News & Stories
Berlin. Fundus announced its change of name with a representative card. Four weeks ago, Fundus Hotelentwicklungs- und Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH officially became the Adlon Holding GmbH. Logically, its headquarters are located in the Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin. This step allows for speculation.
Silver Spring. On 31 January 2008, the British franchise hotels Comfort, Quality, Sleep and Clarion will be conveyed to Choice Hotels International Inc. At the same time, the blanket franchise contract for Great Britain between Choice and the Real Hotel Group will come to an end; existing franchise contract will be assumed by a subsidiary of Choice.
Cologne. The Event hotel group, joint-venture partner of Blackstone in Germany, is currently engaged in a quarrel with a British consultancy for real estate financing over commission payments. A major international hotel chain won a lawsuit in September 2006, as Event Hotel GmbH failed to pay franchise fees worth millions of euros. Payment is still due, while the affected Event GmbH filed for bankruptcy three months ago. The Managing Director of Event Holding, Anders Braks, is also locked in a dispute with Wolfgang Trilsbach, the former partner and co-founder of Event. Event stated its view about the proceedings and accusations vis-à-vis hospitalityInside.com.
Dresden. Since its founding eleven years ago, Macrander Hotels have taken over four hotels in Germany thus belonging to the minor operating companies in the country. The enterprise definitely has expansion plans, but they follow the previous pace. Nevertheless, the hotels' results are absolutely respectable.
Augsburg. Foreign investors are tending increasingly towards lease agreements in Germany. One of the reasons: Lease agreements free investors from responsibility for employees. Martina Fidlschuster, Managing Director of Hotour Management Consultancy in Frankfurt, referred to the trend during a discussion round at the Expo Real in Munich. hospitalityInside.com took a closer look.
Brussels. Online hotel evaluation portals involve both risks and chances. In order to make them a serious instrument for providers like hoteliers and travellers, the European umbrella organisation of HOTREC recently issued a position paper to about 50 portal operators. It includes ten principles that shall help to protect the industry from manipulations and unfair evaluations. Towards hospitalityInside.com, two major portal operators both give positive feedback in a spontaneous statement concerning this paper.
Munich. Hans-Dieter Schiller is back in Choice Hotels' towers and has returned to his former office in Munich. The experienced operations man will now actively steer the expansion of Choice Hotels International in Europe. And the big news: Choice is now ready to invest.
Moscow. The Russian company Heliopark first made headlines in Germany in 2006 when it bought up the Steigenberger Bad Hotel Zum Hirsch in Baden-Baden only to close it for renovation works. In summer 2007, it assumed management of the Hotel Quellenhof, also in Baden-Baden. The Hirsch now stands shortly before reopening, further takeovers in Western Europe are on the cards.