News & Stories
Bad Kreuznach. In the legal proceedings involving 20 hoteliers from Rhineland-Palatinate against the President of Dehoga Rhineland-Palatinate, the Regional Court in Bad Kreuznach yesterday ruled in favour of the president. The hoteliers are considering an appeal.
Berlin. Munich Regional Court has ruled in favour of HolidayCheck in proceedings against Fivestar for fake reviews, thus sending a clear signal against the increasing number of purchased reviews. Taking on the fakes is an uphill struggle though. For as long as these companies continue to find customers in the hotel industry, fake reviewers appear little bothered by such judgements, as the initial reaction from Fivestar shows.
Cologne/Dortmund. The biography of fund initiator and real estate investor Anno August Jagdfeld has light but a whole lot more shadow. He’s currently embroiled in a large legal dispute. He’s suing the Dortmund-based insurance company Signal Iduna for record damages of one billion euros. Signal Iduna is one of the principal investors in Fundus Fonds 31 Hotel Adlon. His accusation: Defamation. But for the court, the facts are not clear.
Berlin. Already four years ago A&O Hotels complained to the EU Commission – so far unsuccessfully - against the lease-free leasing of a property in Berlin to the German Youth Hostels. Now the European Court has decided to initiate an examination procedure.
Düsseldorf/Berlin. The dispute over rate parity broke out again on Tuesday in Germany: After a court ruling Booking.com may continue to impose to its rate parity clauses. In January 2015, the court prohibited its competitor HRS from doing the same.
Karlsruhe. In a recent ruling, the German Federal Supreme Court has strengthened the rights of individual apartment owners vis-à-vis homeowner associations. The latter cannot prohibit the short-term rental of an apartment to tourists.
Cologne. HRS and the International Hotel Association Germany have come to an out of court settlement regarding "compensation for best price clauses". HRS will make a lump-sum payment of EUR 4 million to the association and so compensate around 600 IHA member hotels which last year asserted compensation claims against the platform.
Bad Kreuznach. 20 hoteliers from the western German state of Rhineland Palatinate lodged legal proceedings against the hotel and restaurant association of Rhineland Palatinate on 14 December 2018. They accuse president Gereon Haumann of violation and circumvention of the association’s statutes. This sounds banal, but it is anything but. The substance of the claim is that Haumann extended his current 8-year period of office unduly. His current period of office runs until 2021. Nevertheless, Haumann secured himself a further eight years – up to 2029 – this August. For this new period of office alone, he will cash in over EUR 2 million. Hotel members have now raised legal objections. The German Hotel and Restaurant Association Berlin as well as Germany's Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture Julia Klöckner recently publicly applauded Haumann.
Munich. The Bavarian Administrative Court in Munich yesterday sentenced Airbnb, based in Ireland, to hand over the data on hosts of rented apartments to the state capital Munich. Otherwise high penalties threaten. The Austrian hotel association ÖHV applauds, and Airbnb simultaneously announced in the media that it wants to become as big as Amazon.
Augsburg. Is a hotel still a hotel if the guest no longer sees a human face? That is, if you book online, if you receive the room-key electronically and if you find your own way around the hotel? In fact, there are already a number of unstaffed hotels. Digitalisation has given this trend an enormous boost. hospitalityInside readers asked whether the unmanned hotel stood on a sure legal footing. We asked hotel associations in Germany, Austria and Switzerland for their opinions and also interviewed the operators of two unmanned hotels, lawyers from the firm Arnecke Sibeth Dabelstein in Munich and our editorial experts on the relevant legal issues.