Dear Insiders, 

The newly merged chains are finally starting to make some noise: Starwood, now merged with Le Méridien, has fully reformed its marketing strategy. The Hilton Hotels Corporation pushes its "Waldorf-Astoria Collection". The question still remains, however, as to when the two chains are going to start to compete amongst themselves. For HHC new plans could mean the recently nominated top 5 star brand Conrad Hotels will be ousted by the new hotel grouping, as these will also be allowed to carry the title Waldorf-Astoria Collection. Initial details made no reference to how confusion is to be avoided.

In Berlin what brand name graces the front of the hotel obviously makes no difference. Despite the rapidly increasing number of tourists, hotel rates are continuing to fall. I'm beginning to ask myself why there's no hotel with a little backbone in Berlin ? Everyone complains, but nobody resists the pressure and stands in quality's defence. Or is what's happening in Berlin the subtle admission that no-one's offering quality anymore? This would also be a sort of mainstream.

Going a little against the grain brings success. Simon Sherwood, President of the noble Orient-Express Hotels tells us today, why he's still buying properties and managing them himself. Room profits stand on average 40 to 50 percent higher than those of the nearest competitor, the smart Englishman claims.

Perhaps the investor study by Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels will provide some good ideas as to how to increase real estate value and rates.

What challenges the industry will face in 2006, in general and in more specialist areas both here and in the USA have been summarised by American hospitality consultants. On reading these figures one can only say: The worries are the same across all borders.

Yours, Maria Pütz-Willems
Editor-in-chief


Remarks? Please, send them to maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

again, after the festive season we are back to "business as usual". For 2006, as reported through various media towards the end of last year, the German hotel industry wants to increase room rates. Finally! The signal is an important one, even when the reasons behind the decision differ. One manager of a large German hotel group said at a Christmas reception, that rates will be increased by 19% without compromise: The hotels have had enough of the endless price squeeze from the conglomerates and feel pressurized by the energy companies.

Exciting topics are not in short supply for the next 12 months; we'll be there to pick up on them, keeping our ears wide open.

Already things are hotting up: Kempinski's CEO Reto Wittwer is preparing his own sweeping changes in Geneva. His reasons remain obscure. Does he want to prove his "leading qualities" to the Thai owners? Make greater savings? Particularly puzzling about the whole thing is that in his immediate management area there is almost no-one left who knows anything about how procedures were set and decisions taken in previous years. Is Wittwer, CEO of over ten years, perhaps only able to keep his head above water on account of his hire and fire policy?

Whoever is hoping to do good business in the new year will need not only dependable and competent management team, but also a qualified staff at the "other end" - for instance, in the call centre. Our reservation test awards famous names moderate to good marks.

I also recommend printing out our technology checklist. Many tips can be found there as to how IT can - when integrated properly - make guests happy. The day to day experience paints a different picture, as many a guest will tell you. 60 Do's and Don'ts for your company.

As from today our column "Event Promotion" will also take on renewed prominence. The ITB 2006 is drawing closer - the world's biggest tourism fair. hospitalityInside.com is part of the new focus: Together with Messe Berlin we are to organize the first hotel conference of the ITB, the "Hospitality Day", to which we would now like to extend a cordial invitation to you and your colleagues. The mini congress is open to everyone and will present as speaker and guest not all the usual suspects in Germany. Take a read.

With two new additions to our team of specialist journalists -Silvia Pfenniger in Switzerland and Gillian Upton in London - this year will also see a continued stress on news from abroad and the way to a European wide information network will be paved further.

In the following weeks I'll presumably be meeting a number of you personally at the coming industry events. I'm looking forward to that.

With warm regards,
Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Questions? Ideas? maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders!

The Hilton & Hilton reunification, announced at the end of last year, symbolically sets the course for 2006: The hotel market has experienced the greatest structural developments now than in the last many decades. However, the fact that in this most recent case "only" two affiliated companies are merging once again is of no less importance. It clearly shows the pressure of the global players: each Hilton affiliate on its own would probably have been too weak to compete with established heavyweights such as Marriott or new heavyweights such as Starwood.

Takeovers and mergers are definitely not a hotel-specific phenomenon: even in related industries, powers are shifting. This is what the sale of the business travel chain TQ3 shows. The giant TUI gets rid of its unpopular subsidiary practically overnight and passes it on to a hitherto competitor.

Regarding the Marriott Vacation Club International, it is still unclear what happens when personal data wander into false channels. Only a few days ago it became public, but already since November, the timeshare subsidiary of the hotel giant Marriott has been missing PC security tapes with credit card information, social security numbers and addresses of more than 206,000 apartment owners, customers and employees. A scandal in the data and security-obsessed USA! But more devastating is the loss of image and confidence for Marriott!

This first issue of 2006 contains the most important news since New Year's Eve and concentrates on non-smoking regulations in individual countries. This year, Spain is also banishing cigar and cigarette fans from restaurants and bars. As of next Friday, hospitalityInside.com will present again hot topics - just as you may look forward to the coming 50 issues in 2006.

I wish you a good start into a successful New Year.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Your comments for the new year?
Tell me: maria@hospitalityInside.com 

Dear Insiders,

After nine months and two weeks, hospitalityInside.com stands before sparkling baubles and Christmas candles. 2005 was the birth year of Europe's first bilingual online information network for the hotel industry. It was certainly a show of strength for our little team, but 2006 promises growth even for us. Your faith in our concept has inspired us in the first few months and still continues to provide motivation for the future.

In October 2004 the decision was made that gave life to this network for hotel executives. Up to the point of its legal creation, many a conversation with our closest friends, business partners and family members was dominated by ifs and buts. Several of them have showed me that the concept has a future and that the network meets a need in the industry. Our approach is right - and that has been confirmed this year. Of course there are improvements to be made - increasing comfort of use, extending the knowledge network and topics… we know this and we're working on it.

The first nine months for us have helped us to find strengths, weaknesses and possibilities. The launch of hospitalityInside.com at the ITB in March 2005 was accompanied by much excitement - we went 24 hours late online! As I was underway in Berlin, proudly reporting from the new project, my husband Michael Willems and the IT experts were sweating over the last programming hicks and the first edition. My husband informed me about the final "push of the button" by mobile phone.

Incidentally, it's the first time that we've worked together professionally on a bigger project. As economist, he is in his function as Managing Director the perfect complement to myself, the more creative one. Our team is small and tight-knit. Almost overnight I went from 16 years of working alone as freelance journalist to coordinating editorial staff, translators, office hands and occasionally too the odd editorial expert. Meanwhile ten freelance colleagues in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, England and the USA contribute to us. A number of colleagues I've known for years; for two of them I've written myself - now they write for me. Four translators, two of them native speakers, work every week on the English translations. Without them hospitalityInside.com could not overcome boarders.

Because travel and contacts are an indispensable part of my work, I have organised myself both on a "virtual" and "global" basis. Quite often the final touches to an article have been added whilst underway - at four in the morning during a stopover at the airport lounge in Doha, at seven in the morning at the PC in my hotel room in Marrakech, at one in the morning at the Business Center in Delhi. Remember this when you see the next typing mistake….

hospitalityInside.com creates a new dimension in cooperation and in reporting. We will continue to extend our network of writers next year in order to bring you further perspectives from professional journalists. The European element will also receive renewed importance. At the next ITB we plan to build up a further platform to be able to bring you further information sources for your daily work. More will be revealed later.

For now, two more highlights for 2006: hospitalityInside.com is to become media partner for the first "Hospitality Day" at the ITB 2006. The Berlin trade fair has entrusted us with the content planning for the hotel conference on 9 March for the world's biggest tourist fair. In April I will participate in a discussion at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and will appear alongside well-known American journalists in my capacity as representative of European hotel media.

All this is possible, because you - the Insiders, our readers/users - have responded to my questions, inquiries and requests for interviews. Let me express my deepest thanks to you and your team for making this happen. This specialist medium for the hotel industry is so good and successful, because you've allowed it to become so. I feel, it's your desire for transparency in the industry that makes this possible.

I thank the whole team at hospitalityInside.com for their work this year and many thanks to our editorial experts, too. Your trust and support for our concept, your understanding and your constructive criticism are all incentive for a successful 2006.

Merry Christmas!

Maria Puetz-Willems & Michael Willems
On behalf of HospitalityInside, editing and publishing

Dear Insiders,

Budget planning for 2006 is already well underway in most businesses, all the same, an ear should still be kept open for what creators for new management software have to say. This management information system can be used in conjunction with all other data processing systems and has the ability to draw all necessary information from the system already in place. 48 hours after installation of this new networked management system, hospitalityInside.com spoke with Treugast and their new joint venture partner Dreamteam Solutions. After all, we are committed to up to date reporting. The software is, however, still very much in the theoretical phase. "SoluMIS" won't be presented to the industry at large till January. You can tell us later where the strengths and weaknesses of this software lie. Deal?!

The American Spa Finder has also been taking a look at things to come. Contrary to first impressions, this is no consultancy firm but a multi-media company and at that one which has no counterpart in Europe. I met company president Susie Ellis at a spa management meeting on the Maldives. There we took time, - with our feet in the lagoon and laptop on our knees - each to explain our business models to each other. Today with current edition of "Spa Trends 2006" packed safely with the luggage, allow me to use this opportunity to introduce you to the Spa Finder concept. It shows exactly how much market and marketing power can stand behind the three little letters "spa". At the very least it should comprise an important additional international research source for your in-house spa managers.

This week our timeshare section continues with an introduction to the Condo Hotel concept. Otherwise the tour operators dominate this edition. Kuoni sells US affiliate and TUI restructures in Germany. My colleague Helge Sobik has been following "Travel Designers", operators of intense and sinfully expensive tours. Don't be surprised that these individual travel planners don't mention hotel names: discretion is part of the deal as a result of which flexible hotels can make handsome sums.

Next Friday hospitalityInside.com will appear for the last time this year. Read then the industry review 2005 and our personal recount of the year's events.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Your comments? Please, address to: maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

Every year, the Christmas/New Year's speech is on the agenda. Are you a charismatic word artist? Or rather a realistic speaker? Whatever, there is no need to sweat and panic - we provide you with 10 tips for great speeches! So that killer phrases are ruled out. Are you saying that is a boring topic? Motivation trainer Daniel Zanetti replies: "The hotel industry does not have any brilliant speakers!" Wherever you look there is linguistic dreariness.

The all year round "blablah" of the boss can even drive employees to hand in their notice. That is why we provide tips about what to bear in mind when applying online. Personal e-introduction has its vagaries. Read our online etiquette guide!

Both verbal acrobatics and etiquette knowledge of a totally different type are required when dealing with kids: Christmas is the family season and children in the hotel are therefore "on the agenda". After an Austrian hotelier recently announced a "ban on children", we are introducing ideas and experiences from the world of private resort hotels in terms of dealing with the small guests. And those who want to know how to develop a booming business in the family segment with high average rates and huge marketing chances should read the article on the Kinderhotels Austria. Their business model is the most successful of all Austrian groups.

Further articles about the "Revenue Day" of HSMA, the acquisition of the Summerfield Suites by the Hyatt group and the imminent hostile takeover of the North American luxury hotel group Fairmont will lead you into the realistic world of revenues, yield and shareholder interest. One of the shareholders is accusing Fairmont to have failed in sufficiently increasing the company value.

I wish you a value-increasing week with hospitalityInside.com.

Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Your comments? Please, address to maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

Once again we return to the Buehlerhoehe issue. The quarrel surrounding the stately hotel near Baden-Baden again formed part of an interview with the management of NH Hoteles. The Spanish express their wish to talk directly with owner Hopp. And there's more: The Spanish hotel management chain announced at the opening of a new hotel in Nuremberg: Europe's third biggest business hotel chain plans to build a line of resorts and to enter the top luxury sector à la Starwood. Olé!

Et voilá! In the last few days German hoteliers have had no qualms about using diverse media in their campaign against the morally reprehensible price dumping round conceived by Accor in its "1 Euro Christmas Special". I can only say: respect to this PR campaign! Such reactions stoke public interest much more than keeping quiet about the campaign would have done. Accor may, however, have overlooked something quite different: the damage such campaigns can have on market value. For hospitalitiyInside's expert Prof Christian Buer, the spectacle couldn't have come at a better time to test some newly published findings: In his new study - completed just four weeks ago - he explains how to measure market value and what can be measured clearly shows ups and downs. Christian Buer will presumably follow Accor's market value very closely in future studies.

Oh no! Online intermediaries are finding the European holiday market no fun at all. As fragmented as it presently is, efficient internet marketing is near on impossible. Single experiments, however, show the huge potential in this segment, even among B2B partners.

No thank you! Or yes please? Medical Beauty is fast becoming a new trend - or so it would seem. The industry, on the other hand, shows a mixture of different sentiments. Is surgery without the scalpel still wellness? Can the medium sized firm afford the specialist support? Who's liable? A speech at a wellness forum threw up a number of questions. Some hoteliers give answers.

And now? At the end we turn to the hyper-motivating words of a communication professional seen by Baerbel Schwertfeger more as sober than as "behavioural therapist". Baerbel, herself not completely lacking motivation in her life, met him in the new "Salon" in Munich's ArabellaSheraton Grand Hotel and describes him as radically motivating.

A motivating week with positive results and a little Medical Beauty wishes
Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Your comments? Please, address to maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

How do you handle your money and the money of others? This question could stand above this week's topics. 

Money and glamour: In London, once sought-after awards are skipped, because the hoteliers lack the necessary budget to take part in the glamour events! They are desperately saving money. They even spurn the discounted room of their colleague next to Hyde Park. Instead, they prefer taking the train to Paris in the evening - at a special rate - returning back the next morning.

Money and the grand hotel business: Reinhard Baumhoegger, freshly advanced to master franchisee of Accor's Mercure brand, is supposed to evade payment of taxes worth millions. 

Money and size: Theo Waigel, former financial minister, is proposed to become a member of Accor's governing body that will be newly elected.

Money and greed: The Hilton Group is emulating InterConti and Starwood - the sale of properties continues. 15 Hilton hotels were just affected in the UK. Cash is floating in millions. And as it proceeded so perfectly, numerous other hotels are up for consideration!

Money and desires: The concept of the Leading Residences arouses a desire for quick money. As the customers more or less "finance the property in advance", the investors sense mega chances. However, timesharing in the luxury sector has its vagaries - and critics. Not every Leading hotelier is fascinated by the new business model of the Leading Hotels of the World. From the chains' point of view, it will cannibalize the management companies.

Money and deals: Distribution via the Internet systematically drags the price of the hotel industry down through the floor. Online room rates are more than 30% lower than those of a standard travel agency. 

Money and feelings: A well-performing spa can be a delusion. Without standards of comparison, no benchmarks. Without benchmarks, no intelligent analyses and turnover increases. A basic lesson about spa figures.

Money and money: The Dutch bank NIB Capital is still willing to finance German hotels. Yes, that still exists!

Money and good wishes: That is what those developers need who naively convert a hotel into a residence for elderly people. However, the combination model putting hotel guests and home residents side by side has its traps. An introduction into a topic of the future.

Have a great week!

Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Your comments? Please, address to maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

The opening celebrations at the new Radisson SAS Media Harbour Hotel in Duesseldorf this week were marred by the unexpected: Just a few hours before, Al-Qaida bombers attacked the Radisson SAS in Aman killing attendants at a wedding celebration as well as hotel service staff. Rezidor CEO Kurt Ritter and wife flew to Jordan within hours - a decision which guests and staff at the Duesseldorf celebrations naturally accepted as of utmost importance. It was certainly an appropriate gesture at a time when in Germany talks centre exclusively on the figures. The Jordanians were certainly thankful for such a clear sign of solidarity.

In spite of the terrible events, Martin Rinck, Kurt Ritter's new right hand man, still found time to explain Rezidor's approach to risk distribution, a strategy that's allows the company to grow so dynamically and still manage to bring the group out of the red. The top news: a new, fifth brand is to complete their success: Rezidor SAS fixes its future on Missoni - not on Cerruti!

Last week, for the first time in the company's history, Rezidor SAS had to put together a crisis plan; and Germany's hotel lobbyists are unlikely not to need it. The "grand coalition" screams permanent crisis for the German hotel industry. Almost all the experts, associational representatives and directors described the developments as a "slap in the face" for the industry.

Leading Hotels of the World are likely to view the fact that by the end of the year further hotel groups are to leave the exclusive marketing association with similar feelings. Significant opinion leaders in the international hotel industry such as Peninsula Hotels prefer to trust in their own marketing ability that that of Leading. The circle of Leading hotels thus shrinks back to its original members: a collection of privately run hotels.

And because individually run hotels are generally thankful for all the help they can get in marketing, research undertaken by the Austrian Hotelier Association on internet reservation is therefore all the more interesting. Although not able to report the findings in full, we've certainly been able to give enough details to spark curiosity. The study is available at an affordable price.

A pleasant and crisis free week,
Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Your comments? Please, write to maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Insiders,

No, it was not a fata morgana in the desert: The Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi is the most boring hotel in the world. It seems that Kempinski no longer see itself as a hotelier, but rather as an administrator of sights out of marble and gold. Read more about this strange palace. There is nothing more to add to this article.

In contrast to that, the talks about the new flood of seniors in over-aged Germany seem to be outright banal. Today, such discussions are much more helpful to the industry than to the ego trips of individual rich investors. Susanne Stauss brought precise tips for the hospitality of the future from a highly interesting HDV conference and bustling discussion forums.

As of today's issue, we strategically approach another quite controversial topic: timesharing. In discussions about luxury hotel financings and mixed-use projects, this term definitely cannot be overheard anymore. That is why, as of now, hospitalityInside.com will provide the difficult facts and many facets in the easiest and most neutral way possible. The biggest and smallest "players" in this international market will be introduced, legal issues will be explained and a lot more. Recently, a representative of the scene said slightly disparagingly: "The knowledge of the hoteliers regarding timesharing comes from the nineties!" You can now change that - with us.

We also care about those who do not necessarily look for the bright spotlights and prefer working quietly in the background. That is also why we have asked the Dorint resorts about what happened during the first months after the "renunciation" of Accor. After all, here, a new German resort hotel group is quietly emerging.

Your Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief 


Your opinion? Write to me under maria@hospitalityInside.com