Dear Insider,

Welcome to our "trends" edition! Where ever you look, changes in markets and in people can be observed.

Trends in investment circles: In Britain, tendencies towards the stock exchange are slackening. That is: hotel groups listed on the stock market are being privatised and the trend of recent years is making a turn in the opposite direction. Blackstone takes over Wyndham -  the trend of US investors swallowing up more and more hotel companies is taking stronger hold. And exactly how strong the cross border trend in the hospitality business has become can be seen in Rezidor's announcement to finance its new African hotel projects with government funds from northern countries.

The trends in the wellness sector: Austria's most successful wellness hotel, the Hochschober in Carinthia, has been wrapping culture and moods by wellbeing treatments for over ten years. Now it has extended its product palette to include an authentic Chinese tower and adequate treatments  - and all that exclusively for its hotel guests! A sense for new trends seems to lie in the blood of the family owners. Capacity filled up to 98% is the reward for a peek into other markets and honest dealings with guests.

The trend in tourism: Low cost carriers change their destinations. The first part of the report, published in the previous edition, showed the resounding success for Carinthia, Austria. Only in Hanover and Cologne-Bonn is there still some uncertainty as to where additional passengers using the cheap airlines are residing. This, however, only confirms a long identified trend: Austrian tourism experts are well ahead.

Enough gossip. It's all in this week's edition.
We wish an enjoyable read and a successful week,

Yours Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Please, write to maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Readers,

Moving managers and new products dominate our headlines today: Yesterday, hospitalityInside learned that Arie van der Spek, InterConti’s COO for Europe, no longer shares the group’s new structure. NH Hoteles' Managing Director Operations has stepped down as well. Apart from that, Starwood is introducing a new design budget brand on the market and Four Seasons seems to be selling off its "secondary hotels" in New York and Chicago. 

We are always up to date, but in this particular issue, we have succeeded in doing so especially well. And, as you can see in all three articles mentioned, we have managed to bring to you precise additional information of relevance to the industry from the companies – or to analyse market rumours. 

And with this issue, hospitalityInside proves again: We are a magazine that likes to report from a European point of view, but nonetheless keeps an eye on the international market as well. Stanley Ho, a big name in Hong Kong and Macau, will give the former Portuguese exclave a kind of superlative flair resembling Las Vegas with his construction project. On the other side of the globe, in the Caribbean, hoteliers are confronted with a totally different type of Moloch: The new entry regulations the USA has announced will cause its tourism industry damage in the billions. 

One of the focal points  of today's issue is the low cost carriers: Do hotels benefit from the "no frills" boom at all? Our editor Ute Rotter has analysed the effects on rural and urban regions: In the first part, we highlight Carinthia in Austria and Stockholm, while next week, hospitalityInside will direct its attention to German cities. How do Hanover and Cologne-Bonn benefit from the boom? 

Enjoy reading,

Yours
Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief

Please, write to: maria@hospitalityInside.com

 

Dear Readers/Users,

As of today, June 3, we offer our financially oriented readers a special service: Each Friday – always in the afternoon – we will show the stock market prices of those international hotel chains of importance to the European market. Thus, you can observe on a weekly basis how the share prices of Accor, Hilton, InterConti, NH or Sol Mélia and others have changed over the past week. This service is possible because of our cooperation with the international consultancy HVS in London. As of today, HVS’ European Managing Director Russell Kett is enlarging the editorial pool of experts. Please note as of today: You can read our new issue every Friday, as you are used to doing - the stock market prices will only follow in the afternoon.

Another interesting news related to financing and investments: Yesterday Accor opened a new Dorint Sofitel in Berlin – and that was already the last hotel opening of the French in Germany this year!

Unusual news from Chicago: Hyatt has initiated a limited art edition for its guests. As art is often a trivial matter in the hotel industry, we put our main emphasis on it today, offering you many different angles regarding marketing, investments and insurances.

The articles about the switch of the Spanish hotel group Iberostar from a classical tourist hotel provider to a more diversified hotel group and the changes within the African Southern Sun group are the result of recent trips and talks as well. Our columns are peppered with further famous names: Ritz-Carlton, Trend Hotels Austria, Sabre, Berge & Meer. And more.

Enjoy reading. I'm looking forward to your feedback.

Yours,
Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Please, mail to: maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Readers/Users,

Concepts at selected locations decide over success or failure. Maybe, it is because of this that the British group Yotel refuses to give out information to the press. The idea of building cell rooms without daylight in expensive city locations may appeal to investors. That smells of yield. But does it also attract the guests? Nowadays, when it comes to budget offers, European travellers are definitely spoiled.

Why else would the young German chain Motel One bring even more atmosphere into its "cheap accommodations"? It just opened Germany`s biggest budget hotel - in the middle of a dull office city, but with bright rooms and a fire place in the lobby. Its hotels allegedly have a better break even than those of Accor. Therefore, budget and ambience are not necessarily contradictory.

Who says which concept is the right one for a certain location? Otto Lindner, himself a hotel manager and consultant, engages external consultants because of this. Avoiding mistakes is the motto of the conversion of an old colonial villa to a spa resort on Mallorca. He says: "The mix of make & buy is decisive!" 

Innegrit Volkardt, head of the well-known Grand Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich, thinks the same. She asked the design genius Andrée Putman to design her new spa. In spite of this, the French lady is not to be blamed for the explosion of the construction costs from three to seven million euros. After nothing had worked out as planned, the result is one of most beautiful and, above all, most spacious city spas in the German-speaking market.

Behind concepts are clever people and ideas. The same is true of financing. If classical methods are no longer appropriate, creative financing models have to be developed. Make your guests your "shareholders"! Three hotel managers of middle-sized hotels did just that.

Neither creative nor clever is the kicking out of the Managing Director of HGA Capital Grundbesitz und Anlagen GmbH. Critics confirm: HGA already cut a bad figure during the scandal of Four Seasons Berlin. And because hospitalityInside is still young and this unprecedented case in Germany`s luxury hotel business is just recent, we looked up all the data and contract conditions in retrospect. A lesson for every hotel operator. 

Click through this issue and read into the texts. Again, this issue offers you more than I am able to touch on in our editorial. The "Current Issue" provides you with a quick overview.

Until next Friday
Yours Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Contact me: maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Readers/ Users,

She's more a media star than Hilton heiress, but the hotel group couldn't have hoped for better PR than Paris Hilton. Conrad Hilton's great granddaughter made sensational headlines after her brief appearances in German talk shows and her short but stormy trip to Munich. The blond hotel queen adds a very special glamour to the name Hilton. Reality soap as brand promotion? Typically American hype? Whatever it is, European hoteliers should, all triviality aside, take a closer look…Brand creation is one of the topics of this week's hospitalityInside. Professor Buer takes an analytical look at boring logos and more. 

The organizers of one of the first spa seminars in Berlin also ventured a comparison between Germany and North America. In the USA spas are allegedly built to be cost efficient. American investors shake their heads at the large and luxuriant spas available free of charge in Europe. 

Some advisors shake their heads too at the topic of the conversion of office buildings into hotels. Many investors and hotel owners take an all too flippant view of this topic. However, the hotel industry often sees the conversion of office buildings as the only way of opening new hotels at the best locations. The number of conversions is certainly increasing. A new trend is taking hold.

Additionally, hospitalityInside reports today about the technology and travel trends presented at the HEDNA conference last week and from a recent study about the German traveller's profile. Our creative thinker Felizitas Romeiss-Stracke takes a good look at innovation - a rare commodity on the German market. There certainly must be something true in the collective German depression. Why else would bankers and building contractors applaud an Englishman for bolstering German spirits? Sir Rocco Forte did exactly this with the laying of the foundation stone for his third German hotel. Read also his small address to "the people".

If you like this mix of researched background and news then pass on the tip. hospitalityInside is the only bilingual online hotel magazine in Europe of its kind with this special approach - and with further developments in the making, there's more to come. In the past few days hospitalityInside has established new activities and partnerships for our readers/users. Your curiosity as to what's to come in the following weeks is justified. But for the moment we're giving nothing away.

Have fun reading and surfing,

Yours,
Maria Puetz-Willems 
Editor-in-Chief


Contact me: maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear User/Reader,

The mix of topics this week clearly reflects hospitalityInside's philosophy of reporting current news and background issues. The day before yesterday Sabre announced the purchase of lastminute.com, Fairmont takes over five hotels in Kenya thanks to their capital partner Kingdom Holdings and Barry Sternlicht from Starwood finally resigns.

hospitalityInside takes all that on board and continues to research further topics for hotel management independent of current dictates: Why is a medical wellness hotel successful without medicine? How exactly do sales departments keep record of figures from their Summer Specials? Our quick survey did not show sales controls at its best. And why must the IndeCorp hotel consortia rename itself after only a few years? Susanne Stauss rooted out the cause of the change yesterday.

The FIFA World Cup 2006 is on everyone's minds - a big topic in the media. Soccer fans look confused at the complicated ticket sales. "Typical German" will be on the tip of many a tongue. Just as German is the deep seated scepticism on the side of the hoteliers. Many still have a wait before they know whether the room alotments reserved years previously were realistic or not. Will the marketing model of the organisation committee - with the World Cup experienced Accor managers in the background - finally swell the coffers? Thomas Edelkamp, Managing Director of the organisation committee, reports on the state of play. Hoteliers put in their twopenneth.

All current headlines can be found in the menu listing on the left under "Current Edition". One mouse click opens the full text. But behind the articles there is more: At the foot of every text you can find many additional information links and explanations, explanatory pdf-files, links to archive articles or websites. hospitalityInside offers more than what you see at first glance.

Have a successful week, 
Maria Puetz Willems
Editor-in-Chief


Contact me: maria@hospitalityInside.com  

Dear Readers/Users,

Only a few hours ago we received two news that show how important brands are for successful hotel business. A 247-room business hotel in Rostock, first planned as Radisson SAS, whose contract with the parent company Rezidor SAS was questioned in the meantime, will open in August, after all, under the flag of the ambitious hotel company located in Brussels. The Hotel Sihlcity in Zurich, linked to RIMC in Hamburg via operator agreement, slips under the roof of the ArabellaSheraton group as franchisee in time before its opening in spring 2007. Its future name: Four Points Sihlcity by Arabella Sheraton.

Today, most investors know how important a successful operator is for the success of a hotel property. If possible, the operator should have a good brand name. That is why today`s main article examines the fascinating triangular relationship between investor, developer and operator. In addition, well-known developers of the German hotel market, investors and consultants have a chance to speak.

Besides all the news of success in the Middle East, the spectacular developments of the tourist sector in the Middle East are close to falling by the wayside in the media, despite the market`s extraordinary development in the last few years. Today, it belongs to one of the most established markets in the world.  Therefore, it is not surprising that more and more international chains and also many European consultants and developers have investors from Dubai or Abu Dhabi as partners or customers in the meantime. HVS International has thoroughly examined the Middle East markets - you will find the most important facts in this issue of hospitalityInside.com.

As is well known, next year`s upcoming FIFA World Championship 2006 is a small bright spot for the highly strained German market. At the Germany Travel Mart between April 30 and May 3, 2005, in Wiesbaden, on the occasion of an international press conference, representatives of the German tourism industry presented their programmes developed just for this fair. The impression, foreign journalists got, was probably not too positive. Lufthansa representative Claudia Huegel quite charmingly promoted the new airline "Lufthansa Private Jet", but was unable to give any price examples. The same goes for Dr Wolfgang Zoller, head of sales of Deutsche Bahn. He pointed out that the numerous offers of Deutsche Bahn would also be valid during the World Cup, but did not explain a single package in detail to interested journalists. The question of a journalist whether there are still World Cup tickets was answered as follows: "There are still tickets available; you can bid for them on the Internet today." Those people who were still wondering about this were quickly enlightened. Not only did the representative of the German Ministry of the Interior, Juergen Rollmann, declare that Germany would be safe, but he also told the journalists that there would be great efforts made to ensure that the Germans become friendlier by next year. After the launch of the service and friendliness campaign planned by the German Federation, OK-AG Tourismus-Gaesteservice and DZT, there is at least hope for "more service" at the next World Championship press conference.

Under "Current Issue" you will find all the other news and articles of this week's issue.

Have fun clicking through.

Yours Susanne Stauss
Senior Editor


Contact me: susanne@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Readers/Users,

The most interesting news reached us yesterday afternoon: Le Méridien is obviously not going to exist as an independent chain in the near future. Lehman Brothers and Starwood are getting together via a joint venture, after which the brand as well as all management and franchise agreements will go from Le Méridien to Starwood. The impact of this move reaches as far as Munich. As regards the German-speaking countries, Spain and South Africa, Starwood is the joint venture partner of ArabellaSheraton Hotels, which considerably profit from participating in the Starwood reservation system. Please read the report hot off the presses containing all the details you need to know!

The following topic is highly explosive, but not absolutely red-hot: REITs. These four letters have caused lots of confusion in the last few months. What is a real estate investment trust and why is it now becoming interesting for Germany? We have found out: it could become a fourth financing instrument for the hotel industry together with the classic financing and open/closed real estate funds. hospitalityInside has followed the path of the REIT and sheds light on its development and acceptance in the US and Europe. A lot to learn for managers and employees.

You will find background articles of this kind on a frequent basis in hospitalityInside, coupled with breaking news. Just like today: At the first European Ayurveda Congress, experts from India and even politicians from Germany – and thus German(-speaking) spa hotels as well – admonished the participants not to let the old Indian health system degenerate to an entertainment programme for leisure time purposes. They are demanding drastically stiffer admission requirements and “real” applications.

Our ears perk up at further notices with “model character” that come from the tourism sector: Lufthansa is now pressing ahead in quota selling and making business customers pay for non-used tickets. The Verband Deutsches Reisemanagement threatens with a new wave of certification. After the “Certified Business Hotels” it now plans a conference hotel certification. At the same time, the common German hotel classification has tightened its criteria for the second time since its founding.

But there is more to it than that, as you can easily see at a glance. In our left menu bar on the first page you’ll find the menu item “Current Issue”. Here, we list all the texts and articles of the new issue – and via mouse-click you’ll quickly have the chosen article in front of your eyes.

We don’t just work on our content, but also on your surfing comfort.

Until our next lively issue. Yours

Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief

Please, contact me by: maria@hospitalityInside.com

Dear Readers/Users,

This week’s news is a potpourri of fine, small pieces of information and a few major events.

My colleague Susanne Stauss visited the most important press conference in Germany. She reports about and comments on the latest turnaround of Steigenberger Hotels, one of the last few remaining German hotel groups.

It is questionable, whether it will remain German for much longer – although Karl Anton Schattmeier, member of the board, fiercely denied this fact officially at the press conference last Tuesday in Frankfurt. hospitalityInside was the first trade magazine to write about the rumours of talks between Steigenberger and Sol Mélia. We know our sources well and are thus able to classify such denials, more than ever after the failed negotiations with the Munich-based ArabellaSheraton Hotels. In any case, Steigenberger is still sprucing up the bride. After difficult financial setbacks and the selling off of the company’s "silverware", there are suddenly 100 million euros available for renovating. It has always been the case that ugly daughters brought in less money.

An image change is also being strived for by the world’s concierges. The "key persons" in the lobby box want to play a more important role in sales and demand a measurable evaluation of their services from the management. Today’s interview with the president of the "Goldene Schluessel Deutschland" and concierge trainer Gerhard Fuchs is only the first part of the key examination of the new role of an old guild. We will continue on the subject in our next issue.

From the management news potpourri of this week: In the international city ranking of Deloitte for 2004, 13 "Europeans" are leading the RevPar comparison. Fairmont Hotels are extending their financial partnership with another REIT via a management agreement for the Sutton Palace in California. This fits in with the new strategy of the North American luxury strategists, who increasingly practice management security by means of securing capital.

A "fun-bath" study shows how strong the spa competition can become for wellness hotels through public baths in Germany. And, as an exception to the rule, a new website "fitspace", a reservation portal for hotels with fitness services, is not asking the hotel managers to pay up. An important message from the organizers: Travel giant TUI published its first catalogue on package holidays with low cost carriers.

Today, we have many different articles, while our next issue will concentrate on real estate and investment.
How about recommending hospitalityInside to others in the meanwhile?

Until next Friday,
yours Maria Puetz-Willems
Editor-in-Chief

Please, contact me by: maria@hospitalityInside.com