News & Stories

Kempten. Does the internet cause the touristic world of brands to stumble? What is best - brand concentration or brand diversification? Is the role of brands being over-estimated in the hotel industry? Dr. Marco A. Gardini, Professor at Kempten University and author of the book " Mit der Marke zum Erfolg", describes the brand performance as "labelling" or "name cosmetics" in the hotel industry. In the following interview with Susanne Stauss, he expresses his criticism about brand loyalty, multi brands and brand fusions.

Wiesbaden. The fight for the private hotels has broken out between the consortia and chains. The least among them belong to global brands and the most stand closely settled throughout Europe - exactly where the big chains are approaching their limits at the moment through their expansion on the basis of management or franchise contracts. With this, a large acquisition pool has arisen for the chains and at the same time, the inventors of the standardised brands are registering the wishes of many guests for more individuality – and to promptly create less standardised offers. These new brands carry names that no longer reveal a relationship to the "mother". The result: Chains are rising to the competition of consortia. What do the classic consortia offer? The reactions of Accor, The Leading Hotels of the World and Worldhotels.

Rome. The Autograph Collection: the name sounds poetically independent, and nothing is reminiscent of the parent company, Marriott Hotels. This is intentional. The American bed giant with 3,500 hotels is now pressing ahead to promote its 18th brand in Europe as well. The Autograph Collection targets the bastion of independent individual hotels – but they seem to be much less easy to convince than expected by the US managers. After two years, the dynamically expanding chain only has 26 franchisees worldwide. Only nine of them are located in Europe, which has the biggest pool of individual hotels. Last week in Rome, when four Boscolo hotels were included in the chain, Marriott seized the opportunity to introduce the concept officially. The superficial presentation in American-style, however, gives reason to doubt whether Marriott is taking the right approach in continental Europe. The only counterargument: Marriott's distribution power.

Vienna. Austria’s biggest hotel chain is a relatively unknown company: Jufa. The name derived from the "Styrian youth and family guest houses”. With 43 hotels either operating or under construction and further hotels in the planning stage, Jufa clearly surpasses the 33 Austria Trend Hotels belonging to Verkehrsbuero Group. Now Jufa is also expanding to neighbouring Germany. As regards urban hotels, Jufa pursues a different strategy compared to the rural ones. The 515-room hotel in Vienna, which is currently under development, is considered a role model.

Madrid. Mariano Pérez Claver, new president and CEO of NH Hoteles since March, sets a course: The hotel group changes its organizational structure, strengthens the commercial and cost control divisions and replaces the management of Sotogrande. All this measures are part of an efficiency improvement plan.

Frankfurt. 18 new hotels have joined Romantik Hotels & Restaurants in the first nine months to October of this year. Accordingly, the consortium now counts 213 hotels in 12 countries.

Atlanta/Arlington. Interstate Hotels & Resorts, one of the larger independent hotel management companies in the United States, integrates Noble Management Group, the hotel operating business of lodging and hospitality investment organization Noble.

Berlin. About one month after the taking over by Google, DailyDeal is changing its conditions for advertising partners. Main subject: unredeemed vouchers are being paid back by the business.

Las Vegas. From its annual Americas Investors & Leadership Conference in Las Vegas, IHG announced a new global repositioning strategy for Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts.

Neustadt. Insolvency procedures have been opened against both former managing directors of the Deilmann cruise line. The cruise line and her flagship "MS Deutschland" are not affected by it.