Dear Insiders,

Creativity is not a question of national affiliation, as was recently demonstrated by the "Future Forum" of design hotels in Vienna. The discussion was about innovative and more or less shrill projects as well as "container hotels" and alternative housing concepts. Share a view visions of design hotels. hospitalityInside.com was there.

design hotels have literally been hot on our heels until today's issue. Another article picks up a topic of last week's "hotelforum" conference. The "2006 European Hotel Real Estate Award" went to a cleverly designed budget hotel, the history of origin of which I had already been marginally observing over the past few years. A small Austrian family business has proven courage with a "less-is-more" strategy. The new budget design hotel Daniel in Graz fits in perfectly with our series of examples of creative concepts in Austria. It is a member of design hotels just as the far nobler Loisium near Krems. You will probably already know it as "cube in the vineyard". Guy Dittrich, our architect specialist, took a close look at it, while I myself carefully checked the Daniel for its savings plan. The analysis clearly shows: design is not a question of budget.

Moreover, we looked across the industry's borders last week right into the sector of leisure real estates. Our findings: problems, financing and discussions about target groups are quite similar. Heuer-Dialog organised an excellent conference in the VIP facilities of Munich's Olympic Stadium.

hospitalityInside.com is always looking for issues that give you new inspiration for your work. In this respect, international and intersectoral conferences are an ideal platform. Our media partnerships - with the International Hotel Conference in Rome, the design hotels' Future Forum in Vienna and Heuer-Dialog about Leisure Real Estate in Munich - have proven to be a unique platform for new contacts.

This also includes the Cornell University/Center for Hospitality Research with which we are working together in a close partnership. As of today, Cornell supports hospitalityInside's concept over and above editorial issues. The institute presents itself on our new hospitalitySolutions.info platform. The next Solutions partners have thus already registered. In this respect, you should always look at this second pillar of hospitalityInside as of today. By the way, all new contributions on that site will be indicated in our Friday newsletter.

As the end of the year is approaching and you are probably still looking for a destination outside of your hotel group, we offer you a smart, brand new destination on Sri Lanka today. "hospitalityTRAVEL" is starting - exclusive holiday offers from hoteliers for hoteliers. Just click on hospitalitySolutions.info.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Any comments? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

This week's Expo Real in Munich is becoming a real meeting point for everybody from the hotel development sector. The world's booming markets are in attendance here as well - audible in the discussion forums and visible at the mega stands with giant models of the skyscraper silhouettes that are being newly created. As regards content, this year's "Hospitality Industry Dialogue" was weaker than in the past years. Nevertheless, the hotel industry is slowly taking its place at Expo Real.

The developers of Europe's newest 7-star hotel in Italy, however, shun publicity. Nonetheless, the concept resembles a typical Italian "Hotel La Mamma", caring for its guests with great dedication so that they do not want to leave.... Of course, such a load of family sense on a luxury level has its price. Even with hotel rooms of average size. Our second article about the changing spa hotel on Ischia is proof of the Italians` belief that they are able to keep up with "world standards". Some hoteliers only smile to themselves.

Our articles about the ongoing timeshare boom and the new fractional model, highly acclaimed in Portugal, belong to the promising and profitable development sector. An interesting parallel to the current discussion at Expo Real: the initiators of these timeshare models for Europe are building increasingly on Anglo-Saxon contractual models, similar to real estate representatives, who see British financing methods influencing the German market more and more.

With this varied issue, I likewise wish you the best for a week of variety,

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Questions? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

In the past few weeks, I have visited conferences for you in Vienna and Rome and next week Expo Real in Munich is on the agenda. There, the general mood of the two industry meetings visited will probably be reflected: the mood is great in the industry itself, but not in Germany. Examples: In Vienna, a lively Swiss talks about the new gigantic "rock resort" he plans to build; his Austrian colleague is waiting for the building permit for his third hotel. After building a hotel for kids and a design hotel, he is currently planning an innovative city hotel. In Rome, international consultants and project developers are grunting and groaning about too much work. Asian and Arabian investors are even fetching consultants from the US in order to manage their endless project lists. European know-how is only demanded in terms of spas, at best. Apart from that, only one thing in particular can be said about Germany: it is an important market - from a bargain hunter's perspective!

When it comes to investment and financing, trends are intensifying at best: financial monotony is spreading. The influence of funds is dramatically increasing. But their money seems to be spent at the same locations and on the same hotel types that are always operated by the same global players among the hotel management companies again and again. In Rome, an American fund manager was not proud for publicly saying that he had too much money to distribute in order to finance individual hotels.

A punch in the face for the European medium-sized businesses and into the pit of the stomach of creative hoteliers like those of design hotels... Another statement from Rome is suitable here: most medium-sized companies in Europe were too weak to be "branded".

I suggest waiting and seeing about the quality that fund financiers will produce out of thin air with their exchangeable brands of their exchangeable global players.

Today's issue offers more market news and highly interesting, brand new staff issues in numerous long and shorter articles. Our Swiss editor, Silvia Pfenniger, met an UBS manager in Zurich, our colleague Susanne Stauss visited a wellness conference at her door in Wiesbaden. Last but not least there is the latest Insider news about Dorint Hotels' new structures. Researched yesterday, published today.

A successful week,
yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief

Remarks? maria@hospitalityInside.com 

Dear Insiders,

While you are reading these lines, I am still at the International Hotel Conference in Rome that combines top issues and speakers in a casual ambience. A pleasantly different concept that attracts more than 400 participants from almost 30 countries after only four years. At the same time, you'll read about Expo Real in Munich in this issue: nice to hear that this growing commercial real estate fair takes hospitality seriously as an industry and even plans to internationalise its hotel theme day in future. The reason: today, trade fairs are facing the same competition as every other industry. This is reflected by other news: professional trade fair organisers from Italy are trying to establish a "new ITB" in 2007. Their concept is quite clever. It links exactly what is mentioned here: issues from tourism and finance - combined under one roof! In addition, Rome is highly attractive with a brand new and easily accessible trade fair area and it "guarantees" reasonable rates in terms of hotels and airlines! Who will draw the joker in the European trade fair poker game? The cards are being reshuffled at present .....

The fact that operators and investors think across borders in terms of geography as well as brands is reflected in our articles about the strategies of the international chains in the Middle East and in the portrait of the project developer of GBI. But what about all those hotel operators who only sell their name, but no longer their real estate? A consultant from Great Britain predicts fierce battles between investors and operators!

Right in the midst of all this, we present the portrait of the design and spa hotel Mavida in Austria - as a sort of counterpoint. A private hotelier demonstrates once again how to pick up trends and surpasses the limits even in classic ski locations!

In Berlin, two new hotels were able to be admired: the new Melia and the new Rocco Forte de Rome! The first one has a GM, the second one not. Since Monday, the Kempinski Adlon has had a new GM - after the "Stasi" affair of the former GM Thomas Klippstein. After this issue came up in talks with you again and again, I would like to summarise: it is astonishing that a 44-year old trips over his brief "Stasi" activitiy, although the triggering TV report dealt 99% with the GDR hotel Neptun in Warnemuende and its "makers" back in the GDR. Not one of the journalists goes on with his research. There are voices that say: Thomas Klippstein is a victim of the media and a pawn in the game, and his downfall was "prepared" well in advance.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief

Questions? maria@hospitalityInside.com 

Dear Insiders,

Not every week can be as eventful as the last: In connection with the Stasi affair and Klippstein, I'd like to mention here that we received various calls and mails from hotel colleagues all wanting to express their understanding and sympathy for Klippstein's situation and wishing him all the best for the future. We at hospitalityInside.com would like to pass on these sentiments to him here. Next monday Kempinski CEO Reto Wittwer will personally introduce Klippstein's successor in Berlin.

Today we ourselves make a headline: We have extended out web portal to include hospitalitySOLUTIONS.info. On this public site, partners from the supplier and service industry will present themselves. Their expertise is an important key to successful management - and with that, also part of your approach, dear hoteliers. We present this know-how not simply through another advertisement page, but provide the industry with a platform to present themselves in a content orientated and interactive way. The programming for this site will be completed through the course of the coming week; then also the first page will change. The new site can be found under "Related Sites" in the left bar menue.

hospitalityInside.com, the magazine, remains just as it is and today again brings interesting news: The article on Private Equity and on hotel development in the Middle East are a must-read. The articles broache subjects which are often written about, though seldom provides practically relevant information. Hopefully you view these articles differently.

In Switzerland, Rosebud.Hotels have now decided to give the Schweizerhof in Bern a new lease of life as a hotel. At the Leisure Real Estate Congress of the Heuer-Dialog in Munich the regeneration of urban leisure real estate will be discussed. New additions also give Iberotel, ArabellaSheraton Mallorca and PuroGroup Mallora a new push. Raffles is to withdraw from the stock market and Steffi Graf and Andrew Agassi commence their first hotel-match... and much more.

Stay INSIDE and keep watch with us for new SOLUTIONS!

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief

Questions? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

This week's provocateur is the alleged "Stasi" past of Hotel Neptun in Warnemuende and of today's General Manager of the Adlon, Thomas Klippstein, in Berlin. The past has caught up with both. This week, the media have tried to "shoot down" Klippstein first and foremost. Kempinski is right behind him. We regard all this a bit more objectively and have tried to understand the work environment back then through talks with former "east hoteliers".

Nevertheless, this issue offers even more thrilling news: an ambitious lawyer from Austria wants to drive on the expansion of Romantik Hotels; Switzerland has come up with a second classification system, which can be seen as a defeat for the Swiss hotelier association. Before next week's "Future Forum" in Vienna, Design Hotels explains its concept. Moreover, Deloitte reports on its visions for 2010 - today for general travel developments.

The brief announcements still contain big news in today`s issue! Read for yourself...

The hospitalityInside team apologises for the technical troubles on Monday evening and Tuesday of this week! In the background, we are preparing the extension of hospitalityInside. But you will have to wait until next week for this news.

A week with less confusion wishes
Maria Puetz-Willems


Any questions? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

The Leading Hotels in New York were quite startled when we asked them for a statement about their brand dispute with a South African group. Well, Welf Ebeling & Team have answered, and now we know a bit more about the professionalism of the world's leading marketers with respect to their own brand. Quite fitting: The "Leading Small Hotels" carry their name because someone else was quicker to protect his brand of "Small Leading Hotels"!

Sometimes quickness is what matters. An original idea, too. This week, Small Luxury Hotels attempted once again to make their brand highly interesting via press release. In this way, they are looking for "mystery inspectors". After staying at a hotel, they are to write a 20-page report. Sounds easy. What are you waiting for, jobless and bored hoteliers?! To the front! SLH needs your time and expertise! You will find the details on the website. This leaves me smiling. Instead of discreetly looking for qualified testers, SLH is striking a sweeping blow. They probably know about the huge numbers of unqualified people who will steamroller them. Accordingly, in its press release, SLH apologizes for the fact that "only successful applicants will be contacted".

In Switzerland, someone else has let loose a snappy marketing slogan: Samih Sawiris, a well-known Egyptian project developer/owner of the El Gouna resort, plans to crown the Swiss barren with an 8(!)-star hotel. Currently, cows are still grazing the meadows and the alpine farmers are testing a revolt against the immensely rich Egyptian. Nevertheless, his superlative promises impress most of the people, the politicians most of all. Therefore, nobody cares when the hotelier talks about nonsensical 8 stars! In comparison, Burj Al Arab in Dubai has "only" 7 stars. In Switzerland, this can only mean that the guests of Andermatt will soon be drinking milk from happy cows with golden udders. I would suggest Samih Sawiris open up a "cow leasing" business - see another one of our articles today!

Further news: secretiveness about the buyer of Schlosshotel in Berlin, good marks for lifestyle hotels, bad cards for hotel websites, commercial news from health research... and a lot more.

Have a great week.
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Any questions? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

Friday is "hospitalityInside Day", Monday is "Focus Day"! On Monday, both will coincide, as, for the first time, Germany's opinion-forming news magazine will contain the "Focus Hotel List" with 550 hotels from all over the world. In choosing the hotels, the editors of Focus have fallen back on hospitalityInside.com's know-how.

Today`s detailed articles can all be regarded under a single aspect described by Deloitte in its future statement: the aspect of the people. A married couple with a great deal of sensitivity for people earns money with its "Kuschl-Konzept" within a short time. Reading the expansion list of Moevenpick Hotels and the small Seetel group from Usedom, insiders ask themselves how these companies will manage to give these numerous new hotels a face with qualified people. And our book hints about public relations touch the people issue anyway. Many hotel groups do not realise the massive influence of the character and the abilities of the PR Manager building up the hotel image.

Six years ago, i.e. back in the boom year of 2000, I travelled with colleagues and Moevenpick's CEO Jean-Gabriel Pérès for one week through Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Pérès, who had been in office as CEO for only one year, had the ambitious plan to double the 40 businesses by 2005. As you will read today, Moevenpick is lagging behind this goal. The new focus on Asia follows the general trend and Pérès is able to evaluate the Asian market: Before joining Moevenpick, he worked for Le Méridien Asia Pacific for eleven years.

Today, Moevenpick still strongly believes in a future of this region, as it did back then. There is no other European hotel group that is deeply rooted in the Middle East. It still is one of the largest companies in the hotel industry that carries out professional training!

In 2000, our group of journalists admired its fabulous Middle East network: A strong blizzard at the end of February forced all tourists to stay in Jordan's rock city of Petra for one more night. The connecting flight to Egypt had left the flight home to Germany was endangered. The snow chaos in the desert caused the entire telephone network to break down. For hours, nothing worked. Despite all this, Moevenpick's employees managed to have their boss and the journalists fly on with only one day of delay: Moevenpick's managers in Cairo contacted the ministers of Egypt, Jordan and India by phone and chartered a private plane in Israel, which was allowed a flyover and stopover in Jordan. In Amman, the plane picked all of us up and brought us to Egypt. This was a masterpiece considering the complicated relationships between the countries in this region. Moevenpick manages to overcome borders... with people.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Questions? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

in this issue, we will trace trends from all over Europe decorated with news full of facts and figures. It's interesting how Americans see spa trends in Europe. The first British "hair spa" fits to these trends, but its rates will probably make Continentals' hair stand on end. Similar to this, the approach of GuestInvest in England simply amazes people, as they plan to introduce their expensive condo hotel concept on the continent.

This week's most important economic news come from Accor. The figures for the first-half 2006 practically include the "policy statement" of Accor's new CEO, Gilles Pelisson, who has been in office since January. He is drastically cutting the group down to its core business, as it is common practice in the industry. Entire brand chains are under the microscope.

But what is even more important: the hotel giant, who had experienced growth thanks to following a strict standardisation strategy suddenly wants to have nothing to do with standardisation anymore. The announcement of starting a new 2-star chain without any standards can be considered as a declaration of failure regarding the Formule 1, Etap and Ibis concepts. Accordingly, the half-yearly report says Formule 1 and Ibis were to be "revived". Or could the death sentence only hit the lease agreements which have put an end to the expansion in the past two years - at least in Germany? Shareholders understand simple franchise figures more easily than lease agreements with their jungle of clauses. And in addition, the fact that Pelisson wants to be appreciated by the investors is beyond doubt.

In Germany, a single question remains: where and how does Dorint fit in there after all? Accor will have to solve this problem at any rate in the second half of the year. And it doesn't look like Pelisson could score points among his shareholders with this issue. Provided that they notice this subsidiary from "abroad" at all.

I wish you an exciting week,
yours, Maria Puetz-Willems


Remarks? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

Two of the most important months of the second half of the business year are upon us. More and more appointments overload the calendar again and company activities are hotting up. ebay for instance has set itself a range of new targets: The more than successful online auction house has implemented further useful tools for placing hotel offers. And at the same time ebay vendors and hotel agents are polishing their profiles. Interesting developments are in the pipeline which should even appeal to the 5 star sector. Or did you already know that most of the offers made on ebay were placed by upscale hotels and that rates achieved were often at  rack rate level?

What the future holds in store for us is on everyone's minds. Deloitte and the University of New York have condensed their vision of hospitality in 2010 into a report. Beginning with the topic "Brands" and following on to "Emerging Markets", Human Assets" and "Technology", we will take a look at what they have to say. The big trends in these areas are to ensure above all one thing: increased shareholder value.

Promising is the concept from Do&Co, Vienna's newest design hotel. A breath of fresh air to the Viennese town centre. Our new author Guy Dittrich will also focus more closely on architecture and design topics.

In September and October hospitalityInside.com will also take part in many conferences and not only as reporter: As already announced in the last edition, we are media partner for the International Hotel Conference in Rome, the Future Forum of Design Hotels in Vienna and - that's new - at the Bernd Heuer specialist "dialogue" about leisure real estate in Munich. The latter event is subject of a more in depth article from us today.

Our bank portrait this week is of Aareal. And don't forget to take a look at the fact-laden news.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief

Suggestions? maria@hospitalityInside.com