News & Stories

Vienna (March 8, 2013). The discussion in marketing and distribution surrounding the "right" price is industry-wide. And all the more around the right strategy. The well-known Austrian adviser, Dr. Manfred Kohl, founder of the international tourism consulting firm, Kohl & Partner, with its headquarters in Villach, mixes with this subject. He presented his new book on pricing strategies at the ITB. Among other things within it, he says that the price itself can be strongly guided through emotional components. Our Austria correspondent, Fred Fettner, spoke with him.

Paris. During its annual results press conference held Wednesday in Paris, Accor CEO Denis Hennequin made it clear regarding what the group distribution system should look like in the near future.

Vienna/Berlin. Whether at hotelier conventions in Vienna, the eTourism Day in Innsbruck or the German Hotel Convention in Berlin: The dependence of the hotel industry on Google & Co is vehemently discussed throughout. A comprehensive study on solution models for Austria's eTourism is expected for May. But in Germany, there are only discussions that turn in circles and weak tips that demonstrate how over-strained the industry is.

Berlin. Following JustBook and HRS, an American App supplier has now started up with Last Minute offers on the German-speaking markets since Monday: HotelTonight. The competition is cool, but a revenue manager explained why the new tops the others.

Bern. The Swiss Competition Commission launched a cartel probe on Wednesday of this week against the online booking portals booking.com, HRS and Expedia. HRS is likely to be quite practised in arguing against such allegations: In Germany, the company has already attracted the attention of the Federal Cartel Office.

Duesseldorf. Many German businesses use social media actively in their daily businesses. While three quarters still expected increasing budgets in this sector last year, only every second advertising business currently expects increasing social media budgets.

Cologne. Two days ago, on Wednesday of this week, online distributor HRS introduced a new search algorithm. It should indicate the hotels that best fulfill the customer preferences. The test on the website was rather frustrating.

Paris. Fed up with OTA’s constant pressure on commissions and behaviour, Choice Hotels has decided to take action.

Duesseldorf. Six out of ten German citizens, about 42 million Germans, have web-enabled mobile phones. Every week, 13.7 million Germans go online via their web-enabled mobile phones. This is 117 percent more than two years ago. The mobile internet usage is very popular among Germans, according to an association providing up-to-date figures.

Munich. The battle for the best app for mobile hotel booking is picking up. JustBook is now openly attacking HRS, its competitor in the field of last-minute booking. The reason for the HRS engagement: there is an increasing number of spontaneous hotel reservations via smartphones particularly among business travellers, who often need to change their booking. As usual, the hotel industry itself is lagging behind the trend.