News & Stories

Madrid. The Spanish hotel group NH Hoteles, which took over the German business hotels of the Astron Group in 2002, continues to surprise the industry over and over again. Now it is even rumoured that there will be a takeover. However, NH still believes in its own strength and the recovery of the German market. At the opening of NH's first "nhube" restaurant in Frankfurt, Gabriele Burgio, Chairman and President of NH Hoteles S. A. answered a few questions - keeping them short and concise.

Munich. Roughly two months after their announcement, Schoerghuber Unternehmensgruppe located in Munich and ITT Sheraton Corporation signed an agreement about founding a joint-venture company last Friday. Now the monopolies and mergers commission has to approve the deal by the end of February. According to this agreement, the four Sheraton and 12 of the 14 Arabella Hotels in Germany, Switzerland and on the Balearic/Canary Islands will bear the common name of "ArabellaSheraton". This marks the first "co-branding" of two chains on the German hotel market. Looking back on the beginning of the ArabellaSheraton brand in 1998.

Augsburg. Eight years ago, Maria Puetz Willems interviewed Simon Sherwood, the fairly young President of the Orient Express Hotels at that time. The most important statements of the interview are shown in the following.

Munich. Spain's second largest hotel chain, NH Hotels based in Madrid, have after two years' intense negotiation taken over the Aston Hotel Group in Munich. The Spanish hotel group thus extends its portfolio of 237 hotels in 18 countries by 46 German hotels and a further seven hotels with a total of 937 rooms in Austria and Switzerland. NH have also assumed ten Astron projects; as concerning the twelve projects still in the pipeline, negotiations continue.

Berlin/Singapore. Jennie Chua, President and Chief Operating Office of Raffles International Limited discusses the integration of the Swissôtel group and the further expansion of Raffles International with Maria Puetz-Willems at the ITB 2002.

Frankfurt/M. In Frankfurt, Sir Rocco Forte and his team presented the plans for the first German Rocco Forte Hotel. By early 2006 in and round about "Villa Speyer", which was built by the banking family Speyer for private use in 1904, the Rocco Forte Hotel "Villa Kennedy" will be built at a cost of 70 million euros.

Mumbai. This year the Taj Mahal Mumbai celebrates its 100 year anniversary with all the expected excess of India's oldest hotel group. Behind the scenes, however, India's famous hotel is working on its profile for the new millennium. Although the grand hotel with charm and tradition is still a favourite choice among guests, the sober expansion plans of Taj Hotels & Resorts are to concentrate on more simple considerations of budget: In the next five years the group wishes to open up to 500 hotels in India tailored to the more price conscious traveller.