Editorial

Dear Insider,

Family offices like hotels because hotels also convey a passion for entrepreneurship, as well as values and lifestyle. That's why the family offices don't abandon them during the crisis. "They are always there and have never left," Philipp Linder from Hotour recently summed it up in a conversation. There are around 13,000 of these investment-minded asset managers in the German-speaking Europe, but they value discretion and avoid the limelight. This makes it all the more interesting what Beatrix Boutonnet found in a Family Office Real Estate Report. These investors are also broadening their perspective.

David Etmenan, founder and CEO of Novum Hospitality, has - as everyone knows - been connected to "the IHG system" for 1.5 years. Measures are slowly beginning to take effect, and slight increases in RevPAR are visible. But he still has to exercise patience himself. "We are still in the onboarding process." 84 hotels have been integrated so far. He feels that he is in good hands at IHG and is putting all the more energy into his new role as developer and creator of an owner-operator platform. He is now building up his own pipeline via Novum Real Estate. It is growing. He has passed his personal stress test.

Unfortunately, the German market is still undergoing its own version. And that's how it is for many managers in the endless wave of suffering. Employees often don't realise the stress their bosses are under, but they feel it. According to a study, 43% of them resign if their boss is of the authoritarian type.

Dear Insider,

The dream of permanently rising room rates is over. Leisure is the only way to earn money. And do the investors even know who their new operator will be after a takeover? The "zero profit" discussion at the Expo Real conference showed in very many ways how the operational side is struggling. The misery goes round in circles. 

First Love Brand, then Branded Residence. Apparently, some brands are making residence buyers and occupants happy after all. As of this year, Accor has been pushing the topic of private living on a massive scale: for a longer stay and comfortable living alongside the hotel brand and enjoying its services. A wealthy young generation of business nomads and mixed use make it possible. And Accor is, as far as I can see, the first chain to break the original luxury model down to midscale. A ray of hope. 

The sun has been shining over Hotusa again since this summer. The purchase of nine Silken hotels was the signal that the Spanish group had worked off its €241 million Covid loan. Scalability is back: Quietly, Hotusa has built 178 hotels in Spain and over 260 properties in 19 countries through Eurostars. And once again, it pays off that Hotusa still has its own (!) OTA inhouse. Sarah Douag took a closer look at this relatively unknown company. From debtor to deal maker.

Dear Insider,

The Expo Real is over. And we're doing a short wrap-up including statements and summaries of the latest transaction figures. Ten days after the Expo (yesterday), Whitbread is buying 1,538 rooms for the Premier Inn brand from Gorgeous Smiling Hotels, franchise-free. Wyndham is losing five Super 8, Accor 1 Mercure and GSH 2 hotels under its own elaya brand.

So it's not just hungry Pac-Men who are out and about these days, but also truffle hunters. These also include Motel One, which announced the takeover of six good Fleming Hotels on the first day of the trade fair. Are Motel One/Cloud One and Premier Inn now on the same path? And where is Accor?

Many Spaniards can no longer afford to take holidays on their own islands, as our summer season review found out five weeks ago. And it's set to get even worse: Investors allocate 70% of their capital to 4- and 5-star assets. 3-star hotels are following suit. Everything is only going upwards, and fast...

Dear Insider,

The noise level in the Expo Real halls was already high on the first morning. On the second day, the suburban trains were hopelessly jammed... Messe München counted over 42,000 visitors, more than expected. There was a need to talk everywhere. The asset class Hotel remains coveted by investors, although new projects, especially resorts, have currently been declared dead. For operators, Hotel have become a problem child. Zero profit makes everyone tremble, as does the high-speed market cleanse. Expansion is only possible in the "operator buys operator" style. Germany is currently considered a very difficult country. But non-Germans continue to believe in Europe’s largest market.

Foreign investors are already on the starting blocks, as they were after Lehman: They are waiting for Pac-Man. He's still hungry. What he leaves on the plate will still be picked up? In the discussions at the hotel conference, you could feel the tugging and pulling from all sides. Franchise: fees must be reduced, contracts shortened. Lease: Can the investor defend himself if a new, unwanted brand comes in after the change of operator? We still have a lot to report from the highly interesting discussions at the very well-attended "Hospitality Industry Dialogue" conference. Susanne Stauss starts today with a five-page, detailed description about the market cleanse and recorded the experiences of seven executives from Covivio, Art-Invest, Whitbread, Revo Hospitality, IHG, Motel One and Erste Group.

Treugast made headlines with its annual "Investment Rating". The Munich-based consultants withdrew the rating of Europe's fastest expanding hotel group, Revo Hospitality. The media greedily soaked up this headline, while at Expo Real there was discussion as to whether Treugast's reasoning was damaging to business or not. Revo's expansion does indeed raise many questions, but only facts, not more rumours, can provide answers. 

Dear Insider,

"We are focusing". I've heard this phrase a lot in the last few months. Yes, Expo Real Munich is starting in three days, a pulse meter for investors, developers and operators. Many of our readers focus on this trade fair. How do we get out of the crisis? Answer: By focusing on the core of the business and through a high degree of flexibility.

There are no blueprints for deals any more; every project must be assessed, individually and intensively, by all parties involved. An analysis of European transactions in the first half of this year shows: Individual transactions beat portfolios. The Lifestyle Hospitality Capital Group, Accor, Motel One and Limehome have already discussed "new" deals at the Hotels Tomorrow Unconference in Paris. The perfect deal no longer exists. In uncertain times, only solid contracts, opportunistic investments and efficiency win. Beatrix Boutonnet is encouraging.

Scandic Hotels is also focusing. The largest chain in the Nordics, with 280 hotels neither small nor very large, has now opened seven hotels in Germany, step by step. Their home region will remain the driving force, even with another 54 European properties from the Dalata deal to be added next year. COO Laura Tarkka gives us an insight into the priorities of the Scandinavian chain, for which the mid-market segment alone still offers enormous opportunities.

Dear Insider,

Forget the performance data, concentrate on revenue per square meter (RevPSM). Nothing new for Insiders, but it is becoming a strategy in the Netherlands. Because costs are mounting up and VAT will rise to 21% from 2026, every square meter must either generate revenue or improve the guest experience. This is a blatant change in thinking, but perhaps also the right one. 

The involvement of AI in the search for illegal accommodation in Ibiza was crass, but also very sensible. Within a year, the new technology helped to track down over 2,800 accommodations with over 14,500 beds. Mallorca already wants to adopt the Ibiza model. Sarah Douag tracked down both topics - well worth reading.

Macy Marvel returned from Nantucket Island, this year's most expensive summer destination, an hour's flight from New York. Exclusively for us, he collected voices on the current "state of the nation" in this idyll of the rich and famous. Huge yachts symbolize the one pole, a raid by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) with the arrest of 12 workers the other. The nation is no longer "united", MAGA is crumbling. 

Dear Insider,

The programme of the Expo Real hotel conference reads almost like a crisis plan. At least that's how I felt today, now that the topics have been finalised and we're waiting for the last few confirmations (details and names on our public Marketplace and, of course, on the Expo Real website). The sector is undergoing structural change, which is why there is a push and pull in the market, and this is also reflected in today's issue. 

Attention to employees has developed positively. No service means no additional sales. This is why employers are - finally - becoming more self-critical. And the younger investors listen in curiously. While the wise men are still chasing the double-digit ROI, the young now define "human capital" differently. Our 90-minute breakout session at Hotels Tomorrow in June was a test balloon for this topic; it flew. 

The partial collapse of the summer season, which we reported on last week, is also leading to questions about even more reliable forecasts. Last-minute and last-second bookings are already part of everyday life, but how can hotels benefit from short-term redirected travel flows? By analysing flight data, they can. These can be broken down to hotel level. Wouldn't you like to know how many more breakfast tables you can set in November?  

Dear Insider,

Change is here, holiday patterns are collapsing... These are the headlines of the two articles about the current summer season. Four authors describe the mood in eight countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium and the Netherlands). No country is cheering, the positive news is always followed by a "but". Germany is moving backwards, which was to be expected. Italians are looking forward to summer, but the mountains are taking over from the beaches. Spain remains the sunshine of Europe, France gets a cold shower.

What moved me: The Spaniards and the French complain that they can no longer afford an island holiday in their own country. Is this the next trigger for even more protests against tourism? One thing has bothered me for a long while: Time and again, associations such as hotel groups draw comparisons between 2025 and pre-Covid. Hello! This no longer works. Today, the hotel industry operates in a completely different environment; an environment that in 2019 certainly could not have even been imagined. Let’s put an end to these illogical conclusions! Brilliant figures in large volumes secure the show, but not the profit backstage.

In Italy, international hotel investors are already channelling their capital into fewer and new segments, e.g. outdoor tourism, new types of hostels, branded residences and serviced apartments. In a nutshell: They invest for those on a smaller budget as well as for the bulging wallets of the wealthy. Capital follows the social divide. Massimiliano Sarti on the latest real estate trend in his home country.

Dear Insider,

A year ago, hoteliers were still fiddling around with ChatGPT on the sofa, but now the AI assistants proliferate, each one better than the one before. It's about power over travel bookings. SEO, the internet search engine that everyone had to feed with buzzwords for years to generate clicks, is now just the fodder for GEO: for that AI colleague that can immediately provide answers and offers to the web surfer. The term for this is Generative Engine Optimisation. Today, our AI-expert Catherine Bouchon explains the advantages and disadvantages of GEO. Only the best stories will win. 

The story of the aparthotel provider Staycity is simple: It is based on one company, two brands, three apartment sizes and a kitchenette in every apartment. The two growth drivers are Staycity and Wilde. With a more flexible ground floor, more service, more food and more quality, the twin sisters are becoming more visible in Europe, always in key cities, please. The profit margin is fantastic.  

Adrian Lindner is a long way from dreaming. He does not want to expand at present but wants to further stabilise the restructured Lindner Group in Germany. The hotel operator is out of insolvency under the debtor-in-possession rules. He wants to rebuild trust in the market. The designated new CEO (35), the third generation in the large Lindner family, was involved from the outset as "insolvency project manager". And as a manager, he admits self-critically and with unexpected frankness to "many mistakes" in our very first conversation. And that the family has lost its closeness to the company. 

Dear Insider,

I saw them myself two weeks ago: the countless unoccupied beach loungers on the Italian Mediterranean coast. For me, it's the vacation picture of the year. Neither locals nor tourists want to pay over €30 and certainly not €50 or €60 per day for sun loungers and umbrellas. The evidence lies a few meters away in the sand: on the towel, under your own little parasol, like sardines in a tin next to each other. It's cheaper.

In today's extremely comprehensive issue after the summer break, this topic pops up again and again, including in the eight chain balance sheets of recent weeks as well as in medium-sized hotel groups. Consumption is falling, demand is beginning to crumble. It can no longer be overlooked or ignored.

Don't cry, read on. I have a good mood topic for the Booking.com haters among you. At least 15,000 hotels have so far joined the pan-European class action against the OTA and the best price clause, HOTREC reported yesterday. These include the largest chains in Europe as well small guesthouses. The lead lawyer behind this lawsuit and coordinator of previous Booking proceedings is very, very confident of winning this case. The antitrust lawyer from the renowned German law firm Schneider Geiwitz & Partner explains his logic in a six-page interview. He expects a "ten-digit figure" as compensation. Billions are at stake.