News & Stories

Bern. Barwa Real Estate Company from Qatar in the United Arab Emirates transferred its Swiss hotel portfolio to another company making the Emirate of Qatar its actual owner.

Duesseldorf. On booking a hotel, more than one third of all Germans make their selection primarily on the basis of price. Only the Spanish are more price-conscious. In a European ranking, the Germans and the Spanish came out top of the bargain hunters list. A price portal asked over 4,000 travellers what influenced their choice of hotel the most when booking this year's holiday.

Zell am See. In the Austrian skiing resort Zell am See, the high society flair is very normal. Therefore, Zell am See, located near Salzburg, named the Ferry-Porsche Congress Center after its famous son of the city. With its name alone, the Grand Hotel Zell am See follows this impetus closely. It belongs to the Holleis Hotels - an association of four hotels that all belong to one family. However, Winfried Holleis is one of the few middle class entrepreneurs that plan to expand abroad. He will soon be starting a new project in Italy. So far, he is still optimistic despite the immense difficulties he has had with his project in Croatia. The engaged private hotelier talks about his plans and the way the bank delayed his investments.

Bethesda. Bulgari and the youngest brand, Edition, are both the responsibility of Ritz-Carlton - Marriott separates responsibilities here clearly. Now, the hard Marriott core markets its own lifestyle brand: Renaissance. Sprucing up an old name.

Rostock. arcona Hotels & Resorts and the Steigenberger Hotel Group have agreed to extend the contract for the franchise brand Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts. With this move, the companies set the path for another ten years of collaboration commencing on 1 January 2010.

Frankfurt. Steigenberger's new owner obviously has the financial power the company has been longing for in order to boost both quality and expansion. 70 million euros are currently available to spread all over - a part of this amount already comes from Hamed El Chiaty, who bought Germany's biggest hotel group five weeks ago. Yesterday, the business man and Chairman of Travco Group, the leading Egyptian tourism company, introduced himself at a press conference in Frankfurt. Concrete plans were still lacking for the new, common strategy and expansion. However, the interpretation of the few figures shows that fresh money was highly welcome. El Chiaty mainly likes the strategy effect of his acquisition move, which makes him one of the biggest players in Europe in one go. Details of the first encounter.

Munich. The Preferred Hotel Group now wishes to replicate the success of the "Preferred Boutique" brand with a new design brand in the lower 4-star category. The new brand is intended to appeal primarily to smaller hotels. John Ueberroth, President of the American marketing association, explained the background on a visit to Munich. Preferred is also showing strain under the current economic crisis: The "return guarantee" still promised to members in a campaign last year has been dropped. "There are just too many incalculable risks," Ueberroth says.

McLean. Hilton Hotels Corp. has changed its name to Hilton Worldwide to reflect the company's rich heritage and current status as a global hotel company.

Cologne. The lobby and restaurants of the most recent Althoff Hotel south of Munich have not been renovated yet, but 2010 is to bring the turn of the tide for the Ueberfahrt in Rottach-Egern at Lake Tegernsee south of Munich. In general, however, Thomas Althoff, founder and head of the Althoff Hotel Collection in Cologne, can not complain about 2009 – despite the crisis in the luxury hotel and gourmet sector. After all, his seven luxury hotels have a total of 11 Michelin stars. As far as Althoff's 4-star category is concerned, the 300-room conference hotel in Bonn will become the biggest challenge in 2010. hospitalityInside.com met the rather shy hotelier to take stock of the present situation.

Defereggental. Anyone wishing to open a chic 4-star hotel with 48 rooms in Austria needs a USP. With this in mind, Tatiana Maksimova, originally from Yekaterinburg in Siberia and sole owner of the new hotel in a small East Tyrolean village, introduced Eastern European elements to the design. Since then, the hotel is simply "the Russian hotel". Even the village mayor learnt Russian - yet the hotel refuses to market itself as hotel in Russian style. A provincial tale.