Editorial

Dear Insiders,

Let me put it a little provocatively: The hotel world is increasingly splitting into the tech-driven, in some cases staff-less hotels on the one side and the luxury gems on the other. In the latter, guests only dig deep into their pockets for "hand-made" and "hands-on". What unites both types is that they have financially strong investors: greedy VCs on the one hand, who poker with capital and concepts, and the rich with a more long-sighted view looking for hotels for their personal well-being on the other.

Since Limehome and Numa with their disruptive approach have been around, we as an editorial team have been asked, how are they actually different? The answer is in the details, as always. In a piece of very extensive research, our colleague Sylvie Konzack took an in-depth look at both companies and their "digital" concepts. The result was not only a written text, but also a matching six-page table in which both had to answer the same questions: from their financing to revenues, tech systems, AI ratio, and comparative data on the classic hotel industry. And more.

I would therefore like to take this opportunity to thank the management of Limehome and Numa for their openness. It has become rare for companies to reveal so many details to specialist media, even if they have kept certain things still a little vague.

This is journalism as we understand it - as a partnership with the movers & shakers of the industry. We bother nobody with PR-heavy copy&paste morning newsletters, but go into depth in a focused and professional way.

If you are dealing with wealthy investors and their self-esteem, you certainly have to know the figures, but you also have to be much more sensitive. After all, the "software" of luxury hotels is different. This once again becomes clear in our interview with Bernold Schroeder, CEO of Kempinski Hotels. After two years of "silence" he speaks again. It's a long interview, but one that shows the headline-grabbing luxury hotel group of 2020 has found itself again.

Kempinski Hotels is once again doing "very well", Schroder says "We have continued to work quietly and persistently". Among other things, he reports a stabilised team and 19 new management contracts for Kempinski Hotels and the equally fast-growing Kempinski Residences. Investor confidence in the Group has also been restored.

Reading the next 2022 balance sheets from the chains, shrieks of joy are understandable. Nevertheless, it is important to keep our feet on the ground: The global pipeline is currently flattening out significantly - which also reflects a tiny detail: The world's largest real estate broker, CBRE, is already laying off a hospitality executive in Germany.

Real estate is one thing, people are another though. This industry is currently so deep in a mess that one is no longer surprised when German-speaking students, whatever subject they study, quickly turn away as soon as they hear the words "hospitality industry". And worse still: Even the tourism students do not want to work in this industry later.

This sector really is performing the balancing act of its life.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Your opinion? editor@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

The gulf is widening in the industry. First in terms of mood: The German hotel/restaurant industry is still hanging on somewhere between light and shade, while the Swiss already feel the sun shining again. In both countries, local industry associations have just taken stock of 2022.

And from this we also read/hear that it's the medium-sized companies that have developed organically in the heart of Europe that are suffering more from the negative side, much more than the chains. Accor and IHG report very encouraging results for 2022 this week, but they shouldn't get ahead of themselves: In financial terms, global players can simply make the world look good more quickly. In this respect, a new, larger gap of inequality is also emerging here. The big companies just get bigger, while the little ones quite simply get fewer.

And another gulf is already developing quickly, threatening to swallow the old hotel brand world. Indeed, the current drivers are the hyper-creative ones. Their brand concepts shoot like mushrooms from the ground; at high speed, they copy the familiar and remix the ideas. And most of them immediately find enthusiastic business angels. I'm curious to see which of the 12 young, fresh, infectious hospitality and serviced apartment brands we're featuring today won't have been swallowed by the gulf in five years.

Growing by means of a copy/paste approach is certainly faster. Marcelo Mangia of the Italian brand Mangia's also wants to grow strongly - and has therefore taken the business models of international brand groups as a model. Why invent something new, why be a disruptor?

Airbnb is still adored worldwide, just like Booking.com, they brought the big disruption. But they also caused a lot of trouble. Now the EU is fed up with them too. Italy is demanding €153 million back from Booking.com for suspected tax evasion. And Parisian lawyers are also reacting sharply: In a rental dispute, they have classified Airbnb as an "operator" rather than a "simple host". That changes accountability.

One year ago today, the war against Ukraine began. What consequences did this have on travel? Quite simply: Rich Russians continued to travel, whilst everyone else stayed at home. This is evidenced by the aircraft movements in 2022. For a few weeks now though, things have been changing.

The hotel real estate world is also robust, according to JLL and its "Global Hotels Investment Outlook": According to the report, many investors want to continue investing in hotels. Finally, RevPAR has reached or exceeded 2019 levels across Europe. The Global Hotel Alliance, an association of international hotel groups, also takes a positive view of the world: Its cross-brand revenue increased to $168 million in 2022, up 25 percent from 2019.

Speaking of responsibility: At Adina, Deutsche Hospitality and Novum Hospitality, C-level executives are currently taking their leave; this information from sound sources has been confirmed to us by the companies. However, there are no successors yet in any of the cases.

In summary: Despite all the ups and downs, everyone remains positive. Are you too? Or have you been swallowed by the gulf too?

In order not to float between light and dark, I always like to talk to people from other cultures and industries. And you can find them, for example, at multinational conferences like HOTCO in Vienna at the end of March: when "Western and Eastern Europe" meet and talk about everything - from megatrends like resorts to everyday dilemmas and social change. More about the conference on our page 1.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Your opinion? editor@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

Beyoncé raked in a whopping $24 million for her 60-minute performance at the recently opened Atlantis The Royal Dubai, our correspondent Sarah Douag found out. The event was teeming with celebrities and influencers. In the sea of camera flashes and selfies, did the audience even see the 90 pools, the jellyfish tanks, the 17 F&B outlets and the 3,000-sqm spa?

The message is as clear as glitter: Dubai wants to remain "the land of tomorrow". Sheikh Al Maktoum's $1.4 billion hotel on the Palm salutes its Saudi neighbours - who, for their part, are coming up with ever crazier architectural designs and attractions. Kindergartens in Arabia are big - and often cute.

Teenagers and freaks in Europe, too. Everyone wants to change the world, but only according to their will, please. International surveys are now exposing Gen Z and "the last generation": Especially the young - those between 18 and 28 - want to travel the most and then preferably far away! And preferably by plane. Some climate activists have glued themselves to the tarmac, but the majority are sticking with the plane. "It's easier to protest with Fridays for Future than to make your own holidays climate-friendly as well," Fred Fettner writes, summarising this highly interesting analysis of figures from three sources.

And with that, we jump into the real world, which simply demands that CEOs like Oliver Winter of a&o Hostels stay grounded. Neither gold nor glue helped him re-acquire 500 lost employees at high speed in order to fully capitalise on the surprise travel boom in 2022. Last year, he exceeded revenue figures from 2019 by €22 million, despite the crisis, the loss of staff expertise and quality. And despite hostel segment, where each one euro increase in price already leads to cancellations. I enjoyed this intensive interview because it shows how nimble hoteliers can be in dealing with crises.

The global chains can pull out many more stops to take themselves back to profitability in the end. But they also have reason to cheer: The historic low has been overcome, in fact even the figures from 2019 have been surpassed - at Choice, Hyatt, Marriott and Scandic, all of which released their 2022 financial statements this week.

Positive news also from the micro world of medium-sized operators: With the - unknown - Michel Hotels, Achat CEO Philipp von Bodman has just added 1,600 rooms, thus consistently expanding the existing mix of business and leisure hotels at the same quality level. This looks like a perfect fit.

By contrast in Germany, nothing seems to come together for companies that want to become more digital. Instead they're faced with bureaucratic hurdles. A phenomenon that includes hotel companies. That's why we're letting numbers do the talking here today, too.

Figures, projects and concepts are not only the focus of our weekly news mix, but also of the HOTCO conference in Vienna at the end of March, where everything revolves around the larger CEE region, SEE, the Baltics, the Caucasus and the CIS countries. More on this on our Page 1.

Have a golden week!

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Your opinion? editor@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

Error! AI – artificial intelligence – does not have a fitting answer for every guest review. Its wording is not sensitive enough, as machines simply do not filter sensitivity. Benjamin Jost, CEO of TrustYou – the largest review data base in the world – just misses authenticity in automized wording. Highspeed feedback saves time and costs, but does it keep the friendship with a critical guest? An interesting exchange between the software developer of MARA, TrustYou and hotelier Marco Nussbaum.

AI is a face of the ongoing change. The new working world, New Work, is another. It sounds sexy and dynamic. The challenge: companies willing to offer New Work will have to transform themselves first. Two oldies explain how this is done: Seminaris Hotels and TUI.

Meanwhile, slow travel is far away from highspeed and work of any kind. This is not a trend anymore, but a mind-set you live in nature – in a hay bed, a glamping treehouse or a luxury ecolodge. Cooking is done at an open fire, please. There is no electricity. Pure detox!

Today, Sarah Douag describes the colourful variety on the market and emphasizes a Dutch initiative that even a fund is now showing its interest in. I already see the dollar signs in the eyes of pure nature fans! And indeed, a new field of business is opening up. And I have absolutely nothing against that as there is one thing that will not be participating: AI.

Time and again our industry shows its fascinating antipodes and that it combines contradictory products in peaceful co-existence. You should therefore look at the profiles of today’s new travellers that have transpired from various surveys. Things get more sober and factual when it comes to today’s country reports, takeovers and financial statements.

And today’s numerous staffing issues, the News Mix and our announcement on the next HOTCO Investment Conference moving from Budapest to Vienna also fit the general vibe of change. Marius Gomola of Horwath HTL Hungary organizes this special format for hotels in the major CEE region. And we are happy to be on board again as a media partner. There are still early bird tickets available until February 15.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Your opinion? editor@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

On Wednesday, Dorint Hotels opened its 66th hotel in Garching near Munich, batting away 20 competitors in order to do so. Good locations are in demand, and this location in the middle of the business park still has a special charm. And despite the crisis, it's a 4-star full-service hotel with conference rooms. "We're all glad we didn't decide to move away from meetings and conferences," CEO Jörg Böckeler and COO Bettina Schütt both affirm in a conversation with us afterwards. In large part, business is back. And this is also visible at Dorint which is able to show significant growth rates across all KPIs.

Everyone in the industry knows how much the German hotel group fought its way to the top before corona. All the more positive that, behind the scenes, it was able to take full advantage of the pandemic lockdowns: It replaced systems, optimized concepts and initiated new motivation programmes for employees. It lost fewer employees than the national average. During the pandemic, the management team took a closer look at many corners of the company, drew positives from the crisis and straightened its path.

In Austria, the migrant-employee issue is turning into a game of political poker between the parties, as our colleague Fred Fettner witnessed live at the annual ÖHV meeting in Salzburg last week. What I always like about Austrian Hotel Association: It constantly and with great relish manages to challenge politicians because it always seeks the best for its industry. And it even likes to talk about it publicly. Hard to believe.

That communication helps to check one's own position and to get a sense of one's own activities measured against the competition. This became clear during the exchange of views at the AOHIS investors conference in Madrid, where we were also a media partner. And so today I again summarise statements from two talk rounds on the perennial issue of ESG. And on that topic: Investors have actually admitted that ESG is primarily a real estate issue, not an operator issue. You can find the article on our home page, accessible to everyone.

At the moment, China continues to amaze us. After the government banned its investors from investing in the West as recently as the end of 2022, the exact opposite is now the case again. They have the western hotel industry firmly in their sights once more!

The Swiss SV Hotel Group is also focussed on expansion but changes direction. It dilutes its absolutely unique, award-winning Stay Kooook serviced apartment concept to do so. This is now available not only with studio, kitchenette and movable partition, but also as a simple room product with a sink in the room. For me, this is a difficult decision to understand.

The ITB Convention programme has now slowly made its way online, but I for one still have no idea what awaits us in Berlin this year. The information is certainly very sparse.

We conclude this week again with interesting market news and personnel movements. Oh yes, there is one news item we are not bringing you today: the one about B&B Hotels' "best business year in history". The company cannot substantiate this claim with clear facts - and does not want to, even when asked. I will spare you this hot air.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Your opinion? editor@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

Children and 5 stars, can those two things reconcilable? The newly opened Falkensteiner Family Hotel in Montafon, Austria, says yes and proves it with its new Open Plaza concept: Over an area of some 1,795 square meters, games, sports, fun, edu- and ecotainment flow seamlessly into each other and also into the 1,245 square meter restaurant with sprawling buffet stations and live cooking. Children play, whilst adults read and relax: Everyone has everyone within eyeshot in this open space, between the climbing wall and football, multimedia room and science lab, catering and bar.

The hotel opened five weeks ago and was full at Christmas. After that, Falkensteiner CEO Michael Otmar raised rates. In the small Montafon, in the west of Austria, he now pushes through prices like in Sardinia. This is also helped by the spacious "rooms", which have a separate children's room for three, complete with its own bathroom. Michaeler wants more: to raise high-quality family hotels higher. The Leading Hotels, inspired by this concept, will now introduce a new "Family Hotel" label. I attended the official opening last weekend and enjoyed myself as well.

The name Falkensteiner appears again today - unintentionally - in another highly interesting article: My colleague Stefan Loipifinger, a respected critical financial analyst, explains the meaningful elements and pitfalls of crowdinvesting. As a financing alternative in an era of low interest rates, these crowd investments remain popular, but continue to operate in the grey capital market. Falkensteiner has now raised €41 million in capital via this route.

Costs and margins are the subject of my first presentation summary at the new investor conference AOHIS last week in Madrid. As mentioned last Friday, a successful premiere. Data analyst Hotstats identified laundry and energy as hefty cost drivers. The article is available free of charge to all on our page 1.

On our homepage you will also find detailed information about stand sizes and variations, prices and conditions for your exhibitor post at our "World Hospitality". Yes! There are only nine months left until Expo Real 2023. Time flies. Official registration begins in February! Talk to our stand professionals and secure your table or your individual special area that can be designed to your own stipulations. Being part of our annually growing premium network has many benefits!

Back to the magazine: Travel will be on the cards again this year, however: Economists, as well as hoteliers and restaurateurs, have words of caution and see tentative consumers who are looking to make savings after the inflation surge and are already cancelling trips. In Europe, white label operators are growing, and Austria still managed are respectable number of hotel transactions in 2022.

TUI is now also an OTA - and starts in the system with non-TUI hotels. The launch took place in online-affine Sweden, in DACH it is still taking time. We asked TUI about this. 

Sustainability is an ongoing topic, even among travellers. For you, the sustainability makers, we have therefore filtered out 15 important press releases today from a flood of announcements - focusing on the keywords of climate death, e-mobility and waste. In this context: Our next HITT Think Tank will take place on 26/27 June in Berlin. The programme is a work in progress, so keep checking back at www.hitt.world and watch our new video: Scenes from Think Tank 2022. And for the bargain hunters: The Super-Early-Bird rate is still available until 31 January!

We're all staying in the swing of things... Have a good week.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Your opinion? editor@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

Just three weeks into January and everything is already coming to a head. Don't you have the same impression? How else can one explain the fact that hotel groups are once again posting record figures. Have you noticed that most of the time they only talk about revenue and not about KPIs and not about EBITDA? And in the meantime, even renovations of two hotels have been exaggerated into big press releases. We keep such little announcements small for the moment, or don't mention it at all. What's going on out there? Is this simple actionism before the end?

A reader asked me last week why we didn't do an annual review. Quite simply: Everything negative about 2022 has already been said anyway, there's no need to repeat it. And why haven’t we posted our outlook? Because that would be like reading tea leaves this year. As never before, there is no blanket forecast; every case is different.

Incidentally, this was also noticeable at the AOHIS investor conference in Madrid, where I spent two days this week. Finally, an event again where those on the panels were willing to make a deep dive into the content and didn't do a PR dance on stage. With 280 top-class participants, organizer Hoftel managed an impressive premiere. Nevertheless, I will write about it only from next week. First, I need to sort through the many opinions and highly interesting facts. We don't want to drift into generalities.

I also visited the Spanish tourism fair FITUR for the first time. The Spanish prime minister had already proclaimed it the "new ITB" last year, but Spanish blood must have run away with him. I saw an all-Spanish fair with gigantically large booths of the national hotel groups and noisy South America halls full of garish light installations. From international hotel exhibitors I saw only one: Hilton. And the stand was empty at noon on the first day. Getting information in English was difficult. Speeches at the Tech Forum were also only in Spanish. Only the exit was correctly described as Exit. Is that a sign? The FITUR far away from being able to describe itself as international.

Accor raised its own claim again this week. Three news items chased each other one after the other: CEO Sébastien Bazin sold the remaining shares to Huazhu and made a lot of money in the process; Accor, like other chains, is now reaching out to the mid-sized private hotel industry with its new "Handwritten" brand and, thirdly, is also bundling the new "Living" feeling - after Lifestyle - on a new platform for investors, which is intended to stimulate their appetite for branded residences and private apartments in mixed-use projects. As always, Accor has set its sights on great things. And we wait again to see if it works.

Booking.com's cyber security system did not work. The president of the digital commission of the GNI, one of the largest hotelier associations in France, described to our colleague Sarah Douag how hoteliers identified the cyber attacks and how weak and far too late Booking reacted. Fabienne Ardouin is horrified: "If hackers can gain access to a platform, use our extranet, steal our emails, change a hotel's name and email address and phone number, change rooms and their rates, and create a mirror site without the many developers at Booking knowing.... this platform has a serious problem. And so do we!"

In Austria, tourism professionals have initiated an energy stress test for upscale hotels after policymakers made another tweak to the initial energy cost subsidy. Despite higher sales and subsidies, hotels will suffer losses. The cost spiral is fast becoming a stranglehold.

This oscillation between the super positive and the frustratingly negative runs through today's latest UNWTO data on tourism recovery, hotel real estate investments in Spain, and two court rulings on corona travel liability and lockdown business closures.

The new year has executives rotating again, just as the news mix reflects the project floods in the market. Another highly dynamic year has begun, a dance of temperaments.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Your opinion? editor@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

The leap into the new year has not changed much in the world. All the same, the people on the phone sounded much more positive again this week. We continue to hope and go further. And the Chinese are literally taking off again: They are flying again. Out of their frustration, they have developed "creative protests" in recent months, forcing a rethink in the Party. Michael Henssler, Kempinski's COO for Asia, has lived in China for 13 years and explains to us today how this turnaround came about within just a few weeks.

We back up his observations with an array of facts and current figures compiled by our China expert Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Arlt of the COTRI Research Institute: on the key questions now facing tourism professionals and hoteliers. But the travellers who are now lining up to get new passports will go for new destinations and with new expectations. Three years of lost travel opportunities have changed their desires.

Experts expect the first wave of travel from China at Easter. Visibly more will come in the autumn. They will also help European hoteliers to overcome their crisis.

If they weren't good and creative hosts, there wouldn't be as many to bring the positivity of the industry to other niches. The Flag, Lively, wohnvoll, GBI or Soravia - more and more founders, developers and investors from the hospitality scene are now diversifying their portfolios with modern apartment concepts and service models for people over 60. Or they start new companies. Certainly they are reporting on it today. Hospitality meets Senior Living.

Hospitality also meets Transformation. We've known that for a long time; the industry is in the middle of it. But now the insiders are talking specifically about transformation real estate. Those are existing properties across all assets that change their use or restructure at least 30% of the building: In view of the new climate targets, they have the greatest chance of survival if they are part of a mixed-use development. According to a study, this is the model investors trust most; hospitality experts should pay attention.

Even if, in retrospect, transactions in Germany did not fill up many an account in 2022, the mood here also remains positive at its core. The major real estate brokers and consultants have compared activity. Italian investors are also somewhat more modest at the moment and are currently preferring to seek value appreciation rather than M&A.

You always have to keep an eye on the digital world and increasingly on the dynamics in robotics, in which many countries are also investing a lot of money. A short global excursion into this niche... And as always at the beginning of the year, there is a tremendous flood of personalia as well as market and real estate news. A few will certainly sound familiar to you, but as always after a break, we bring you a larger summary. So that you always have something to browse through.

See you again next Friday, with the next news... This year will be again very dynamic. There is no lack of good ideas nor of goodwill anywhere. Everything else can hardly be influenced.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Your opinion? editor@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

Maybe the 730 windowless rooms in London's Zedwell boutique budget design hotel symbolise the current state of the industry at the end of the year in the best way possible: zero outlook, not even from a nice room with lots of wood. And during the night, the sun rises artificially: as a wreath of light at the round bath mirror ... Outside, around Piccadilly Circus, there is a lot going on: tourism is catching up and with it both rates and costs.

Up to 1,000 rooms could be easily scaled based on the Zedwell pattern, says the owner, Criterion Hospitality. The hotel is a profit maker. I'm convinced of that after I experienced the high-quality, but spartan room with 6 hooks. And yet: it is backed by a sophisticated declaration concept.

On the market this year, there is increased hyper dynamism – or total silence. In the third year, politics is throwing the whole industry to and from between these two extremes. Inflation and increasing costs eat up any additional turnover. Energy bills are becoming a matter of survival, not only in Germany. Hoteliers in the Italian alps are considering closing their businesses over certain periods.

At some point, things are going to explode, but much louder than the aquarium at Radisson Collection Hotel Berlin last Friday. Susanne Stauss researched background information for our Insiders. The shockwave after and thinking about what else could have happened are somehow symbolic for the current state of the industry: life after the gas bill depends on a due portion of luck and chance.

For three years, hoteliers in Europe have been fighting for their mere existence, often for their life achievement. They usually don't have capital giants in their backs like with Oyo, which have perfectly presented themselves as second world conquerors after Airbnb. Now, unsatisfied customers and sacked employees are taking the unicorn by the horn, and in China, local competition threw the unicorn right out of the market. After reading Sarah Douag's article, you will no longer have any sympathy for Oyo.

We are taking on the final issue of the year with additional news on the supply chain law taking effect in 2023, the new 500-million hotel fund by Engel & Voelkers and Gorgeous Smiling Hotels for medium-sized hotels, on the downward spiral of the German hospitality sector and on the soothing political support with respect to seasonal workers in Austria – even if it is just a small drop in the bucket.

I would have loved to end the year with more positive news, but journalists like us are not storytellers – we describe reality. hospitalityInside does not make up dream headlines just because they generate clicks. We know that our articles are still read.

In the name of the entire team, my husband Michael, our Managing Director, and I want to thank you very much for the numerous compliments and words of gratitude in the Christmas mail! It feels good, and we are happy to hand them on to our employees, our authors, and translators. Each of them has been there for us even in these uncertain times.

Our year 2022 was once again characterized by positive and constructive cooperation with business partners who, among other things, made a successful Think Tank and a lively Expo Real possible. Thank you! We are starting with new ideas and projects – and we are giving 2023 a new chance to become better.

The first issue in 2023 will be out on 13 January. Then it will be Friday again – the Hospi day.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Your opinion? editor@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

It's been very quiet around AccorInvest lately. This prompted Macy Marvel to make a deep dive into the figures from Europe's largest owner-operator. Two-thirds of its portfolio is spread across Germany, France and the UK. But the giant has huge debts. It seems fragile. Its exclusive agreement with the Accor brands also expires on 31 December. From 2023, other franchisors could thus also fly their flag above AccorInvest hotels. Will it come to this? We asked in Paris.

It was just as quiet on the German side around GSH, the Gorgeous Smiling Hotels of the busy shareholder Heiko Grothe and his PE partner Auctus. GSH was also hit by the corona low, but its performance curve is now pointing steeply upwards. There is a new leadership team and centralised revenue management driving both ADR and RevPAR. Occupancy becomes a side issue. CFO Marco El Manchi and COO Edwin Jebbink are stepping on the gas: with own brands and a triple-digit million sum for conversions. "We want to get over the finish line before anyone else," Jebbink says.

In other news, the new Treugast "Investment Rating" contains 13 downgrades and only three upgrades. This also reflects the industry’s recent turbulence. The chaos in the wake of corona had meant the annual assessment of operating companies had to be paused, but it is now re-emerging as a digitized product. And with additional criteria such as sustainability. Next year, it will be interesting to see how companies that have their furniture manufactured in China will be rated.

It never gets boring in this industry; every week we could talk for hours with the industry. Will the insolvencies feared as early as 2021 soon be a reality? Creditreform thinks so. The holiday hotel group Upstalsboom establishes its own tour operator, also open to hotel colleagues. Will this mean only work or will it also generate profit? Hard to say.

If we take TUI's Q4 figures, we are in for a new mega travel wave in 2023. That would be nice. We may hear more about this at ITB in March; programme details are now slowly emerging. Jörg Frehse, CEO of operator Munich Hotel Partners, has a little more time to analyse travel flows: He will not open Germany's first Conrad Hotel in Hamburg until the end of 2024/25. The franchise deal with Hilton gives MHP wings: Frehse wants to operate even more luxury hotels in the future - and finally catch up with international price levels. And already we’re fired up with new discussion topics…

We hope that you are too, inspired by our articles. There will be another edition next Friday.


Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
editor-in-chief

Your opinion? editor@hospitalityInside.com