Editorial

Dear Insider, 

How do you push the quality of hotels? Turkish authorities close (4,000) hotels without warning, Morocco gives hotels, apartments, riads, bivouacs and other accommodation providers two years to improve their product and services, including security and fire safety. 800 criteria must stand up to a mystery check. The North African country is set to become a high-end destination, and not just because of the 2030 FIFA World Cup. This will be tough, especially for small family businesses. 

I can only imagine the outcry if such an announcement were made in Central Europe. Who identifies the "hotel ruins" in this region? I don't know anyone. Tens of thousands of accommodation businesses are probably wasting away in every country. On the other hand, the wealthy countries are world champions when it comes to announcing new hotels. 

Turkish hoteliers are frustrated because the looming summer drama is becoming existential. However, the authorities are also insisting on a "reset" here. Investors, operators and guests have been hit very hard. Sarah Douag shows both "transformation models". Just crazy.

Dear Insider, 

Falkensteiner Hotels and the holding company FMTG are now taking off: In Italy, the hotel group announced details of its new Crowdinvest platform: Family offices and private equity have already quietly jumped on board, and now CEO Otmar Michaeler and FMTG Invest head Anne Aubrunner are sharpening the expansion of hotels in combination with (branded) residences. They’re raising the capital for this themselves. They already have practice: €102 million were raised from 5,000 active investors in 14 crowdfundings. Everything that comes next is bigger, more expensive, ROI-driven. Clever: FMTG takes the municipalities on board. Otmar Michaeler will also talk about this form of alternative financing at "Hotels Tomorrow" (HOT), see below. 

In these stressful, nebulous times, plain language is needed. This is what Vince Limpens from the EPEA (Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency) is doing today: In a building that lives for 40 years, only 9% of the costs are allocated to construction and energy. The remaining 90% of the costs are in operations; it takes the upsides with it. The developer must therefore build a "healthy" hotel. "Healthy buildings are not expensive; unhealthy ones are just cheap, killing your brand, your people and the bottom line," he says coolly. 

Dear Insider,

After the HITT now comes the HOT! The play on these abbreviations for the HospitalityInside Think Tank and the new Hotels Tomorrow format is pure coincidence... Our in-house event, this year in Brussels, has found a knowledge-hungry community over the years. This can also be read in Sylvie Konzack and Sarah Douag's summary of our 2nd HITT Day, the Innovation Day, which was dedicated to "emerging technologies" - AI, virtual reality and voice bots. Change is here: From tools to a new mindset. We are making this contribution FREE again today - sharing is caring! 

At Hotels Tomorrow (HOT), I am one of three founders, each of whom brings different talents and contacts to the table. We, the "3 M's" (Marius, Marc, Maria) are breaking new ground with this "Europe" idea - at an unintentionally perfect time. Looking forwards and backwards: HospitalityInside is now 20 years old - on the basis of quality and its reputable network. That is also the aim of HOT. The geopolitical turbulence is even helping us. And we are happy to help the industry. That's why today I've described the background to HOT and the path to the hotels of tomorrow (see Home). There are only three weeks left until Paris, set a new course with us! The program has gained weight. www.hotelstomorrow.eu 

Technology has become a disruptor, first questioning everything and then rebuilding it. This is exactly what hotel career changer Martin Kemmer has done: Yesterday, he and his managing director partner Daniela Schade launched "9dots" in Berlin: a system platform that enables helpless individual hotels and frustrated franchisees to digitise their hotels. You can choose from over 100 modular software and tools and still remain the host. "Hotels as a Service" is the new term. We are pleased to be able to present a promising model to you in detail this morning, including prices and calculation examples. 

Dear Insider,

With our 8th HITT Think Tank in Brussels this week, it also felt like our 8th HITT patchwork family was created. It is rare for colleagues, business partners, scientists, lateral thinkers and other newbies to be so intense, critical and informal. We laughed a lot and listened intently again. The sustainability experts as well as the investors and operators took the opportunity to dictate their specific criticism of policy and legislation in Misa Labarile's notebook. The Policy Officer of the EU Commission, specialised on tourism, wrote a lot. We will continue to foster this exchange at HITT. 

The theme of the first day was "Regenerative Hospitality": This is a long healing process for nature and the environment and not a trigger for rapid CO2 reduction in a building. It's much more about networked thinking and also very much about social issues. The hospitality industry should be able to keep up. Like no other sector, it has the right DNA for this process! 

On six exciting pages, Sarah Douag summarises the hurdles and opportunities - all live quotes from the passionate experts and knowledge-hungry participants. We are putting the article IN FRONT OF the paywall today - so you can send it around the world. Sharing is caring! - We will report on Day 2, Innovation Day, next Friday. Click on the vivid photos of HITT 2025 today.  

Dear Insider,

Adina did not choose Munich as the location for its first premium brand, but rather Vienna, Austria's serviced apartment stronghold, where many international competitors are already active. The sensational pool on the roof with its excellent city view gives it away: A by Adina makes the difference. There are also 120 stylish rooms in a Danube wave-like tower, in which the top apartments have their own terrace. It has more of a hotel feel than its more slim-service apartment house sister, which is also located in Vienna. Sylvie Konzack explains the difference.

But luxury is more than just a top location and chic design. Because if the acoustic quality in rooms is not right, it causes sleepless nights for guests or stress during dinner in the restaurant. Good architects use sound absorbers to "calm" the rooms. Kirsten Posautz uses examples and many subtleties to show that the interior design concept does not have to suffer as a result.  

Behind every brand is the passion of its inventors and designers. Europeans have become so creative in the last 30 years that their brands are being absorbed by the lifestyle-hungry US chains. And yet the giants have still not penetrated this travel-loving market - partly because the (German-speaking) middle class will not stop creating its own brands. 

Dear Insider,

Big changes always start small. The Austrians might be able to talk up the 0.9 percent fewer overnight stays in winter 2024/25, but when compared the revenue of hotels and holiday apartments, there's no hiding anything anymore. Vienna is a great example: In the last decade, the number of beds on offer in commercial holiday apartments has tripled and the number of overnight stays has increased even more massively. Hundreds of hotels have also contributed to this by turning rooms into self-catering serviced apartments. Service is a thing of the past, says Fred Fettner, describing a drastically changed market with serious consequences for the local structure.

There are small, subtle changes in Germany's MICE industry too: More and more international guests are flocking to events. Online and hybrid are out! Congresses and conferences are growing strongly, but revenue in conference hotels has barely increased. Sylvie Konzack on a segment that has more fun again.

We also enjoyed the 3rd part of our series on CO2 and offsetting - because Prof Willy Legrand is shaking up everyone's conscience today: "Stop outsourcing your climate conscience!" he demands. Compensation (the so-called "indulgence trade" - pay and forget) are the last resort. The right thing to do is to get to work and actively tackle emissions locally. Even small hotels can do this. Willy is happy to give specific advice again, even to the grown-ups.

Dear Insider,

You're probably already saving water at the hotel, are your guests too? If your guest showers for 25 minutes, the climate target has already been missed. Carbon reductions cannot be achieved single-handedly, sustainability expert Prof. Willy Legrand reminds us. Today, he vividly describes why and how guests and suppliers need to be brought on board - part 2 of our series on bringing down CO2 emissions.

The new "Green Stay Audit Platform" from HRS, with which sustainable hotels can increase their bookings, is also very important. You can think alternatively in so many ways. That's what a hotel manager did and designed a "jungle room" in a Swiss Lab Hotel. Anyone can spend the night in this and five other themed rooms. Instead of plants, there's a vertical garden in the room, for example. And the VR glasses are practically on the bedside table. Nicola Kübler took a look. 

European tourism will benefit from the hostilities between the United States and China, data experts predict. Antalya, Florence, Berlin, Brussels, Prague, Vienna, Milan and Stockholm can expect average annual growth of 10-12% in overnight stays between 2024 and 2026. The most important performance indicator this year will be occupancy. 

Dear Insider,

It's only May and M&A momentum is picking up. But Big is only buying Small. Big or not though, the prices are considerable, which eases the pain of the small. Marriott's current acquisition of citizenM and the IHG/Ruby deal tell us something else: The chain giants are buying lifestyle brands because they themselves have become old, immobile and boring over the decades. Now, everyone is rushing into lifestyle to secure demand and a foothold in the market. Accor hit on this trend early on and sailed away from the other chains around the year 2000 with the purchase of Hoxton and the founding of Ennismore.  

The powerful First Lady of the US hotel world has adopted a very self-confident franchise granddaughter who comes from these free-thinking lowlands (the Netherlands), loves to think outside the box and break standards. High heels meets sneakers. It remains exciting - and reminds me of the difficult and emotionally charged integration of the completely different thinking Design Hotels into the Marriott Group. Sarah Douag raises many other questions about this deal in her Marriott/citizenM article. 

Another question for senior executives today: Is your (variable) salary already linked to incentives if you meet the ESG targets? In Europe, almost all companies have switched to the new model; Japan is a positive role model.

Dear Insider, 

Trump is trampling the world underfoot - and is tourism a good kick too. From the three intensively researched opening articles this week, each full of facts, figures and expert commentary, we learn that everyone should remain flexible. Elastic like a rubber band. US hotels have already lost 2.1 billion dollars in revenue. People still want to travel, yes, but they are worried and there’s a rising sense of insecurity. A fifth of Americans have already cancelled their trips due to rising prices for flights and accommodation. Customs duties are causing even more problems for companies, hotel buildings are becoming more expensive, and the employee drama remains. AI is already far enough along to help you to re-filter your target guest groups. 

Sarah Douag describes the plight and gives tips in the article "USA bookings tumble". And in her further contribution on sustainable innovations, she shows that European CEOs in particular will maintain their decarbonisation targets - this is more sustainable than uncontrolled political action. The first companies are already reporting increased revenues following climate-related investments. Incidentally, there is a platform on which companies, cities and governments can voluntarily enter their environmental data.

Trump's campaign against the climate and ESG remains unbelievable. Since 2023, one Washington-based foundation has been listing which executive orders have caused global harm. The planned abolition of the DEI guidelines (for diversity, equality and inclusion) would severely affect the hotel industry around the world. Macy Marvel lists in detail what else can damage the industry. The first lawsuits against the US administration are now rolling in. 

Dear Insider,

Tariffs, taxes, prices, stock market crash... The bars on our stock market chart are also deep in the red today. A dramatic snapshot. 

In this global chaos, the newly formed German government coalition is giving the hotel and restaurant industry back its 7% VAT on food. This is good news for an overpriced country. However, the minimum wage will rise again in 2026. The hot flushes in HR departments are set to remain a feature then. Our political columnist Frank Tetzel in Berlin provides analysis.

Within Europe, more and more countries are adopting a tourist tax - such as the Netherlands recently. The money from holidaymakers is to be used to save the destination's splendor. London is now even considering a 5% tax. Hoteliers under high financial pressure are beginning to tremble: RevPAR could collapse, distorting competition. Sarah Douag has illuminated several countries.