Severe setbacks and plenty of motivation

Dear Insider,

Latest from the court: In proceedings in Amsterdam, the Pension Fund of the Berlin Dental Association (VZB) had applied for an investigation into the business practices and management of Grand Metropolitan Hotels Holding B.V. (GMH), for the suspension of the chairman and for the appointment of an independent person (a lawyer) to the board. The court granted this request yesterday. Both companies are linked through a joint venture.

GMH Holding B.V. announced the "split" yesterday in a press release of its own. The general consensus was that an agreement with the VZB was clearly no longer possible. Smura points out that B.V. is an investment holding company within the existing structure and should not be equated with the GMH Group.

And we're staying in Amsterdam for a while longer. This time, Dutch hoteliers have taken the city to court – because it is set to raise taxes relentlessly and consistently until 2031. The first step was to increase VAT from 9% to 21% on 1 January this year. Then there's the tourist tax on top of that. Already, instead of paying €100 for the room, they're paying €133.50, and by 2031 it will be €141. Crazy. The first impact is already apparent.

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Dear Insider,

A ranking of hotel chains has piqued our curiosity: India’s OYO has moved up three places in terms of the number of rooms, placing it between IHG and Accor. OYO has grown by around 350,000 rooms year-on-year in 2025/26. How do you grow so quickly? Through takeovers, yes. But in this case, it's also due to a franchise model that is considerably less rigorous than the American one. Whilst Wyndham and Choice also place importance on room quality, this seems to be less of a priority for OYO. Our author, Macy Marvel, has uncovered this and many more figures on the subject. I’m sure we're all keen to see how a tech company can become a competitive hotel operator in the European market.

A lively discussion on technology and AI lasted two and a half hours at our HITT Think Tank in May. We learnt: AI is not a strategy, but a toolbox. And that the big chains are not neutral players in the data debate. Franchisees therefore find it difficult to familiarise themselves with the entire AI toolkit. Details like these is the spice in the data lake soup.