News & Stories

Berlin. In Germany, the Spanish hotel group NH Hoteles not only sells hotel beds, but as of late, advertising space too. The hotel group views its own business travellers as the ideal target group. NH moves into advertising.

Zurich. In June, Manz Privacy Hotels, one of the most traditional family concerns in Switzerland, officially celebrated its 120th anniversary. "We are celebrating because we'd like to send a positive message through such difficult times and to thank all our guests, staff and partners," Alexander Manz states, member of the management board of Manz Privacy Hotels Switzerland. Together with his twin, Michael, he is now the fourth generation of his family to manage the hotel. The foundation stone of the Manz dynasty was laid in 1889 by Casper Manz with the acquisition of the Hotel St. Gotthard. "Swiss Hospitality since 1889" is the motto of the Group, which outside Switzerland also holds participations in hotels in South America.

Paris/Lausanne. Last Friday, Starwood Capital Group Global L.P. announced the signature of a binding agreement for an affiliate to purchase Golden Tulip Hospitality BV's Franchise business, its Development & Representation businesses, Joint Venture interests, and the brands, trademarks and intellectual property of Golden Tulip, Tulip Inn and its related brands.

Paris/Lausanne. Negotiations between the Starwood Capital Group and Golden Tulip Hospitality BV and its liquidator were originally scheduled to end already last week, but the parties are still negotiating.

Berlin. The aggregate wealth of the rich and super-rich of this world has considerably shrunk in the wake of the global economic crisis and some elements of the tourist industry have been extremely hard hit as a result. Others though, such as health and prevention, have remained spared. These were the findings of a current report on asset performance. Such large trends are also seen in the hotel industry- The crisis has changed the behaviour of the luxury traveller who now has a new list of priorities - as another brand new report shows: The Leading Hotels of the World have undertaken their own global assessment of the topic "Luxury Hotels and Recession" and have evaluated their current market ratios from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Stockholm. Choice Hotels Scandinavia acquired the operating company behind the hotels Nordic Light and Nordic Sea. With 542 new rooms, Choice will become the biggest hotel chain in Stockholm, and the company has great confidence in future opportunities for the Nordic Hotels brand.

Cologne. Dirk Iserlohe, Managing Director of E&P Holding in Cologne, shareholder of the Neue Dorint GmbH, expects Dorint Hotels & Resorts to make an operating loss of around 20 million EUR in 2009. His forecasts exclude potential positive business developments. Accordingly, the manager is currently trying to convince the owners of 15 Dorint funds to make lease reductions. In return for their help in such difficult times, he's offering them a special debtor warrant bond. "Without the crisis, Dorint would have been in the black this year," he stresses. And for this reason, he's not giving up. Dirk Iserlohe believes in Dorint: "Dorint hotels have performed better in Germany than their competitors." In an interview with hospitalityInside.com, he gives Editor in Chief, Maria Puetz-Willems, details of hotel finance and the planned recovery.

 

London/Paris/Lausanne. Via a subsidiary, Starwood Capital is now exclusively negotiating with Golden Tulip Hospitality BV and its insolvency administrator in the competitive bidding for Golden Tulip. The umbrella company of Louvre Hotels SAS shows particular interest in Golden Tulip's franchise business.

Lugano. With a glowing appeal to colleagues to use added value instead of dumping prices to steer through the crisis and to politicians not to disadvantage the hotel industry as against other industries, the President of the Swiss hotel association, Guglielmo L. Brentel, set a clear focus at the "Swiss Hospitality Day". Around 200 industrial representatives arrived in Lugano on Wednesday as well as politicians and other industrialists.

Zurich. This spring in Switzerland a new hotel consortium was born: "Typische Schweizer Hotels". The name says it all: All the hotel members must be as authentic as the region in which they're situated. The success of the initiative has surpassed all expectations.