Dear Insiders, In six days time, hospitalityInside.com will celebrate its 5th birthday! Today, we feel our advertisement-free, quality-orientated and bilingual online magazine has proved itself – thanks to you, our readers' and partners' support! We take a look back and say a big Thank You…Confidence in the young medium hospitalityInside and its industry network also came from Trade Fair Berlin as it placed us in charge of the ITB Hospitality Day just a few months after our start. Now, for the 5th time, we have organised the hotel conference for the world's biggest tourism fair. Next Thursday, on hospitalityInside's birthday, is ITB Hospitality Day! We will be in Berlin from Tuesday to Friday; if you like to meet us, please contact us.For me, last week brought a large highlight: the official opening of the Grand Kameha Bonn. Kameha CEO Carsten Rath sets a benchmark with this product in the lifestyle and event niche well beyond Germany's borders. An initial impression…Just how difficult it is and will remain in luxury sector is shown today by Welf Ebeling. We present him and his new transcontinental company and he presents facts and figures on the changed travel behaviour of the rich and the superrich.The Arabs create only at the "high end" and so Abu Dhabi aims to foster a different image to Dubai. On site, however, one discovers many - notable - parallels between the two emirates. - To the full editorial….

Dear Insiders, Enthusiasm for budget hotels is unbridled. At the same time, initial critics caution against potential overheating of this market segment. Therefore, we have asked leading heads of the industry about this for you: operators, project developers, investors and consultants!B&B Hotels has also noticed that investors like 2-star hotels – sounding the charge for expansion in an enlarged Europe. Only Tank & Rast in Germany is currently slowing down B&B's speed considerably.Grand City also moves between budget and medium-class and refrains from luxury hotels. Its franchise concept made it the second largest group in Germany. It does not trust in emotion, but toughly calculates RevPar – beginning with the purchase of favourably priced properties. The Swiss hospitality sector is also struggling with rates – mostly with those of competitors in the neighbouring countries or with its own strong franc. The statistics for 2009 revealed significantly reduced figures, but it was still "complaining on a high level"….Hopefully, trade fair visitors will leave the "ITB Hospitality Day" full of enthusiasm. Six panel discussions on March 11 promise new findings about trends. One of them will grant an insight in to the way tour operators think: how do they adjust their products to the general trend towards individualisation?Last week, IHG, Accor, and Orient-Express announced their results for 2009. None came out of the crisis unscathed. Last week, IHG, Accor, and Orient-Express announced their results for 2009. None came out of the crisis unscathed. How to communicate easily with your customers from different departments and via different channels is demonstrated by our new "Solutions" partner Serenata Intraware today. Read more about Serenata @mail! - Read the full editorial….

Dear Insiders, Istanbul obviously manages the balancing act between tradition and modernism, between a business and vacation atmosphere. Gerhard Struger of Swissôtel belongs to the experienced market specialists in Istanbul. He describes the current situation from a hotelier's point of view. And Simone Spohr took a look at the newest hotels.As our portrait of the Romanian hotel market slipped our latest German issue due to a technical fault, we have included the article in today's issue once again. This analysis shows up interesting but different details on Eastern Europe.Cornelia Markus-Diedenhofen takes a look at hotels "from the inside". Together with two partners, she founded a new joint company in order to offer more from a single source.In the second part of our legal feature about "business succession", the two specialist lawyers and tax consultants deal with aspects concerning the law of inheritance.The countdown has started for the ITB and our own preparations for the 5th ITB Hospitality Day. Four of 27 experts will deal with the climate: how do hoteliers have to adjust their products in the future? You'll find the details again under the "Network" button.In our "Solutions" area our new partner Siemens Hospitality describes its wide product range and also announces a holistic solution for the management of buildings - "Hotel Site Cockpit". Owners and operators are able to control all hotel functions and services easily and at a glance. Siemens Hospitality will launch the innovation at ITB Berlin. - See the full editorial…

Dear Insiders, the closure of the Ramada Bad Laasphe at the end of January shows where errors in investment and lack of maintenance can lead to. The former Helmut Fitz property is again, twenty years later, the subject of debate.Romania's hotel market is currently at rock bottom. Nevertheless, there is hope in secondary cities. A market overview in facts and figures.Handing over businesses: Two hotel-specialised lawyers and tax consultants draw your attention to taxation and legal pitfalls of a transfer of undertakings.At Swire Hotels in Asia, things are more philosophical. The group is now looking to Europe with its unique and extremely generous luxury boutique concept.The ITB in Berlin is now busy again reminding us of its highlights: For us, hospitalityInside.com, it will be the hotel conference "ITB Hospitality Day" on 11 March. Read today details about the "CEO Panel" and the talk round "Mobile Devices".As media partner of the Cornell University/School of Hotel Administration, we also invite all "Cornelians" as well as friends of the Ecole hotelière Lausanne to the ITB reception of both hotel institutions. Details can be found under the "Network" column. - To the full editorial…

Dear Insiders, The World Economic Forum in Davos has extended the contract for a further ten years! This time, participants only ordered snacks – though these resulted in satisfying swelling of coffers. The WEF 2010 from a hotelier's perspective.Swissôtel carries Switzerland's image across the globe – though "Swissness" is to be served only subtly. The hotel group will celebrate its 30th anniversary this year. Reason enough for an interview with CEO Meinhard Huck on the group's current position.Mamaison Hotels is rearing its head in Prague. With eleven hotels, the chain is still small, though their plans are anything but that. Behind the hotel group is the Orco Property Group.The VAT reduction in Germany this week took on the form of a provincial farce with hoteliers slowly being jolted awake as a result. Yesterday, the ministry of finance sent a message to the Dehoga regarding the breakfast.The discussion on budget hotels at the 5th ITB Hospitality Day in Berlin this year is one of six talk rounds at the hotel conference; today we will present the participants. Put a note in your diaries for Thursday, 11 March - with no need for prior registration and at no extra cost.Conferences reflect trends and the industry itself commissions its own studies in order to create contemporary and needs-orientated products. MICROS-Fidelio has turned to the demands posed by "Generation Y". The lifestyle of those born after 1980 implies changes in the worlds of work and leisure: Mobility, outsourcing, "green" IT and cost-reducing technologies are only a few buzzwords. Click on our SOLUTIONS pages and read more. - To the complete editorial…

Dear Insiders, In the crisis top manager turnover decreased. Those moving up were getting younger – and were less educated: provoking aspects of an analysis on CEO turnover.The world "outside" holds challenges: there are still only individual real estate transfers, and the urge for refinancing increases the danger of insolvencies. Another piece of news fits in perfectly with this: the number of distress sales is increasing. Even budget hotels have attracted criticism this week. And: Rocco Forte is surely not the only one, who had to renegotiate his large-scale loan.Two CEOs will hopefully talk about several of these issues at the "CEO Panel" in the course of the 5th "ITB Hospitality Day" at ITB. The hotel conference of the world's biggest tourism fair will present 25 top experts. Everybody with an ITB ticket receives lots of extra knowledge for zero euros extra! For the fifth time, hospitalityInside organised the hotel congress and is also media partner of the "ITB Hospitality Day" on March 11. From today on, you will find more about the fair on "Network" each week.While the Berlin trade fair announced a stable figure of exhibitors yesterday, Austria is currently struggling with positioning its own trade fairs. The laboriously established ACTB is obsolete, and now it's "ALPS".Southern Tyrol, Austria, Switzerland and Germany have only one thing in common: the German language. Their tourist strategies remain different, as a discussion revealed.Gregor Gerlach "inherited" hotels from his father, founded the self-service restaurant chain of Vapiano and a bagels chain, and has now invented 5-star living without service. It's all being put to the test.

Dear Insiders, The world has a new nuisance: Oman Air announced full mobile phone reception and unrestricted wireless Internet access above the clouds. Just the imagination of somebody next to me permanently talking or typing on their keyboard on a 10-hour flight is a pure nightmare. I’ve already had enough of the snorers next door in badly soundproofed hotel rooms! Do I have to adapt my sleeping habits to those of my neighbour? I wonder what would happen, if hoteliers recommended guests to sleep only when their room neighbours sleep as well??? Meanwhile, the VAT issue is also close to a farce in Germany. After a proper smear media campaign last week Dehoga, the industry association in Berlin is saying nothing. In contrast, Austria’s hoteliers talked clear text at the OEHV congress this week. They are fed up of being the victims of ruthless banks and launched their own online portal for evaluating banks. Relais & Châteaux is increasingly accepting city hotels. And the Department of Tourism at the Munich University of Applied Sciences places great hopes in its new hospitality management master programme. And of course, there are various other pieces of news...Ideas grow with the challenges of the market: this is why you should also take a look at our new article on our “Solutions” micro site. The balleywasl* brand specialists from Munich help crisis-stricken hoteliers in repositioning their hotel. And they accept performance-related remuneration as part of their fee. - See the full editorial…

Dear Insiders, 2009 is over - a self-critical look in hindsight is good, even though hopes for better times are pushing everyone into the new year. The VAT reduction passed on December 18, is still being strongly criticised by the media. This criticism will remain, as long as the industry does not show solidarity! Our snapshot about who deals with this "tax gift" in what way gives some cause for concern.Occurring questions concerning company succession are problematic, but not insolvable. Once again, nevertheless: entrepreneurs have to deal intensely with details and emotions. An article with lots of subtle tips.Americans have a talent for detecting market trends. This is also true of the spa sector. Not everything can be adapted to the European market, and some things are considered differently here. The top spa trends from overseas.At the start of the new year, we naturally look at several staff issues and lots of hospitalityWhispering.Look forward to 48 new issues this year, and the hospitalityInside team is looking forward to your feedback! What ever happens: we'll keep at it.

Dear Insiders, We picked, among other things, two rather thought-provoking topics for our final issue in 2009 at the close of the year: real estate expert Dr. Joerg Frehse looks back on the hotel real estate hype of the past few years and says: some of the major hotel companies are not entirely innocent as regards the cause of the crisis. At the threshold of 2010, neither complaints nor euphoria are the order of the day – but rather critical self-contemplation.There is also a pinch of contemplation in our humorously written report on the "etiquette courses" for German hotel employees in Switzerland. A hospitality trainer will explain to you the meaning of German terms in rather "flowery" Helvetian German.RIMC, a wellknown hotel operator in Hamburg, has also developed a sensitive feeling for the demands of hotel investors. Gert Prantner and his partner Marek Riegger explain their strategy at the company's 20th anniversary in 2010 – bristling with news. A "silent operator" is speaking.Our other small reports today: Dirk M. Feid, who has been head of Treugast Consulting so far, is building up a new hotel operating group together with new partners; Accor separates the hotel business from the services division; and seven countries have agreed on common European hotel standards in Prague. And more…

Dear Insiders, This week's current tourism figures brought a very successful region into focus: South Tyrol. However, it is difficult for international investors and operators to gain a foothold there. Families rule the country. And the Hoteliers- und Gastwirte-Verband "protects" them by trying to prohibit hotels with more than 80 rooms. A market overview reveals the trends; young hotel manager Jonas Mairhofer from Hotel Alpenpalace confirms many of those trends by way of his activities; a third article about hotels at Lake Garda shows that different rules dominate between Brenner Pass and Verona.Today, in our series of "Small Chains" we portray the Zech Group, which is active in the market with two brands – and therefore follows its own rules following the motto "everything under one roof". Also, German Dorint Hotels are about to define new rules. The new managing board officially started to work last week. Among our news today: the review and preview of the German Hotel and Restaurant Association, the investors' spirit for 2010, the drawback for Samih Sawiris in Andermatt, and much more.