News & Stories

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.

Paris. The French market for online hotel reservation has a new player: pagesjaunes.fr. Leader regarding advertising and local information on the web, Pages Jaunes has launched a hotel booking service.

Cologne. HRS is introducing a new quality indicator for its hotel partners. From November, the "Top Quality Hotel" seal distinguishes hotels with an excellent customer orientation.

London. Hotels are putting social media on hold as a marketing and selling mechanism, while they focus on driving direct bookings in response to their continuous struggle for better margins with the Online Travel Agents, says research by Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne and eRevMax International based on a survey carried out in five countries. Hoteliers do not have any confidence in Facebook, Twitter and others as revenue generating channels.

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.