News & Stories
Glasgow/Eschborn. Last Monday, the British newspaper "The Sunday Herald" reported that a hacker based in India had recently managed to steal electronic data on over eight million hotel guests of Best Western Hotels. The hotel group denied the claim, though did admit that there had been an incident on one German hotel. The British technology journalist who reported on the incident gave hospitalityInside.com the details.
Hamburg. In the Web 2.0 the "user-generated content" is booming - and not only at the innumerable and mostly insignificant private web logs but also in the field of e-commerce. More and more online platforms for user opinions and evaluations are being created where users can evaluate everything they purchase: from toasters to holiday trips. And the online customers make good use of the opportunity to pass on their experiences with products, services and suppliers to other users and potential buyers. But do potential customers rely on this unchecked, unedited content? The answer is: yes!
Cologne. In exactly two years' time, Cologne will host the 8th "Gay Games". Between 31st July and 7th August 2010, 12,000 participants from over 70 countries are expected to arrive in the city. As of July, for the start of registration, the Hotel Reservation Service Cologne will introduce a Shop and City Guide System alongside its official reservation system specially developed for Cologne Tourism.
Frankfurt/M Utell Hotels & Resorts - today a marketing service provider for unbranded hotels and small chains and with a portfolio of over 3,600 hotels - continues to add new twists in the marketing of its hotels. In addition to boutique, luxury, business as well as spa and golf resort categories, it's now widened its sights to include the corporate sector and will now launch a meeting collection. The parent company Pegasus is meanwhile investing in performance technology and is busy developing new concepts for all hotel categories.
Hamburg. A new era of traveling has begun in the age of the Internet. More and more tour operators, airlines and resort hotels are present on the Internet and can be booked from home. In the past four years, Internet usage has almost doubled: from 12.2 percent of the German population in 2003 to 24.6 percent last year. With this, the Internet has displaced travel catalogues.
Hamburg. Web logs have meanwhile become a standard act in the repertoire of Internet Web 2.0. It comes as no surprise then that internet diaries busying themselves with the most varied topics are known to the vast majority of German speaking internet users.
Hamburg. Typical German online users have conquered the Internet as a shopping channel for a long time. In the meantime, almost every user has bought something on the web at least once. But it is not only the number of online buyers that is consistently growing. Shopping activity of individual users is growing as well - and they proceed very purposefully when preparing their purchase decisions. The results also give the hotel industry hints, e.g. for its merchandising products.
Frankfurt/M. What began in 1970 as a small hotel consortium has developed into an international reservation and marketing system and now strives to be recognized as a global hotel group for top private hotels: Worldhotels. After four decades as a classic reservation platform, completing this change in image within the branch itself is proving no easy task, despite the fact that Worldhotels now makes tools available to its members which many an "old" hotel group would also do well to provide. "We’re returning to Worldhotel’s basic strategy," CEO Michael J. Ball says. "We are no longer a mere intermediary." And the surprising news on the side: In December, an international investment fund acquired the majority of shares in Worldhotels.
Hamburg. The virtual shopping channel, the internet, is becoming increasingly essential to shoppers - even and especially for business at Christmas. This is the finding of an internet poll.