News & Stories

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.

Zurich/Berlin. For the first time a "Swiss Hotel Industry Yearbook" has been published. The book is published by the hotel association hotelleriesuisse and the Swiss Association for Hotel Credit and is available in both French and German versions.

Prague. Choice Hotels International has taken leave from the principle of master franchise and has now placed its expansion focus on "software": Satisfied franchisees and guests are to bring the group forward. The new sales and marketing instruments focussed more than ever on the quality of the product, staff training, guest wishes and online marketing. This week in Prague, around 250 franchisees and Choice managers met for the first pan-European congress. Among them was Steve Joyce, President and CEO of Choice International since one year. "Achieving More Together" was the motto of the conference - a sensitive appeal for team work through the crisis.

Amsterdam. Golden Tulip's "rescue" doesn't seem to be coming along as quickly as intended. Two parties are currently working together with administrators Van Banthem/Keulen in Utrecht to find a solution and to ensure the continuation of the popular Dutch brand.