News & Stories

Augsburg. The keyword "News mix" will bring to you tiny bits of news about considerable events of the past week. The following companies are mentioned today: Banyan Tree/Dubai, Buddha-Bar Hotels, Motel One, Moevenpick/Al Ain, Schloss Reinhartshausen Kempinski, St. Regis/Cairo.

Berlin. Just two weeks after the first hotel takeovers became public, Daniel Roger, Managing Director of the Israeli Fattal Group's Leonardo Hotels, announced a further nine hotel takeovers in Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. The hotels concerned are mainly former Accor buildings, there is, however, the odd Hilton and Méridien among them too.

Duesseldorf. One week after the takeover of the Falkensteiner hotels in Bad Aussee, the German Lindner Hotel Group has now announced its third hotel in Austria. The hotel is located just 300m from Lake Woerther, in a park location with direct pathway to the lake. The hotel will open in spring 2009 in Klagenfurt.

Luzern. The UBS bank, Zurich, has sold the Hotel Guetsch in Luzern to a Russian oligarch. The Swiss bank acquired the closed Hotel Guetsch, sitting majestically above the city of Luzern and referred to as Château Gütsch, a few years ago, and have since  fixed it up for sale.

Dusseldorf/Bad Aussee. As of 1 December 2007, the well known 4 star resort and wellness hotel The Wasnerin in Austrias's Bad Aussee, Salzkammergut, has been under the direction of Lindner Hotels Ltd.. The hotel went into operation at the end of 2006 as the first resort of the Falkensteiner Group.

Bad Salzuflen. The German hotel company Maritim has now set its sights on expanding in distant lands: Wolfgang Hedderich, Managing Director of HMS International Ltd, a company affiliated to Maritim, and Mu Qi Ru, President of Zhaotai Real Estate Corporation, have just signed a management contract for a first class hotel in Peking.

Wiesbaden. Germany's federal state of Hesse will sell the Parkhotel in Schlangenbad near Wiesbaden to Summit Healthcare Management Partners GmbH from Cologne at the beginning of 2008. The sales agreement for the 84-room hotel was attested by a notary on November 27. On December 5, the budget committee of the Hessian state parliament needs to approve the sale.

Wiesbaden. InterContinental Hotels Group enjoys the expansion of its Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands in Germany. As regards Crowne Plaza, negotiations are turning out to be more difficult.

Cologne. The Spanish Barceló hotel company will operate the former Crowne Plaza Cologne City Center in Cologne as of January 1, 2008, and thus enters Germany for the first time.

Bern. Almost parallel to the current study by hotelleriesuisse, the Swiss Credit-Suisse Bank introduced its latest study on tourism called "Tourismus im Berner Oberland - Strukturen, Strategien, Herausforderungen". Bernese Oberland holds a comfortable position with respect to success benchmarking in tourism.