News & Stories

Velden. At the moment, Schlosshotel Velden at Lake Woerthersee will not fall into the hands of Ugo Barchiesi from Italy, but rather Karl Wlaschek from Austria. Last Friday, Hypo Alpe Adria surprisingly announced a new owner. The operator will change, too.

Zermatt. Seiler Hotels, the traditional Zermatt-based hotel company, is selling its hotels and land holdings to a fund. The hotel company will remain on board as operator. Von Opel cashes in.

Lucerne. Aside from the 8,000 jobs annually, tourism brings the city of Lucerne a direct and indirect added value of about one billion Swiss Francs. 4 and 5 Star hotels contribute very much to the elegant cityscape; but now, the noble accommodations threaten to disappear.

Munich/Vienna. hotelforum, an event for hotel and real estate experts to be held in Munich the October, has for the ninth time called for applications for the "Hotel Property of the Year". The deadline for applications is July 31.

Bern. After comprehensive renovation work, the famous Hotel Schweizerhof in Bern will celebrate its official reopening this Friday, June 24. In 2005, the hotel on Bahnhofplatz 11 with its 162 years of history closed its doors for the last time - and almost nobody expected them to open again. But they were proved wrong: The Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company based in Qatar came on board as investor, acquiring the property at the heart of the Swiss capital from the precarious Rosebud group and finishing the renovation work.

Vienna. The crown jewels of the Viennese hotel industry have changed ownership: Sacher Boss, Elisabeth Guertler has bought the Hotel Bristol Vienna. The Hotel Imperial Vienna as well as the Goldene Hirsch in Salzburg go to Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Furthermore, the American hotel operator will also manage the three properties. With this, movement comes once again to the luxury hotel industry in the Austrian capital. Then the Bristol shall shine with a new brilliance. The new positioning and the backgrounds.

Berlin. The area around Berlin Central Station is slowly coming to life. The first three hotels are now rousing interest from other project developers. One developer is planning two further hotels with a total of 400 rooms.

Doha. In the Arabian emirate of Qatar, a Swiss architect is planning a project with an investment of three billion Swiss francs – a Matterhorn in the desert.

St. Gallen. A planned hotel project in Bad Rans/Saint Gallen, Switzerland has been put on ice. The developers could not pay their invoices. Moreover, the investment volume had been already trimmed by approximately 30 million CHF.

Munich. Two standard works on the subject of hotel development have been on the market for some time and there is now an additional third study. Hartwig Bohne, lecturer on hotel and resort development at Carinthia University of Applied Sciences has planned for the thick books.