and face penalties as well.
Many lawyers are already preparing for such an occurrence. The issue has given rise to a new specialty field for them closely linked with sustainability, e.g. Climate Risk Lawyers. The young Cambridge graduate Zaneta Sedilekova has become such an expert, and at our Think Tank in June she was able to set out crystal-clear, with youthful verve, great passion and enormous detailed knowledge, what awaits us. Her presentation was a "wake-up call", not only for HITT executives, but hopefully for you today. And I mean that in the most positive sense.
Those who begin to think about these issues early on will recognise that biodiversity is an area of "low-hanging fruit." Things that most hoteliers have cherished for a long time as a matter of course, but do not know how much this will help them in their ESG balance sheet in the future. Sarah Douag interviewed Zaneta again after her talk and well-deserved summer vacation - a great, understandable article for Biodiversity Newbees.
The other big topic today seems far drier than biodiversity. But with USALI, even that has its justification. In 2025, the next new (12th) edition will be available; Macy Marvel has summarised the upcoming changes tothe standardised accounting framework for the industry, in particular with regard to the headings ESG criteria, services, loyalty programmes and balance sheet accounts.
Speaking of resorts: A glut of capital is about to flood this segment. Spanish investment giant Azora is just launching a €2 billion resort fund - focused on the Mediterranean and targeting Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, but also Germany and Belgium.
I was wondering while editing this message: How will these resorts be built, how will they be geared to climate change, sustainability and changing tourist flows? Or will it just be another concrete block, trimmed for maximum profit per square meter? Where is the responsibility of the investors? Before Corona, resorts were still considered highly toxic.
In Germany, insolvencies are now increasing massively across all sectors. Of the nearly 120,000 establishments analysed, 11.9% (in absolute terms: 14,219) of all restaurants, pubs, snack bars and cafés are classified as at risk of insolvency. Equally frustrating: Tourist destinations are strikingly weak in their digital marketing. And even more drastic: Ghosting is on the rise. More and more applicants simply do not turn up for work despite signing a contract or otherwise quit during the training phase.
Today's mix of motivation and head-shaking continues in market news and personnel. Finally, I would like to motivate you to take another look at our additional content on our public pages Marketplace and today especially on the Expo Real page (both in new web design): There, you will find two short interviews, which we conducted with our BRICKS & BRAINS sponsors Adina and KN General Agency.
Likewise, you will find the programme of the Expo Real conference "Hospitality Industry Dialogue" in a news item, which for the first time is included under a single focus: sustainability! You will find a number of unknown names in the five panels - and it is precisely these that you should get to know, because they have greatest influence in the interplay between politics and the industry.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Dear Insiders,
Arabella Hospitality, based in Munich, is back as an active hotel operator eager for expansion. Its new strategy focuses, among other things, on the fresh franchise soft brands from Marriott and on the two luxury classics St. Regis (also Marriott) and Rosewood (New World). Noble or efficient, expensive or affordable. With this, CEO Karl-Heinz Pawlizki serves two poles of the market where money can be made.
The new ultra-luxury Rosewood Munich hotel will open slightly later than originally planned, now in mid-October, but still with the anticipated €1,000 starting rate. Everything has to fit. During my flying visit this week, the workmen were still in full swing. Just in time for the Oktoberfest, on the other hand, Marriott's second Residence Inn opens, but this time operated by Arabella - a first. A solid, pleasant extended-stay product in a prime location; you can literally smell the cash.
Arabella intends to grow further in German-speaking Europe (DACH) and in Spain. "We can still open a hotel anywhere," says the CEO, "but please always without rigid standards!" This applies just as much to city hotels as to the leisure destinations. The new impetus for the new strategy stems from the transformation of Schörghuber Holding: Everything is decentralised again!
In my view, this makes for an exciting read today as it shows both how to pivot and how to optimise strategies. And equally exciting is our second mega-story today: The Energy & Environment Alliance in London, which hardly anyone in continental Europe knows about. The EEA is in the process of defining the (EU) standards and definitions for sustainable hotel real estate and its financing. And with powerful partners like BREEAM at its side. The EEA's members include many committed hotel investors, operators, banks, lawyers and many others, and they all want to have a say and help shape the future of their hospitality real estate!
Ufi Ibrahim founded EEA in 2020; insiders are most likely to recognise her name from her time as CEO of UKHospitality, the British trade association. Or from her ten years at WTTC. She is a dazzling networker and an analytical strategist.
Now she is once again trying to give structure and a face to a helpless industry. Under the pressure of ESG regulations, Ufi starts at the most delicate point: with the investors and the NON-existing shoulder-to-shoulder between hotel investors and hotel operators. A mega-plan, a mega-project.
In our news today, you can read about a new global study on shopping tourism, which has by no means reached its full potential. In Berlin, German tourism professionals fluffed the opening of the National Platform on the Future of Tourism, and the hospitality industry association Dehoga is now getting a lot of "pro" votes from the public in the fight to keep the reduced VAT rate in place. After gastro sales disappointed in the summer, the tax issue is now slowly becoming existential.
And last but not least, today is about ourselves: We are launching the first pages this morning as part of our website relaunch. For the first time you will see the Event pages and the Marketplace in the new design. Just in time for the real estate fair, we present our exhibitors on our Expo Real page! We have also integrated the previously separate HITT Think Tank site into our core product.
On all public pages we will offer more free content for everyone in the future: Expert contributions from content partners (such as from F&B Heroes today), colourful announcements and news with real utility value - primarily around the topics of sustainability and digitalisation. As always with hospitalityInside, the editors make a careful selection of news and of course only from reliable sources.
Just take a look... We are open to your suggestions. The switch of the magazine from the old to the new system will follow shortly. Along with the more than 30,000 articles the editorial team has written since 2005.
We'll keep writing then!
Till next Friday!
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Dear Insiders,
The Lehman crisis of 2008/09 caught the financiers, Covid-19 the operators and today’s multiple crisis now catches the project developers. They are no longer able to secure finance. "They too must now understand that everything has a cycle," the manager of a hotel group told me this week, who of course - like many - is hoping that, as the pipeline dries up, the cost of land, project planning and construction will plummet again.
The project developer market is facing a consolidation, and that across all asset classes. The hotel industry is still in a relatively good position compared to residential property or offices. B&B and Dorint are optimistic, as is Radisson, although their project in Cologne is affected by the insolvencies of Corestate and Gerchgroup and the domino effect those have created. Max Luscher, Dirk Iserlohe and Max Gross explain their situation and point of view.
Beatrix Boutonnet also provides more general insight today and lets consultants, financial experts and investors have their say. The overall forecast: One-third of project developers are likely to go bankrupt and no new construction will be financed by 2025.
But let's talk about more positive things: An unknown but very socially minded hotelier family from Menorca invented the "Solidarity Room" in the first Corona summer: Whoever books this room will donate the entire amount to Caritas for people in need. The idea has become a national project, massively supported by Caritas Spain and the Dutch sustainability bank Triodos. This is best practice of the most social kind, just as the "S" in ESG would like it to be.
As a hotelier, how much good do you do for people in need or the community around you? Let me know! Journalism is also about publishing good things.
Austrian hoteliers now really have to worry about ESG and in particular about the S in that acronym. Policymakers are now beginning to collect sustainability data from the industry. In line with the new EU reporting obligation (valid as of this year), every hotel entrepreneur must participate, collect measurements in the company and also disclose how active they are in the social sphere. The relevant ministry and the sector together prepared the questionnaires, by company size. Everyone understands the drive, says our colleague Fred Fettner.
We can no longer deny climate change. That's why one US-American scientist is imploring the nations of the world to cooperate unconditionally and without borders. Otherwise, the follow-up costs of the disasters will bring about national bankruptcy. And very quickly.
Some things can make you dizzy, because still - almost everywhere in the world - money, greed and power continue to drive economies along old lines. The Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund is investing one billion euros in 24 Meliá hotels in Spain and 27 hotels in Japan. Sarah Douag brings us the background.
The summer season in France has been analysed by Macy Marvel. The 2022 record has been broken, and occupancy declined on some coastal regions. Nevertheless, RevPAR shot up.
The "Wanderlust" on wheels is unbroken, only a few small details have changed. Otherwise, mobile travel is bursting with potential. And the fuel takes caravanning and mobile home fans to the most beautiful areas.
Business travellers, on the otherhand, do not always attach importance to beautiful routes, but certainly to cheap taxi fares. Munich wants to make it possible. The trial starts there today, 1 September. Hamburg and Berlin want to follow suit.
We round off our edition today with the usual interesting mix of market news and personnel, and we also commemorate two hoteliers who have passed away: Hans-Peter Kolditz, a well-known name from Accor Germany, and Elena David, who was CEO of the Italian UNA Group for 16 years, among others.
I wish you a pleasant week.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Dear Insiders,
Have you returned refreshed from the summer break? Or did you, like many Italians fleeing the high prices in their own country, find yourself on a deck chair in Crete? There, on this Greek island, our colleague Massimiliano Sarti relaxed and pondered Italy's latest strange trend. And in doing so, he saved the €20 (at least!) that he would have had to pay for that deck chair if he’d stayed in Italy.
Or did you perhaps make one of the 8.55 million overnight stays Dubai announced for the first half of the year? If you were, then you contributed to a new tourism record there. The Glitzy City shines brightly again with the luxury and leisure hotels twice as expensive as they were before Covid-19. Dubai is booming again. But for how long?
We asked Dubai insiders - market experts from Accor and IHG, local hotel newcomer Azizi Development, which is set to make its own massive contribution to new (over-)supply, as well as the Global Hotel Alliance, which already sees the peak and the following slowdown. But: The Arabs are consistently implementing their vision. They are brimming with self-confidence. A comprehensive article with facts, figures and opinions.
Dubai makes Europe look old and tired (once again). Here, hotel chains can't even gloat about their increases in luxury, let alone describe them, even though they all brag about it on their balance sheets. Susanne Stauss was irritated by the communicative incompetence of at least some groups after the vacation period.
We'll stick to the positive news: Vienna shines like kings again. The city counted more than 9 million overnight stays in the 1st half of the year and 70% more revenue.
Once again to Italy: Investors do not judge the country from a deck-chair perspective. They see inflation and all the cost increases, but once again smell their opportunities in secondary destinations and resorts. Filtering out the opportunity, however, is a complex puzzle. But Massimiliano Sarti has also made his own thorough assessment and shares it today. Investors/buyers and sellers are converging.
Over the next 12 months, consumers will spend 28% more money on travel, says the latest global consumer study, but they will finance their trips differently. Hotels, at any rate, remain in demand. And, if they want to sleep sweetly in the Chocolate on the Pillow Group beds in future, they can also check in more efficiently. This is now done by an avatar, with a customised program and already in use in the hotels. Erik Florvaag speaks of a mega step forward in digitalization.
Ennismore is also making it own path with its loyalty programme, which aims to entice Accor ALL members to make more lifestyle bookings at new destinations. Let’s wait and see. We in the editorial team are also waiting to see what lies behind the new strategy of the Schörghuber Group and Arabella Hospitality. Even the new annual report didn't reveal much about that. But you will know soon.
There is more to worry about in the German hotel industry, which is entering its 4th consecutive year of losses. All thanks to incompetent politicians in Berlin, it continues to stumble forward. With the end of the summer break, things will soon get even more turbulent.
This summer has many faces. We, at least, have been reinvigorated by the sun. Now it’s your turn to benefit from this, every Friday again...
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief
Dear Insiders,
Have you returned refreshed from the summer break? Or did you, like many Italians fleeing the high prices in their own country, find yourself on a deck chair in Crete? There, on this Greek island, our colleague Massimiliano Sarti relaxed and pondered Italy's latest strange trend. And in doing so, he saved the €20 (at least!) that he would have had to pay for that deck chair if he’d stayed in Italy.
Or did you perhaps make one of the 8.55 million overnight stays Dubai announced for the first half of the year? If you were, then you contributed to a new tourism record there. The Glitzy City shines brightly again with the luxury and leisure hotels twice as expensive as they were before Covid-19. Dubai is booming again. But for how long?
We asked Dubai insiders - market experts from Accor and IHG, local hotel newcomer Azizi Development, which is set to make its own massive contribution to new (over-)supply, as well as the Global Hotel Alliance, which already sees the peak and the following slowdown. But: The Arabs are consistently implementing their vision. They are brimming with self-confidence. A comprehensive article with facts, figures and opinions.
Dubai makes Europe look old and tired (once again). Here, hotel chains can't even gloat about their increases in luxury, let alone describe them, even though they all brag about it on their balance sheets. Susanne Stauss was irritated by the communicative incompetence of at least some groups after the vacation period.
We'll stick to the positive news: Vienna shines like kings again. The city counted more than 9 million overnight stays in the 1st half of the year and 70% more revenue.
Once again to Italy: Investors do not judge the country from a deck-chair perspective. They see inflation and all the cost increases, but once again smell their opportunities in secondary destinations and resorts. Filtering out the opportunity, however, is a complex puzzle. But Massimiliano Sarti has also made his own thorough assessment and shares it today. Investors/buyers and sellers are converging.
Over the next 12 months, consumers will spend 28% more money on travel, says the latest global consumer study, but they will finance their trips differently. Hotels, at any rate, remain in demand. And, if they want to sleep sweetly in the Chocolate on the Pillow Group beds in future, they can also check in more efficiently. This is now done by an avatar, with a customised program and already in use in the hotels. Erik Florvaag speaks of a mega step forward in digitalization.
Ennismore is also making it own path with its loyalty programme, which aims to entice Accor ALL members to make more lifestyle bookings at new destinations. Let’s wait and see. We in the editorial team are also waiting to see what lies behind the new strategy of the Schörghuber Group and Arabella Hospitality. Even the new annual report didn't reveal much about that. But you will know soon.
There is more to worry about in the German hotel industry, which is entering its 4th consecutive year of losses. All thanks to incompetent politicians in Berlin, it continues to stumble forward. With the end of the summer break, things will soon get even more turbulent.
This summer has many faces. We, at least, have been reinvigorated by the sun. Now it’s your turn to benefit from this, every Friday again...
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief