News & Stories

White Plains. Two Starwood Hotels in Germany can now provide their guests with new telepresence rooms for virtual meetings. With the move, the US chain follows other chains such as Marriott and Taj.

Augsburg. Goldman Sachs' investment in Facebook at the beginning of January underpins the increasing significance of social media as well as the danger of a "new economy bubble", similar to the one seen in 2000. Various surveys conducted around the New Year meanwhile push the subject further to the fore. Even if, as one survey found, much information on the network pages is quite simply untrue.

Brussels. In terms of online distribution, HOTREC worries about the decreasing number of relevant online reservation platforms and criticizes their behaviour with respect to dealing with hoteliers. A working paper on “fair behaviour of hotel reservation platforms” is to stipulate particular key points.

Frankfurt. Since May, a new consortium for serviced apartments The Living Hotels has offered its members the opportunity to book this special segment via internet or the Global Distribution Service from wherever they are in the world. By 2011, over 50 members are to be included in the system. Technology partner is Trust International.

Innsbruck. The Austrian internet platform, Tiscover, owned by the German Hotel Reservation Service since 2008, increasingly resembles its parent company. Nevertheless, it has up to now managed to capture only a fraction of the market.

Alpharetta/Paris. SoftBrands, an affiliate of Infor, provider of business software for mid-market companies, announced the acquisition of the Property Management Systems division of Amadeus IT Group SA.

Nuremberg. The widespread use of the internet in Germany continues to increase unabated, and around two-thirds of the population are now online. Gaming and social networking sites are most attractive.

Munich. A German start-up company plans to launch an innovative platform for the negotiation of hotel rates this autumn. In contrast to other reservation portals, only the customer knows the price at which the hotel provides the room. Competing hotels have no way of finding out the successful rate.

Augsburg. "Facebook fan pages etc. are massively overestimated," Matthias Ehrlich says, Chairman of United Internet Media AG. "The marketing effect is slight," Michael Toedt, Managing Director of Toedt, Dr Selk & Coll, sums it up in a statement. The media hype arouses curiosity in the hotel industry, yet in practice, many are still very cautious, as some voices are now confirming. PR Managers are defending themselves against mounting accusations of abusing Facebook & Co as a "cheap" marketing platform. After three euphoric articles and case studies last week, differentiating voices now follow.

Duesseldorf. Shopping or paying per mobile phone is becoming established in Germany: every tenth user of mobile phones carries out mobile transactions in Germany. The driving forces are the young people.