Editorial
Dear Insiders,
If you'd like to know how best to fight the hotel industry's corner, then you should become a member of the Austrian Hoteliers Association – or at least ask for training there. At the ÖHV's annual conference in Bregenz this week, the recently re-elected Austrian Minister of Tourism only had positive things to say about the association and even thanked it for its huge and very constructive contribution to the current programme of government. Elisabeth Köstinger even explicitly praised ÖHV President Michaela Reitterer: as a super-strong lobbyist, "who, de facto, there really is no getting past".
Others can only dream of such a close connection. In Germany, for example, a country ten times the size of Austria, there is no national tourism minister and many in Berlin don’t even know what Dehoga does and thinks.
Yet despite these impressions, our correspondent in Austria, Fred Fettner, this week provides a sober and objective summary of exactly what ÖHV and the government have together achieved and what they still have to do. Just how close you have to be in politics today is also revealed by Macy Marvel's article on Ireland's leading hotel group Dalata. It already has a presence in the UK, where it intends to expand even further after Brexit. Macy incorporates the current political framework into the article here – so that the real challenges for such hotel chains can be understood in more detail.
Our third major contribution this week also has a political focus; a focus on the regulations and penalties that dithering investors will in all likelihood have to pay in future if they do not build sustainably. Yet Wolfgang M. Neumann remains optimistic: "If sustainability slowly evolves into additional value, it will gradually move up the investor agenda," he is convinced. As Chairman of the ITP/InternationalTourism Partnership, which currently brings together 14 sustainability-oriented hotel groups, he is currently compiling a comprehensive report together with the World Bank's International Finance Corporation aimed at both educating and motivating. Our article gives a foretaste of this.
The German Property Federation has this week translated the EU's "Green Deal" into hard figures: For Germany, it expects an annual investment requirement of around EUR 100 billion in buildings and buildings technology by 2030. Depending on the targeted reduction of CO2, another EUR 34 billion are added. These are enormous sums.
At the same time, the Fraunhofer Institute asked how the world of work in the hospitality industry will change. Don't worry: The human being will remain, but new technology will be added. You can find the link to the brand-new study here with us today.
People will of course continue to travel. This can be seen in the new record numbers of motor-home registrations. And alongside personnel news and our colourfulm comprehensive news mix today, we are happy to publish two reader opinions on our latest article about the "Silent earthquakes" in the chain hotel industry.
The first surprise in terms of consolidation in 2020 came last night: Investor and project developer Art-Invest from Cologne is buying an operator: the Ghotel Group with 17 business hotels. Only fully integrated can money be earned, says Art-Invest partner Dr Peter Ebertz.
I will be at the HOTCO in Budapest from Monday and hopefully I will have brought some news from South-East Europe by next Friday. Let's see how much foresight I identify here.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems, Editor-in-chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
First and foremost, the hospitalityInside team would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year! For 2020 the same applies: Nobody has a crystal ball to predict how this new decade will unfold. And so everyone is well advised to sharpen their senses for market movements and trends – which more often than not arise from old mistakes. Those who move between worlds hear and see much earlier and in sharper focus. One of them is Richard Adam from Munich. I got to know him many years ago as a hotelier. Today, he works as a global advisor for various stakeholders.
All the sharper then is his judgement on the future of hotel chains. He believes that Asset Light is dying, that brands and loyalty programmes are self-created bubbles. As it's no longer the traveller, but rather the investor who's the customer. Why don't you take a look at Richard Adam's message under "Silent earthquakes" and tell me what you think about it. We will gladly respond to your opinion.
And this is how we want to continue over the next 12 months – there for you with well-founded opinions and news on background developments, so that nobody slips into the crevice opened up by that quake. It's with this in mind that Macy Marvel provides a summary of the state of play as regards Brexit: The hotel industry must prepare for difficult months. Yields are declining, performance will stagnate rather than improve, capacity continues to increase and the workforce remains threatened: The Conservatives are now calling for an end to the free movement of people from the EU.
It is therefore still necessary to listen and look carefully. The waves sometimes hit hard, and this is certainly true of climate protection and cruise ships. The pressure on them is growing, but so also is the pressure on airlines. Shipping companies and airlines currently seek to avoid reducing their emissions and are instead focusing on offsetting them. This provides relief for the conscience, and is easy on the wallet. Hoteliers should also listen to this discussion – so that one day they themselves are not accused of greenwashing.
A super-strong 4th quarter of 2019 has pushed up year-end transaction figures for hotel properties in Geermany, yet yields continue to fall. The Italian Boscolo Hotels are an example of how quickly hotels have turned into the brokers' latest plaything. The current beneficiary is NH Hotels, who this week secured palace pearls as leaseholder. And prizeotel will in future no longer accept cash – another trailblazing step by the group. And Booking.com has now officially committed to more consumer protection under pressure from the EU.
Starting this year, we commit ourselves to greater reporting on sustainability. Just like digitalisation, it is a cross-sector issue and will have a strong impact on hotel balance sheets in the future.
You will hear about our other activities in 2020, regarding IHIF/ITB and the HITT Think Tank, in more detail shortly. Some of you will see me in 10 days at the Eastern Europe-focused conference HOTCO in Budapest; hospitalityInside will be there as media partner. More on this on page 1.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems & the hospitalityInside team
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
We are leaving the teenage years of this century behind: now the positive energy, creativity and desire of young adults to experiment should characterise the years 2020-2030. Digitization and sustainability will be the major social trends which the hotel industry will also have to follow.
Many things revolve around this range of topics in our final issue of 2019. The German Fraunhofer Institute has just published the results of a study on smart hotel rooms, and the digital registration form will become reality in digitally backward Germany on January 1. Its introduction is nothing compared to the scenario of what will soon be happening with digital security checks at airports. And much of this prediction is guaranteed to be transferred to hotels, especially mega hotels.
The Balearic Islands are not only using the fresh millions from their new tourist tax for sustainability purposes in the industry – this is debatable. But: the main thing is that the issue is firmly established in everyone's minds, and new positive forces are developing from every action.
The New Year will not let us forget the old problems: Macy Marvel has once again broken up the intrigues of hotel bed banks. What is going on behind the scenes sounds like a crime thriller.
In contrast, the city of Zurich should be taking the bull by the horns if it still wants to have control over the thousands of new rooms in the city by 2022. Experts advise existing hotels to make an uncompromising high-quality attack. And the city to reposition itself.
Some of you will certainly stay in the Alps over the holidays. Hardcore skiers will probably get the full attention of the hoteliers again, although they are the minority of all winter holidaymakers. But professional hosts obviously lack the time and desire to deal with the other colourful crowd. This would mean they have to change. This is not necessary, particularly at the end of the year.
The hospitalityInside team is guaranteed to resume work with new momentum after its Christmas break! Our office will be open again from January 7. The next issue will be published on January 10, 2020.
We would like to thank our loyal readers, the growing number of business and event partners, and, of course, from the bottom of our hearts, our own staff, freelance writers and translators for the fantastic teamwork in a demanding 2019. Merry Christmas to you all and a great start into the new decade!
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems & the hospitalityInside team
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
As the German federal government announced that it would compensate stranded Thomas Cook holidaymakers on Wednesday, the German Travel Association was meeting in Hamburg. There was relief on all faces. But the core challenge remains: "The big tour operators are the problem," DRV President Norbert Fiebig told media just before. Now, we have to talk again about the extent of liability. Fiebig would like to individualise protection from insolvency, as the German travel industry largely comprises medium-sized enterprises.
The package trips, in any case, appear to have survived: In good time for the conference – and in the run-up to the imminent elections to the board – the DSR had initiated a Forsa survey in November, under which the organised travel deal scored well. So the Cook didn’t spoil the broth after all.
There is no sigh of relief for the cruise industry though. The floating giants have come under intense pressure to improve their sustainability balance. The conference itself took place on a mega steamer docked in the port of Hamburg, the MS Artania of Phoenix Tours. Yet instead of pro-actively and purposefully addressing the topic through an open discussion on stage, the DSR ducked the issue. And the greater for it was the focus of individual speakers on the ship building companies: Alternative drive technologies already exist and more are in development. Those who today have commissioned the new ocean-going cruise ships and do not allow any room for alternatives during construction are acting irresponsibly.
A study examined 203 cruise ships on their routes through Europe and determined: 47 Carnival Corporation ships docking in Europe emit 10 times more sulphur than all the passenger cars in the whole of Europe. Macy Marvel has identified even more frightening facts from the study.
Two architects and one project developer answered our questions openly and explained why there will be more and more "rabbit hutch"-sized rooms in hotels in future: By this, we mean rooms compacted down to 16 sqm, which will in future also make an appearance in 4-star hotels. A new trend is emerging.
Our releases today draw further attention to the issues of cruise ships, emissions and tourism development and present, among other things, the new Online Subsidy Guide in Germany.
We also cast our glance far into the year 2020 and present partner terms for participation at the joint stand "World of Hospitality" at the Expo Real next October. Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, in particular as regards customised spaces.
My first big date in January will be at HOTCO in Budapest – an investor and real estate focused conference for Central and South Eastern Europe. We support the event as a media partner.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
Today, Saint Nicholas will not be able to tell us if a crisis is approaching or not. He prefers to distribute gifts – like the optimists in our article today. Susanne Stauss traced some of them. But first figures show that the wind is already changing in everyday life. First developers and operators are starting to change their strategies and concepts respectively.
This is also reflected in individual activities, as found in the news: Hyatt wants to rev up now concerning expansion, especially in Europe; Radisson, on the other hand, wants to focus on 16-sqm "compact rooms" starting now.
Smart thinking is in vogue, indeed: especially concerning mixed-use, sustainably and digitally interconnected. Investors are still lacking courage here, as the H3 Think Tank by Drees & Sommer in Hamburg revealed. Experts from Hospitality, Housing and Health Care exchanged ideas. All three asset classes are part of mixed-use quarters, whose vitality can only be controlled digitally in future – while saving costs at the same time. A female start-up founder asked the white-haired men, who are spoiled by success and yield-hungry, to test more and to learn more. And she is right.
Smart thinking knows no boundaries and does not stop at HR. You should start collecting HR data, the same way as financial data. Knowing the exact qualifications and performances of your own staff members will also have an influence on business decisions. HR data should be part of every meeting, says one business. The path towards this is via PPA, Predictive People Analytics. Baerbel Schwertfeger explains.
Accor sold half of its shares of Huazhu. We would like to do some guessing and look a bit further down the road to see what this means… Credit Suisse sold 8 hotels to Aevis Victoria – at strong discounts. Thus, the parent company of Victoria-Jungfrau Collection and Seiler Hotels now owns the InterConti Davos – the "golden egg". A big leap towards more presence in little Switzerland! Hopefully, European guests will keep arriving: In the last eight months, trips of European citizens abroad only increased by 2.5% and no longer by 5% as in the previous year.
Kempinski's CEO Martin Smura is expanding his executive board massively, as can be read in the personal particulars. However, the loss of the Kempinski Geneva to the luxury competitor Fairmont Hotels is painful as it happened right next door.
Have a good and smart time… Until next Friday!
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
When it comes to 'hotels' as an asset class, investors are warming only slowly to Italy. The transaction market, on the other hand, is flourishing and there are many good opportunities for the taking. Speaking at a conference, one investor now dared to say why he remains cautious: It's the country's old, rigid, legally fixed rules on contract that make it difficult to strike deals under Anglo-Saxon-style contracts. Massimiliano Sarti asked legal experts for their opinion.
Brand development does not come up against such limits. As ASAI shows, the new community-based hotel brand of Thailand’s Dusit Hotels, this business has quite literally become limitless and global. Thailand's leading national luxury hotel group is opening up to the next generation, as is happening within the family too: The junior at Dusit Hotels, Siradej Donavanik, son of Vice Chairman and Owner Chanin, made sure his research was global in scope. He analysed sophisticated and functioning lifestyle brands from Europe. ASAI thus presents itself as a valuable, sustainable and communicative brand. The concept is "glocal", global & local – set for expansion.
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The Munich-based Bold Hotels, on the other hand, are very much a local affair with a very targeted market. At present, only four hotels are in operation in Germany, but founder Wolfgang Kaefer is already beginning to diversify into classic hotels, apartment hotels/co-living and hostels. Kaefer is not reliant on investors to expand. He already has his own portfolio of 100 properties at his disposal and converts mainly residential buildings into value-for-money hotel products.
And in other news: In Spain, urban destinations in particular benefited from the general upswing last year. The boom in the Swiss para-hotel sector continues, especially in youth hostels and camping/glamping. The German Tourism Association has presented its measures for the National Tourism Strategy in Germany, but there is criticism about the one-sidedness of the paper.
And there's good news from ITP, the International Tourism Partnership: It will offer the first online industry training initiative against modern slavery – the initiative is open to all and anybody interested may participate! Other interesting news from the world of real estate, digitisation and personnel changes round off today's edition.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
After the insolvency, Thomas Cook will now be broken up step by step; many are interested in the hotel portfolio of the large tour operator. Currently, a massive reallocation is taking place – with TUI and DER Touristik leading the way, but also FTI Touristik, alltours and schauinsland-reisen. Macy Marvel summarised the changes.
It has been very quiet concerning the hotel activities of the Schoerghuber Group from Munich for a long time. Our request for an interview was repeatedly postponed in the last two years; today, the hotel subsidiary Arabella Hospitality finally provides figures and facts about the reassessment of the portfolio from 2010. The new COO, who has been on board since January 2018, also introduces herself in the course of the comeback: Martina Maly-Gaertner. After the surprising disbanding of the ArabellaStarwood joint venture in 2010, there were 22 hotels; currently, there are only 14 left. This way, Arabella is open for other brands and destinations.
Similar to the topic of sustainability, HR has become a long-burning issue. At the "Human Resources Tourism Summit" by Kohl & Partner, the "employer journey" emerged: The employer needs to immerse itself in the applicant's way of thinking, not the other way around. This applies for corporate presentation in the internet as well as the sensitive talk with the interested applicant, who wants everything to start with: authenticity and continuity of the business, an accommodation and a thank you. The standards have become high.
And what applies to hoteliers, also applies to tourism managers: They have to find new ways in marketing, too. Therefore, classical advertisement campaigns belong to the past now. Instead, social media and funny games are in vogue with the younger target groups.
Change is everywhere. Aroundtown and TLG will merge and become a European real estate giant; this has been initiated now. In Hamburg, Gert Prantner starts his third career along with two partners: With the new corporation Prantner & Cie, an internationally operating project developer for customised hotel and mixed use properties.
HolidayCheck won in court against a fake agency from South America: It is no longer allowed to sell faked evaluations, but the ruling in Germany does not seem to bother the agency; we asked HolidayCheck.
I consider the decision of the IOC to engage Airbnb as the main host for the Olympic Games from 2020 to 2028 to be scandalous. The outcry is there - especially from Paris, the host city 2024. It has already filed a lawsuit against Airbnb and threatens to withdraw. Also upon hearing the name Trump, everybody thinks of scandals immediately: His hotel in Washington is to be sold at a very overpriced rate; apparently, the company wants to cash in before a possible impeachment…
What a lively week… Immerse yourself in the current changes.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
I'm writing the Editorial from the So!Apart in Leipzig, where the atmosphere seems to be even more euphoric than at Expo Real in October: The Serviced Apartment industry is booming. Here, entirely new and unknown brand names are falling from the sky, venture capital is producing "new kids on the block" one after another. This is more or less funny because not much of this sounds sustainable. But never mind… By 2021, the segment is supposed to grow by 60%! Today is therefore just a short impression in numbers – more profound information will follow later.
However, I also note that not all serviced apartment players keep in mind whether they will be able to provide enough staff members for this new wave. Their advantage: extended stays need less staff. In the hotel industry, the situation has become severe in the meantime. Therefore, hoteliers such as Kornell Otto of SV Hotels are requesting specifically that boring and disdainful jobs be abolished and replaced by digital and clever technology. And Otto Lindner sums up: The shortage of staff members is forcing the development of even more smart concepts, but he hardly sees further growth as feasible when it comes to traditional hotel concepts.
As a result, the industry is staggering between boom and shortage. This also applies to the topic of sustainability, where Greta followers want to make everyone feel guilty at the moment and initiate actions and events everywhere. Greta should talk to the founders of the online start-up Tutaka: Their idea of providing hotels with ecological alternatives for plastics is good. They also learned that it is a tedious process, and it is a long way before you reach a completely ecological value-added chain.
But every step brings you one step further. Parkhotel Stuttgart Messe-Airport did everything right: It invested in a kitchen planning software, was able to save staff members, pay the remaining ones better – and in addition, the vegetable broth is now being calculated strategically and cooked right on time thanks to KI, without the production of any food waste. This was also a lengthy process, but General Manager Elouan Pêcheur is thrilled.
Otto Group is excited about Ruby Hotels and is therefore investing in this lean luxury group: Together, they want to expand into the US, amongst others, as Michael Struck revealed to us. In Berlin, the proceedings between funds initiator Anno Jagdfeld and the Signal Iduna insurance, which started in 2016, are being continued after a long break. He is chasing billions. Time for a résumé of Jagdfeld's list of lawsuits as well as questionable deeds.
Interesting personal particulars and many little bits of news round off this slightly sustainable edition: Cornell has a new sustainability report and Hamburg's NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra transformed the climate change into sound – as a variation of the original score of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons"…
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
Who's Huazhu? After the takeover of Steigenberger Hotels AG this week, this is the question on everybody’s lips, as I noticed in almost every conversation since the news broke. The CEO of the Chinese hotel group, Jenny Zhang, found time for our questions and provides you with first-hand information and comments. Apart from the obvious acceleration in the expansion of the two top Steigenberger brands, there also seems to be a basic consensus between the new partners on quality and standards.
The figures from Huazhu here sound gigantic, yet in China its 5,000 or so hotels still places it mid-field. Egon Steigenberger's legacy and the expertise of a solid German hotel group will now be transported to China. The deal's big winner is Hamed El-Chiaty. As a result of the sale, he will pocket many times the price he originally paid for the group.
And there's another interesting aspect to this deal to be found here. Huazhu has been linked to Accor through a cross-shareholding since 2014; in addition to this, both have also linked their loyalty programmes. Now, Steigenberger is also to benefit from this loyalty programme... Will they be vying for the same customers? It'll be very interesting to see.
And this news from Accor yesterday morning made it all the more tantalising: Accor will enter into a strategic partnership with Alibaba, Ctrip's biggest rival. What does this have to do with Huazhu and Steigenberger? Answer: The founder of Huazhu previously founded Ctrip... Is this going to strain relations between Accor and Huazhu? It's absolutely exciting.
We have other topics for you today too: Fred Fettner returns from the WTM London with the forecasts and consequences for the still-not-Brexit. Meanwhile, the British have become hesitant when it comes to making their holiday bookings. This fits with the results of the latest Deloitte Hotel Investment Survey.
Continental Europe remains cheerful though and sees hospitality hybrids and mixed-use districts as the next promising trend. They are the harbingers of the new urban neighbourhoods. Pre-requisite: The mix needs interesting people and many events as meeting point. The Expo Real discussion was lively.
Josef Brandhuber from SoReal Invest outed himself as a hotel investor with heart and soul. SoReal's new hotel fund focuses on B and C locations. The experienced hotelier and banker says why this strategy is worthwhile. On the one hand, he sees no shortage of supply in these locations, and on the other, he of course also wants growth, "but not at any price. Responsibility and sustainability, coupled with decency, are what I've practised over the last 25 years".
With pink washing machines in the mega lobby, the new MA Living concept aims to make its brand stand out among serviced apartments. The first details were revealed to the media on Wednesday, with the first two hotels set to open in Munich in 2020. This and more today in an especially colourful edition.
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
The "Bits & Pretzels" conference for founders and start-ups in Bavaria's Lederhose & Laptop capital, Munich, promised a lot and four weeks ago delivered exactly that with a mega celebrity: Barack Obama. Among other things, he criticised the tech giants and after outlining their influence on people issued the following warning: "You have to talk to those who are affected." Bärbel Schwertfeger was there at this 5,000 person event. Her impression was of little modesty and whole lot of self-congratulation. A celebration of company founders and start-ups.
Successful people often only learn modesty once toppled by illness, professional decline or other events. In these cases, therapists turn life coaches, as is ever more frequently the case in Chiva-Som in Hua Hin. The famous Thai Health Resort is one of the world's pioneers and reopens today after six months of closure for a EUR 28 million renovation. Luxury is now visible, though the therapies remain discreet. And soon a second Chiva-Som will open in Qatar.
Thanks to the ongoing boom, the hotel real estate industry currently knows nothing of quiet contemplation and self-criticism. Though asset light companies are again beginning to think about asset heavy strategies, as consultant Christoph Härle coaxed managers from AccorInvest, Premier Inn, Hyatt and Covivio to admit at the Expo Real hotel conference. Is this a sign of a rethink in view of the crisis?
All indications point downwards! Our current Investment BAROMETER survey, which we have conducted with Union Investment since 2013, shows that all indices have deteriorated: Expectations of one's own business, of the market, on development and of sales in the industry have all fallen. A summary is provided on our page 1. Subscribers will find the complete analysis in the magazine.
And in the news this week: Aroundtown and TLG, today already two giants, are working on a voluntary merger. If successful, this would give rise to one of Europe's largest real estate groups for office, hotel and residential properties. This is likely to stir up the market considerably, our specialist Beatrix Boutonnet believes. We also have news on the plans of King's Hotels Munich, on the use of tourism tax in Mallorca and much more.
Till next Friday!
Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria[at]hospitalityInside.com
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