News & Stories

Hamburg. Two months after the start of betandsleep.com, more than 80 hotels have already joined. Two 25-year olds have the guests suggest their own rates.

London. Hotel giant InterContinental Hotels Group could be fined up to 10% of its global turnover if found guilty of limiting price competition on online hotel sales, following an allegation from the Office of Fair Trading in the UK.

Madrid. From the 1st of August, NH Hoteles, located in 26 different countries, will have free WiFi both in common areas and in all the rooms. The group is therefore the first international hotel chain to offer this service globally in all its hotels.

Brussels/Berlin. In spring, the European umbrella organization HOTREC put pressure on online distribution partners by presenting them with guidelines for fair methods in distribution. Now, online providers are showing their cards by disclosing their information.

Vienna. Finding the best value for money on travel and booking platforms is difficult for hoteliers. The Austrian Hotelier Association has taken a look at the 16 most important platforms.

Berlin. JustBook, an app for spontaneous hotel bookings, is now expanding across the whole of Europe. The portal was launched in January 2012.

Brussels/Berlin. HOTREC unanimously agreed at its General Assembly in Limassol, to update its list of "Benchmarks of Fair Practices in Online Distribution”.

Florence. The Italian Lungarno Collection provides its guests with their own temporary social network. This links guests and hotel staff.

Wiesbaden. The Internet will displace all other reservation channels known – this is what "reservation experts" currently agree on, thereby referring to strong growth rates of reservations carried out via mobile devices. At all industry meetings, trade shows and conferences, contributors present impressive figures and describe a dramatic change in reservation behaviour which is already taking place. hospitalityInside.com wanted to know from big chains how these assertions and forecasts are concretely reflected in their sales and distribution – and was quite astonished by their answers. Such information is "confidential", says Marriott – the same company that has described itself as "sales machine" for the past few decades and showed off with its annually increasing figures on their website. Very little specific information was disclosed.

Berlin/Bern/Vienna. Online distribution is becoming increasingly important for the hotel industry in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. On average, 27 percent of the bookings in the DACH area are generated electronically in real time via online booking platforms, the company's own website, global reservation systems, the computer reservation systems of hotel chains and hotel co-operations or social media platforms.