Editorial
Dear Insiders,
It's not often in the hotel business that operators "voluntarily" leave a hotel: This week Kempinski terminated its contract for the Grand Hotel Heiligendamm over night. Since the G8 summit 2008, the hotel has enjoyed world fame. Interference from owners - the Fundus Group - was unreasonable, Kempinski asserted. Fundus denies such claims and also terminated the deal. Accusations from both sides are serious.
The World Economic Forum in Davos was less fraught. Our correspondent Silvia Pfenniger was allowed behind the scenes and her experience was different to rumours circulating in larger media. She too paid a hefty sum for a small room - but she wasn't complaining. Nobody does. Everyone hopes that the WEF will remain in Davos. Hoteliers there take a large proportion of their annual revenue through the event - water damage during a VIP dinner aside...
"Hotel rates in Dubai go up and down like a rollercoaster ride," our Dubai correspondent Maan Hamzi writes. His article takes a look at the current situation in the small Gulf state which, in recent months, has taken an extraordinary turn for the worse. Hamzi found it difficult to find hoteliers who were willing to be quoted. The fear of admitting weakness and losing face is all too large. Yet here too Dubai should learn an important lesson: a very real crisis doesn't leave "fairy-tale destinations" untouched. Dubai too is subject to market whims - just like everywhere else in the world: London, New York and Tokyo included.
A few weeks ago, I interviewed the CEO of the Jumeirah Group. As part of a - state supported - company group, CEO Gerald Lawless can feel a little safer than the other chains in Dubai. And his plans are enormous: Today, Jumeirah counts eight hotels, by 2012 the company intends to have 60 in its portfolio. And the plans remain unchanged despite the crisis. An exciting undertaking.
Gerald Lawless is also one of four CEOs who will take current and strategic questions at the first "CEO-Panel" at the "ITB Hospitality Day". As media partner to the event, hospitalityInside.com will present the various participants today. Every ITB visitor is welcome to attend the discussion - entrance is free of charge.
Enjoy reading!
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Germany is changing - Germany no longer practices wholesale moaning. At the first major industry meeting in 2009, the "Hotelier of the Year" in Berlin, most hotel representatives displayed cautious optimism, and above all, true willingness to defy this crisis with flexibility. After the economy and natural disasters keep hitting the industry almost on a frequent basis, a new mood is spreading according to the motto: "...and we will make it this time as well." Germany, which is often reproached for its conservative, sober behaviour, is benefitting from this mentality right now. It helps to overcome difficult times better. British hoteliers, spoiled by success, are falling into a much deeper hole! Personally, the new behaviour of German hoteliers is boosting my courage. Very good, keep it up! And keep up the rates as well!
On the Berlin market, rates will be the principal aspect of the future, as our hotel market analysis shows. A Waldorf Astoria has been announced - this is great for the city's image and will hopefully help to raise rates of luxury hotels. But insiders remain sceptical. The flood of hotel projects seems to be endless: 5,100 rooms will be added over the next two years, more than 11,000 are currently under construction or planned... Read figures and facts about the most recent Hilton hotel and the Berlin market. Moreover, Hilton Hotels Corporation gave birth to two further brands!
Hotel partnerships mostly carry out their work in quiet. Despite this, Relais & Châteaux has a lot to report each January. The consortium of spruce historical hotels overtook Leading Hotels in terms of members and gladly announced remarkable increases in turnover in 2008 - although individual markets suffered heavy losses in the fourth quarter. This includes the US market as well. As expected, all key figures are experiencing a dramatic drop in the US, as you can gather from the news. Starwood Hotels also reports heavy losses.
Now Austrian investors and InterContinental Europe are transporting a US business model to Europe: a cardiac clinic will be established close to Vienna. After the third attempt, the location has been secured. In terms of health tourism, this model shows promising new ways!
This year, the ITB travel trade show in Berlin will sound out the global development of the industry this year. It will start in six weeks! And, once again, hospitalityInside.com will provide a first-class programme for the 4th "ITB Hospitality Day". The highlight: a CEO panel with the heads of 5 international hotel groups! Read for yourself and follow our detailed preliminary reporting about the individual panels in the weeks to come!
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor in Chief
Your comment? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
At last week's annual, highly frequented conference with top-flight guests organised by the Austrian Hotelier Association, it became clear once again how intensely the country's tourism experts keep close tabs on their source markets. They are spending millions for advertising in their neighbouring countries, mainly in Germany. Nevertheless, the OEHV still considers this insufficient. But in practice, this means: German vacationers will presumably get tempting offers from Austria once again in 2009. Another form of tightened competition.
In the course of the OEHV conference, our editor Fred Fettner took the opportunity to talk with Horst Schulze, CEO of Capella Hotels. The Capella hotel at Lake Woerth was the conference venue, but in general, the hotel experiences such a "full house" only very rarely. Three years after the opening, both owner and operator disillusionment prevails. Despite that, Horst Schulze still fascinates many colleagues with his passion.
Passion also plays a part in the philosophy of the new Kameha Hotels and Resorts - we provided a short report last week. Today, read more details about this new lifestyle concept, which I definitely think has good chances in the lifestyle niche - if realised in the way the pictures and CEO Carsten Rath promise. It will probably all depend on the success or failure in finding like-minded investors who can literally "afford" such objects.
Finally, there is a number of interesting news items! The Swiss Tschuggen Hotels are adding some spice to it this time - with their creative "Seven Soup" menu.
Enjoy reading.
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor in Chief
Questions? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Today, the brand new information on staff issues and projects is hidden in many short bits of news... Read for yourself!For example: Carsten Rath is doing Kameha Hotels.
At the beginning of the year, we took the opportunity to talk to the German-speaking COO of a new design hotel group in Dubai. Apart from the crisis, the group plans to open - would you believe it - up to 100 hotels around the globe in ten years! Europe is also on the expansion list; however, Germany is not. A Bavarian would nonchalantly say: "We'll see what happens..."
Accor introduced a new loyalty programme, which also rewards guests of 2-star hotels for the first time. This is a new dimension in the big hotel chains' fight for customer loyalty. What is more interesting is that a critical Cornell report does not rate these bonus programmes as very important marketing programmes.
Behind the scenes, the staff issue is becoming increasingly important. Every hotel group in the world is already facing an undeniable challenge. They are not only looking for low-level staff members but also for qualified staff members at management level. Thus, the universities are in the focus now. Today, our author Baerbel Schwertfeger describes the subject of university marketing from the hotel groups' point of view. Moreover, she interviewed the new university marketing commissioner of the Kempinski Hotels. In the meantime, Kempinski is looking for 20,000 staff members all over the world.
In the next few weeks, various industry events will be taking place. hospitalityInside.com will be there to inform you about the current mood in the industry at the beginning of the year. Enjoy a great week!
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor in Chief
Your comment? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
hospitalityInside.com would first like to wish everyone a happy and successful new year - whatever the financial analysts predict. Just how dominant the financial crisis has been over the second half of 2008 is seen in our annual review. Nevertheless, there have been individual movements and news which have consolidated existing trends or introduced new ones. Read our summary of the most important events. Throughout 2009, finance will of course remain a hot topic. The conference market was the first to publish its figures and these are all but encouraging. Even the current "ITB World Travel Trends Report" expects a bad year for travel.
The start of a new year also brings with it new personnel news, some quite surprising: The new Leading CEO made surprise dismissals before Christmas letting go three long term management staff. HRS, on the other hand, has extended its management team. Consistency also seems to have made a return to the Schoerghuber Group with a new appointment for the top job. The move sends positive signals to the hotel division which this year needs a new CEO.
Hotel spas looking to arm themselves for the battle of 2009 are well advised to take a look at current trends: Although these were determined in the USA, they are certain to provide relevant impetus and orientation here in Europe.
Until next week and the 2nd edition 2009, best wishes,
Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor in Chief
Any ideas for the new year? maria@hospitalityInside.com
For hospitalityInside.com a fast-moving and good year is coming to an end. Many new readers from the hotel industry as well as from the supplier industry, banks, project developers and universities placed their trust in us; therefore, hospitalityInside.com was able to register a new visitor record - which is an enormous encouragement to the team. Our claim to offer high-quality information to the industry's decision makers has been a new challenge with every single issue. Therefore, I want to especially thank our international team of editors and experts for their commitment - without their involvement, this interesting mix would not have been possible.
In 2008, we were able to improve and develop the profile of hospitalityInside further. Our Friday issue is still the core of our portal where more and more important synergies and partnerships are developing. We started new projects: our first readers' trip to Dubai in May was a complete success. The hotel conference at the Expo Real in Munich got best marks from the participants and the Munich International Trade Fair too. And we accompanied the Messe Berlin as a media partner at its first "ITB Asia" in Singapore. After issuing the first brand report in November with our partner PKF hotel experts in Munich, the next most up-to-date budget report is waiting. If you want to order these publications as print versions, please contact us. The ebook versions of the reports are still under preparation.
In 2009, the two hotel conferences at the ITB Berlin and at the Expo Real in Munich will remain our congress focal points. Both conferences reflect the focus of hospitalityInside.com: they are focused on international issues, they concentrate on high-quality values, they have top-class participants and they are constructive and critical platforms. We will provide you with up-to-date subjects, high-quality panels - and many new ideas! We are waiting for you in Berlin and Munich.
There are many dismissals in the global publishing industry at present, which concern editorial staff as well. In the US, traditional publishing houses are affected, such as the media group Tribune and the New York Times, and most leading publishing houses in Germany, too. A decline of the editorial level might be imminent now; however, up-to-date and well-founded pieces of information are essential in difficult times.
You can still rely on hospitalityInside.com as we will enlarge our team in 2009. As we are an advertisement-free media, we are able to fully concentrate on the content. And these substantiated pieces of information will not be found in any Google machines.
Dear Insiders, after last weeks' permanent crises reports, we want to end this year with a "crisis-free" but nevertheless interesting and up-to-date issue.
We hope that you will read our issues next year - and that hospitalityInside.com remains your "information network" in the future!
The next issue of hospitalityInside.com will be published on January 9, 2009.
Today, we try once more to get to the bottom of the effects of the crisis. Our correspondents in Austria and Switzerland interviewed leading hoteliers and experts; initial concrete forecasts in terms of figures are slowly coming in from the US. Here, it seems that it will become a "perfect" winter season for resort hotels, while city hotels are already suffering from the reduction in business travels. The negative news from the US should nonetheless be considered against the backdrop of rate and occupancy levels that were already substantially high.
All in all, the situation is quite confusing in all its detail, and nobody is able to look into the future through a crystal ball. From my point of view, all those extremely negative reports about the threatening economic disaster issued by the mass media every single day are psychologically devastating and partially irresponsible. If you listen closely, every forecast comes with critical dissenting voices - but the effects on consumers are depressing. We don't want to join in this type of reporting, but rather follow the developments in 2009, in an even more differentiated manner - and deliver background information exactly in the way our article about the problems of the open real estate funds mirrors it today.
In Munich, Alexandra Schoerghuber took over the management of Schoerghuber Unternehmensgruppe two weeks after the death of her husband. This early clarification of circumstances signals willingness to take decisions and continuity to both employees and partners - something the group urgently needs. Even if there are no details known about the future of the hotel division, it is positive to hear that the new head of the company is a friendly, active and analytical woman. And she learned her profession in a hotel.
Hilton is leaving everyone in the dark once again - you only learn about their new lifestyle brand via the media. Hotel Cipriani in Venice successfully defended its name in court, and the Alps see the beginning of a new collaboration.
Have a great final advent week.
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor in Chief
Your opinion? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
The terror attacks on the Taj Mahal and the Oberoi-Trident Hotel in Mumbai are a superlative in the most negative sense of the word. It is one of the biggest disasters ever affecting hotels. The collapse of the Marriott World Trade Center New York in September 2001, the attacks on the Radisson SAS in Amman in November 2005, and the devastating explosion in the Marriott Islamabad in September 2008 are of course not to be played down. People died in all these cases, and there was a great deal of bloodshed. Of course, one cannot foresee such incidents, but in cases of crisis it is clear as to whether companies are prepared at all for such catastrophes. We took the incident as an opportunity to analyse the crisis communications measures of the two hotel groups. Dear hoteliers, "Crisis management has to be put to the test now at the latest!" says our editor Baerbel Schwertfeger - and she is right. We provide you with a concise checklist. Mumbai could take place everywhere today.
The financial crisis has grasped the entire globe, and therefore, the celebrations on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Leading Hotels of the World in Boston were accompanied by discussions and worries. The convention in the city of immigrants also revealed the different ways in which various mentalities cope with crises: the Europeans assumed a more confident and composed stance facing the threatening insecurity, while numerous Americans seemed rather helpless. Leading Hotels seemed prepared for the "run 2009".
At the Leading Hotels gala night, I was lucky to have Hans Bruland sitting right next to me. He has managed the legendary hotel The HayAdams in Washington - the "President's hotel" of the city with the absolutely unbeatable view of the White House - for almost ten years now. Bruland, a German native, talks a little about the "night of nights", the election night on November 4. And he explains why his hotel is normally "crisis-proof".
Such encounters are among the bright and happy moments for journalists, who are normally busy tracking crises nowadays. Our correspondent in Austria, Fred Fettner reports about the effects of the financial crisis on the alpine republic. Applications for loans are dropping, investments have been brought to a halt, and a lot more equity is required.
If you would like to treat yourself or friends and colleagues to an exciting read as a Christmas gift, you should take a glance at the review of Stefan Loipfinger's reckoning with the fund sector. This is crisis management à la journalistique. At Starwood Hotels, the crisis is already taking its toll - dismissals. Other chains will probably follow suit, I presume.
A thrilling issue awaits you. Read for yourself!
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor in Chief
Your comments? maria@hospitalityInside.com
The hotel group ArabellaStarwood is probably the smallest problem in the business empire of Stefan Schoerghuber. His sudden death last Tuesday places his family and the staff of the Schoerghuber group before new and enormous challenges in times that are already turbulent anyway. The head of the company died far too early at the age of 47 right in the middle of the reorganisation of the holding. The German hotel industry has lost a great investor who put his heart and soul into his business. He purchased Schloss Pichlarn in Austria just last Friday.
The news of his death became known during the Dehoga Branchentag industry event in Berlin. There, the participants were struggling against burdensome fees and for a decrease of the VAT from 19 to 7%, but the day's star guest, the German Chancellor, did not submit to promises. She did, however, give the hoteliers the feeling that the industry's interests were being heard at the highest political level.
During the coffee breaks, the real economy was visible: The hotel managers and caterers talked about the banks' credit crunch, about decreasing prices and the year 2009, about which nobody knows what is in store. Our colleague Susanne Stauss intensely dedicated herself to the price issue and compared hotels via online booking systems.
The opening of the 15-million euro spa in the wellknown Wald & Schlosshotel Friedrichsruhe, so far only known as the gourmet temple, is counter-cyclical to these times. The hotel's aim is to attract the "stable" and well-off clientele between Hamburg and Dubai. In the course of its changes, the owner has dismissed the star chef Lothar Eiermann.
And there many more exciting bits of news this week.
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor in Chief
Questions? maria@hospitalityInside.com
Dear Insiders,
I've known it since last week: the super-rich in this world have their own "misery". They need cash, but facing the current financial crisis, they remain sitting on their villas, yachts and paintings. Apart from two highly interesting talks on the decreasing luxury level in the US at the Leading Hotels Convention in Boston, today's article about the changed leisure time behaviour of Austrians also shows that the crisis has effects everywhere. Even the "broad masses" are showing a reaction - they are reducing their parties, shopping, wellness and breathing in fresh air instead. It is for free.
The Austrians, Europe's seismograph for tourism developments, live in the fear that a snow crisis might come in the next few years. Their winter sport is worth 11 billion euros after all! An enormous amount for such a small country. They are therefore taking immediate action looking for an alliance with winter sport partners.
At the Design Hotel Conference in London, Guy Dittrich learned that a huge gap lies between the desires of designers and those of the hotel operators. That is nothing new for realists, but in times of crisis, this is becoming critical. At the moment, there seems to be hardly any leeway for experiments.
Accordingly, the engagement of the famous Sacher Hotel in the mountains of Austria can be seen as a small experiment. As of December 1, the grand hotel dynasty will manage the domicile of a rich Russian. 19 rooms "all inclusive". But: the oligarch lost a lot of money. Despite this, the Sacher remains true to him. The famous cake is to be exported to Russia in the long term.
Today's top news: our staff reports - mainly on Wolfgang Neumann and Moreno Occhiolini. Two big managers have new plans. And Wyndham's Rudnitsky has turned up again as well...
Enjoy reading!
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor in Chief
Questions? maria@hospitalityInside.com