Dear Insiders,
It is not easy to understand the differentiation between the two new and independent companies AccorInvest and AccorHotels. Therefore, my conversation with Andrea Agrusow, the new COO AccorInvest Central Europe, was highly informative. At least, many questions were answered, and the success of the "booster project" strongly depends on the ongoing negotiations between Sébastien Bazin and the new investors. But they are not jumping onto the booster project as quickly as hoped for, as I heard from well-informed circles. We shall have to wait and see.
The fact of the matter is AccorHotels is retaining its old name but as of July 1 "is only" a partner of AccorInvest, provides services on demand for its colleagues and "only" bundles the brand leadership for the marketing and franchise hotels itself. The responsibility for assets as well as for personnel has shifted to AccorInvest. This way, it becomes obvious for the first time that Accor has changed and become a real estate group now. Therefore, a member of AccorHotels' business management is leaving in the next few weeks: Eike Alexander Kraft, VP Corporate Communications & Social Responsibility for Germany and Central Europe. His job will be taken over by the marketing department.
The Swiss SV Group wants to grow. Of their ten new hotel projects, seven will be Moxy Hotels, and three Residence Inn properties. SV Hotel Managing Director Beat Kuhn will continue his exclusive partnership with the Marriott brands.
In Zurich, Motel One recently made its debut, but other budget operators will be knocking on the door in the next few years. An unusual development for Switzerland where the market has been exclusively dominated by 3 and 4-star properties so far. But in light of a strong Swiss franc and high personnel costs, these lean concepts make sense. Their peppy design, however, is a source of distress for the outdated private hotel industry. A development, which began in Germany 15 years ago, and has now reached the cities in Switzerland.
On the news front: The first hotels in Paris are fighting for more trust among the tourists by putting up a security label on their doors. Good times are in store for sellers of leisure properties to Germans who tend to re-finance these properties by renting them out to guests. And Falkensteiner is betting on crowdfunding.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,
Green light for hotel transactions in Europe! That's the message of last week's annual "Hospitality Investment Seminar" in Amsterdam. Spain is catching up with mighty steps. In Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Portugal, business is also clearly gaining ground – the remaining countries have been struggling. But it's just these fragmented market movements that offer promising opportunities to investors. This is why there is a double thumbs up!
How do you make a mark in this jumble of budget and lifestyle hotels? The answer is simple: go back to the roots and down-to-earth products free of any selfie or Instagram mania ... That is the new plan of Amedia Hotels expanding with four types of hotels to seemingly uninteresting B locations and adding cosy extended stay units to several hotels. Udo M. Chistée, founder of Amedia Hotels, and Roland Paar, his new partner, look back and ahead.
Intercity Hotels will be available in a package now: in Brazilian and German. Both groups share the same name and a similar past and will now officially combine their marketing forces. The German midscale brand of Deutsche Hospitality gave itself the best present for its 30th anniversary. Thinking globally wins!
Today, there are globetrotters from every country on earth. No wonder that UNWTO recorded new records: 598 million tourists have travelled in the first half of 2017, an increase by 6 percent – the strongest six months since 2010! In Great Britain, tourism is booming as well, but who will serve the guests after the Brexit? A "leaked" document now confirms the worst fears of the hotel industry.
The rumours about Barcelós interest in NH Hotels keep coming up in the media. But there haven't been any negotiations between the two parties at the moment, as we learned via our network. Nonetheless, a merger of these two Spanish groups makes sense. Uniting also makes sense to individual hotels: this is how "Global Alliance of Private Hotels" was born from five European consortia. Together, they count more than 500 hotels in 65 countries.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,
Booking.com is the cash cow of Priceline Group, which itself is the driving force of global distributors. With an enterprise value of over USD 100 billion, Priceline is worth more than Marriott, Hilton, AccorHotels, IHG and Wyndham together. Today, Sarah Douag describes the giant, which perhaps can only be challenged by Ctrip in China and Airbnb. But certainly not by hotel chains like AccorHotels who believe they've found the golden goose with their distribution platform for third parties. CEO Sébastien Bazin recently admitted that they had perhaps miscalculated.
Our China expert Prof Wolfgang Arlt once again looks at China's investment restrictions. With more than 30 years' experience with business partners in the Middle Kingdom, he believes multi-billion dollar investors will not stop investing.
Alexa and similar devices will also not be stopped. The virtual voice assistant by Amazon etc. as well as service robots and chatbots will make their way into the hotel. That they might have a negative impact on jobs was not a concern shared by participants at our 7th "Freitagshappen", at least not among the luxury hotels. Last Friday, HospitalityInside and the luxury hotel Nassauer Hof, Wiesbaden, invited guests to the familiar talk round – this time also welcoming a TravelTech start-up. All agreed: If Artificial Intelligence helps to improve efficiency in hotel operations, then it's perfect. – By the way, two days ago I had the opportunity of experiencing "Alexa" live at another event. A pleasant voice as assistant, but still not really able to help much...
And from the world of brands, new deals are again to be announced: Invesco has just acquired a European portfolio for EUR 530 million; the hotels will be operated by the German company Event Hotels. Almost at the same time, this company is also involved in a 200 million deal regarding the Dutch Bilderberg.
And in other news: Smartphones and wearables have never been so popular; according to two studies, the luxury market continues to grow; and we also have various personalia this week. There's lots happening in the sector.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,
Have you heard of the Paris Inn Group? Even for me, I always find it fascinating when relatively unknown names suddenly crop up, reveal themselves as million-heavy companies and then, over night, set out on a high speed global expansion drive. In this case, the boutique brand, Maison Albar Hotel, based in France, is to set off to conquer the world. A joint venture with Jin Jiang will help in this undertaking. Today, Paris Inn Group counts 32 hotels with 2,000 rooms and assets worth EUR 900 million. What chances do we give it? Top or flop?
Plaza Hotels, a German company, is also ambitious. Up to now, the investor and operator was almost exclusively linked to Best Western, then Amedia came on board and now it's got Hilton in its sights. The entrepreneur couple Ihsan and Yonca Yalaz on their strategy for growing the portfolio from its current 33 hotels. Plaza is a conversion specialist.
Specialists are also needed to get the Austrian Hotel Brand Monitor up and running for private hoteliers. It analyses the brand value of individual companies using economic benchmarks. Thomas Reisenzahn from Prodinger gave an interview to Fred Fettner recently in which he explains the model in detail. We provided brief reporting here in July.
Sad but true: After the recent terror attacks in Barcelona, bookings remain steady. Travellers appear to have already got used to the threat of terror. Floods and water damage have meant the opening of the new luxury hotel The Fontenay in Hamburg has had to be postponed. Director Thies Sponholz gave us a tour of the construction site all the same. The opening of the Buergenstock Resort in Switzerland is also delayed.
The German International Hotel Association has updated its brand compendium and has identified in its market analysis: The number of branded hotels has increased slightly, whilst the number of hotel companies has fallen markedly. A study reveals: Leisure parks become hybrid entertainment magnets.
And to finish off, interesting personalia: Puneet Chhatwal's move from Deutsche Hospitality to the Indian Hotel Company has meanwhile been confirmed by the man himself. Exciting: Expedia has lost its CEO to Uber. Also, last week in Hamburg, Selektion Deutscher Luxushotels said its official goodbye to its co-founder Karl Nueser in the Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahrezeiten.
Last but not least: From 2018, the ITB will terminate the ITB Hospitality Day, one of the most successful conferences at the trade fair. More on our Network page.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

Hotel deals with Chinese investors are currently in the air. The Chinese government has not banned them yet but categorised them as "restricted". Only selective investments seem to be possible in future – and no more property purchases. What does all this mean? A China expert at CBRE Hotels has answered Sarah Douag's questions concerning HNA & Co. In spite of this, giants from West and East are forming joint ventures on a strategic level: Marriott and Alibaba are passing loyalty customers to each other, and more.
Croatia is free of state interference concerning deals. Therefore, the Austrian-Croatian hotel owner and operator Valamar-Riviera is accelerating at full speed, investing a lot and focusing fully on upgrading. This way, 2-star Valamar Hotels will become 4 and 5-star mega resorts, and modest camping sites will be transformed into luxurious glamping sites. The boom in this small country with storybook bays makes this possible.
New booking platforms are discovering the segment of Serviced Apartments. National as well as international providers want to make temporary long-time living easily bookable, on a global scale, of course. But this special hotel has its own online pitfalls. Susanne Stauss reveals them.
Paris is making an increasing number of illegal apartment landlords pay – and it is paying off. In Italy, MICE business is returning, especially because of international demand. Switzerland, just as its neighbouring countries, is moving in more forcefully against OTAs. And the number of overnight stays has increased in the first half of the year; Germany-bound tourism has also increased significantly at the same time. Belmond, IHG, Marriott, and Orascom have retained their good mood after publishing their half-year results.
After our summer break, we have many new personnel particulars today. And we also have a long news mix, as we are making up for some contributions of the last two weeks for documentary reasons.
There are only six weeks left for many of us before the Expo Real starts in Munich. Today, you will obtain the first pieces of information concerning the joint stand of "World of Hospitality", which, with its 29 co-exhibitors, bundles most hotel groups and exhibitors focussed on the hotel industry at the trade fair at one platform. You will find more details on page 1.
We hope you were able to relax and enjoy yourselves in your summer break as well as we did. Let's start into an exciting fall where the federal election in Germany, which takes place in four weeks exactly, could set a new course. Also for the hotel industry.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor in Chief

Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,
With romantic lighthouses and deceitful tourists, today's issue moves towards our summer break. The Italian government has finally found an interface between special investors, operators obsessed with detail, and adventure-hungry tourists by renting unusual buildings. Hundreds of assets are planned to be allotted for this purpose over the next few years in order to fill the public purse. In Germany, Floatel seems to be earning good money with this niche concept.
In Spain, rakish lawyers likely motivated British tourists to sue hotels for food poisoning. The initial tourists are now on trial. Here, hoteliers become helpless victims of national legislation.
The German Novum Hotel Group catapulted itself into the spotlight – through its hyperdynamic expansion. Over the past few months, hospitalityInside.com has received an increasing number of calls asking how they did it. From 12 to 106 operating hotels within seven years? CEO David Etmenan and CFO Torsten Scholl faced up to our questions without hesitating and wish to make their company more transparent in the future. Today's – highly interesting – article is a first step towards this goal. Including both critical and benevolent voices from the market.
Italy – once more – hits the headlines in our news: on Wednesday, the parliament prohibited rate parity clauses by law. From Spain, the Idiso service and CRS provider is pushing onto the market. The Nordic markets and the Balearic Islands are both doing very well at the moment. In Berlin, a database of hotel rates is in the making. And American students managed to prove that humans are bribable. They would pass on the data of their friends just for a pizza!
Three weeks from now marks the end of the registration period for exhibitors at ITB Berlin. If you are thinking about exhibiting, we recommend the "World of Hospitality" joint booth in "hotel hall" 9. You will find details on our homepage. Registration for the joint booth will close at the end of August.
HospitalityInside will then be back from its two-week summer break. We'll be back in the office on August 21, and August 25 will see the next issue with new and exciting stories.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems and the hospitalityInside team

Dear Insiders,
Over recent years, large chains have in some cases quite unscrupulously stolen the innovative brand ideas of medium-sized hoteliers. Meanwhile, the small and medium-sized hoteliers have taken a closer look at the chains, especially as regards finance. Some have even ventured partnerships with major investors. Otto Lindner, master of 31 hotels in seven countries, wants to know nothing about locust deals with huge expansion targets, but he does have a lot of time for one particular family office that shares his approach. His new investment partner for the boutique brand me and all hotels is the chairman of the football club Schalke 04, a billion-euro heavy entrepreneur. The Chairman of the German Lindner Hotels on the new path, soon to take him outside Germany and into the wider EU.
From France to Europe and even Canada: The consortium SEH is making waves and is more active than ever. Its members are also impacted by chains and OTAs – they too place their trust in partners, common programmes and networking, just like the chains. Sarah Douag presents the Société Européenne d'Hôtellerie today.
Massimilano Sarti takes another look at the facts and figures on the development of the Italian hotel real estate market which is currently attracting attention from investors. Operators find it less exciting: They are still struggling against more and more rooms from non-hospitality providers.
The search and addiction for more market share no longer has any limits: Quartus, AccorHotels and Bouygues provide good examples of it today. They move with ease from house construction to the hotel industry and together create co-working spaces.
Yet there are limits as regards safety and security: A European study shows how much safety and security influences the choice of holiday destination. That will be the challenge in touristic distribution today!
Airbnb has managed to have itself listed on a booking platform for corporate travellers, alongside the chains. AccorHotels, Hilton, H.n.h., NH and Schoerghuber Group have posted their results for the first months of 2017, respectively for 2016. And with its third hotel fund, Invesco Real Estate remains loyal to the classic hotel industry, though for the first time initiates an open-ended fund. This and more in today's edition. Enjoy reading!

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,
When will you, dear Hoteliers, market the last mattress in the hotel? When will I be able to "share" the double bed with another unfamiliar guest? This sounds all very odd to me, but today we will describe two new ideas as to how a second office can be made from a hotel or how empty terraces, bars or pools can be rented by the hour. The "co-working spaces", which lifestyle groups such as The Student Hotel, Ruby and Mama Shelter have discovered as an additional source of revenue make sense for me, as they allow hoteliers to extend their established business. But do I really have to hawk my empty bar and the last balcony? Nevertheless: The idea from the young Frenchman behind "Airoffice" sounds promising. Share! Then you'll earn.
Do you have "a good name"? The brand name of your hotel / your hotel group is valuable. Chains know this. Now, private hoteliers are discovering it too. Two clever Austrians have therefore had a brand analysis done and report openly of their experiences. A positive effect: Those able to decipher their brand value also impress the banks.
And in other news: Hotel rates in Europe continue to rise in 2018. Airbnb refuses to pay the 21% tax in Italy. Vienna House expands in Asia, and the Thai sister brand from the group of the new Thai owner makes the leap to Europe. Exactly what effect the G20 summit in Hamburg had on hotel benchmarks is revealed by STR. And with the summer, each week we now get the results from hotel companies for the first half-year, today from Pandox.
In the background, we continue to work on the next Expo Real in October. If you would like to present your company at our high quality networking event BRICKS & BRAINS or in our trade fair SPECIAL, please refer to our Page 1 for more details. Ask us about it!

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief


Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,
I met Chris Cahill in the mid-1990s at Fairmont in Canada and have followed his career since then. Hardly anyone else knows this group as well as he does. He built the group up for 19 years and secured FRHI a place in the global luxury hotel industry. Today, he speaks as CEO Luxury Brands of AccorHotels – about the pieces in the brand jigsaw puzzle. Typically for him: his people focus, which make up the brands. For a year now, he's consistently questioned and analysed guest services and guest feedback in order to provide fact-based answers. Results show: There is no difference in quality between Fairmont and Sofitel, not from the guest perspective at least.
What Beatrix Boutonnet found at the Future Congress in Luxembourg has more the feel of an experiment. 5,000 participants attending listening to fascinating speakers who reported of flying taxis, life on Mars, helpful augmented reality spectacles and new technologies for the world of finance as well as football. She didn't meet any hoteliers there though.
And Fred Fettner takes us on a journey this week into the idyllic world of thermal lakes – with a novelty: In Austria the first two thermal lakes are being constructed. They are intended to give summer tourism a shot in the arm in the otherwise busy winter sport destination Bad Hofgastein.
Our news this week focus again on Airbnb: the recent decision is France to list landlords and on a disputed study on the Balearic Islands. The Crillon Paris has re-opened after four years of renovation works. The booming German real estate market experienced a slight slowdown in the 2nd quarter, though the market value of investment-relevant hotels has again risen sharply in Germany. Even serviced apartments continue to pick up momentum. Two new market studies and an important book provide more transparency here.
For us, the countdown is already underway for Expo Real 2017 in October in Munich. At the "World of Hospitality", there have been a few changes so that one place has again become available; logo partnerships are also still possible. You also still have the chance to present your company at our top networking event BRICKS & BRAINS and in the SPECIAL. Ask us about it.

We wish you a good week!
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief

Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,
It's sheer incredible to read about the current President of the United States of America and his family and the "United Trump Business" which spans the globe. Fortunately, there are unswervingly "fake media" like Bloomberg and the Washington Post to help keep an overview. Sarah Douag has once again dug around to present Part 2 of our Trump Series today.
And thankfully there are hoteliers with a sense of humour: No less than the Germans – not really known for their humour – have introduced a deliciously ironic "Trump Suite", just in time for the G20 summit in Hamburg starting today. The design of the room at the 25hours hotel is a light-hearted caricature of "Trump style", and not only in its boastful swanky style, but also in how it was sold: by auction on eBay. It costs 905 euros for two nights to experience the Trump Suite and police roadblocks in Hamburg from today. So Great!
Alexander Ipp forms the counterpoint to such swank and splendour. The modest Austrian businessman is interested in honest and affordable hotel products in small towns. That too is a niche. Fred Fetter met him and in second article presents other new Austrian hotel brands from the "Smart & Budget" world.
NH Hotels will pay a dividend for the first time in nine years. Behind the scenes, things are hotting up though, also due to HNA. The operator Odyssey is developing a taste for the hotel sector and sends a first signal today with the new AC Hotel in Mainz.
In Austria, there's more demand from investors than there are hotels available for purchase, and just before the travel season, the discussion around border control at the Brenner Pass is making headlines. Austrian chancellor candidate Sebastian Kurz made a short trip to Tyrol as part of his election campaign.
Political decisions currently have a great impact on the sector. All eyes are therefore on Germany – and not only today on the great and powerful in Hamburg. On 24 September, Germany will hold a general election. Perhaps before then, somebody will design a Merkel Suite?

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor-in-Chief

Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com