Dear Insiders,
Today, we're being a little "retro", even a little romantic in our desire for the simple and authentic. The Ringhotels consortium, the change from Vienna International to Vienna House, the 'mother' concept of Arcona Hotels, a Genuss portal and Genuss region shows from various perspectives that "old fashioned" is back. Call it "house" or "home" - your guest feels whether you mean it with the new concept.
Today's examples are wonderful proof of how focus has shifted back to what's really important - to true hospitality. The new retro is old fashioned pleasures! All the same, the simple, authentic must also be professionally implemented. Vienna House has for six months seen that its decision to go "back to its roots" was the right one.
A perfect accompaniment here are Macy Marvel's impressions of the Hotel Bellevue des Alpes in the Swiss mountains. At 2,070m, time has stood still - and intentionally so! Since 1840, the family has steered business by sheer stomach feeling. The entire hotel is retro. And still today, it survives without Facebook friends or Twitter. A millennial could hardly believe it.
And what does it all tell us? Every hotel, every hotel group needs an unmistakable profile, a clear position. The reality then often looks different. In Austria, the land of the resort, the majority of small and medium-sized companies in tourism are writing losses. This was the finding of a current study. Nobody in the industry is paying zero-rates of interest. Their low equity ratios are a hindrances, and personnel costs a further obstacle.
Wish and reality are two different things. All the more naive then appears the plan of the new Dutch startup, Bidroom, which pits itself against the OTA giants with low commissions. The German OTA HRS is expanding its foreign commitment. Trainees often take company tests in cases where school grades are not appropriate - a new large study provides employers with valuable orientation. In other news, the German Event Hotels were part of the recent Interhotel deal. And an independent research institute has for the first time published figures on Chinese outbound tourism.
