News & Stories

Vienna. With their first Benchmarking Symposium, the consultancy firm Kohl & Partners managed to attract almost 150 hoteliers, bankers and consultants. The interest is there, but so too is the insecurity. Kohl & Partners have been collecting data for the last 20 years, more recently also in the popular wellness sector. This month sees the beginning of a second benchmark system: "Webmark". A state supported system intended to motivate mid-sector holiday hoteliers into taking part by offering reasonable membership rates.

Augsburg. Benchmarking has become one of the most popular terms in the hotel industry. Especially in Austria and Germany which has the fiercest competition in Europe, comparing one's own figures with those of the competitors promises security. This is why hospitalityInside.com compares the hotel benchmark providers themselves. The conclusion: hoteliers, banks, consultants and investors believe in deceptive safety. Above all, the major providers such as Deloitte in London and MKG in Paris refuse transparency. In England, the market weight is shifting in favour of the newcomer - The Bench. Vienna is the place of birth of another international database starting in 2007. Austria itself sees a new separate government-supported benchmark system. The benchmark market is restructuring itself.

Augsburg. Hotels favour using the figures of benchmark providers. Project developers, banks and consultants prefer keeping their distance. The opinions about the usefulness of these collected market and industry data range from strong loyalty to extreme disapproval. A survey among those all of whom benchmark providers claim to be their customers.

Salzburg. The term "Benchmark" comes from topography and describes the "orientation or reference point used for directional or altitude measurements". Benchmarks in economics are orientation points in the landscape of competition. They represent key standards for the measurement of critical success factors. It's for this reason that benchmarks are continually changing. More than simple classic key data, benchmarking means: Learning from the best! An Austrian professor explains.

Munich/Silver Spring. On November 30, Choice Hotels Europe Group will hand back its franchise agreements to its parent company of Choice Hotels International in the US. The outcome will be a new, still unnamed, pure operating company, which will not be bound exclusively to Choice.

Stuttgart. Accor Germany has now digitalised a complete Ibis-Hotel. Together with the Fraunhofer Institute in Stuttgart, the hotel chain has created an entire hotel in virtual reality and in so doing made a few interesting discoveries.

Zurich. In the course of its press conference last week, Hotelleriesuisse explained its revised star classification, emphasised the collaboration with Switzerland Tourism and displayed its disapproval of the newly launched hotel assessment system of the "Gastrosuisse" host association. The Helvetian star wars continue.

Frankfurt/M. A scientific study initiated by the purchasing company of Progros deals with purchasing in the German hotel market. The survey comes with sobering results, but it also identifies potential for optimisation and provides numerous recommendations. In February, the beginnings were already presented at the "topsupply" congress in Leipzig. Now the study can be bought.