Thomas Cook: No-frills hotels for the beach

Oberursel/Frankfurt. On the one hand, Thomas Cook tries to trim its hotel brands, on the other hand, Thomas Cook separates from the club provider Aldiana.

Frankfurt. "Exclusive" and "target group-related" - these will be the magic words used by German tour operators when dealing with hotels in the coming year. Major tour operators are increasingly pressing for exclusive agreements with their respective authorized hoteliers. Be it TUI, Airtours, Thomas Cook or Jahn Reisen, they all have one thing in common: they market services which, according to them, are exclusive to their guests in corresponding hotels. Besides, TUI launched two further hotel concepts. Despite or rather because of the exclusivity approach: It will be rather difficult to keep track of all those exclusive offers in the future. Will the label exclusive still live up to its meaning?

Frankfurt. On this early summer day, Karl Schattmeier nearly beams as brightly as the June sun. The Chairman of the Managing Board of the Sentido hotel group reveals the reason. "Including the two Nile ships, we are now the second largest hotel group of the Thomas Cook Group with 26 hotels; we are a heavyweight with more than 100,000 guests in the 2010 summer season," says Schattmeier happily. About one year after the official market introduction in the 2009 summer season, he self-contentedly took stock last week in Frankfurt for the first time. Sentido and Sensimar, the competitive brand of TUI, are becoming more and more alike. Therefore, the question arises whether the market needs such brands or not.