News & Stories
Wiesbaden. Women undertake fewer and shorter business trips than men and normally have less money to spend. This was revealed by a current survey on the subject "Geschäftsreisende 2008" from Germany. Nevertheless, taking a look at women is still worthwhile. Today, women make 80% of the buying decisions. The new diversity of female types clearly shows tourist managers and hotel managers which products and services they should provide too. In vogue: "caring services" and "takeaway" products. The trend researchers reveal a many-faceted picture of a gender, which is not dependent on power to have influence.
Vienna. Despite the building of a mega hotel at Vienna's Western Station, Motel One's partner for Austria and CEE, Verkehrsbuero Group cannot keep up with the chain's expansion speed. Projects are being delayed. At the same time, Berlin is becoming a "Motel One City", and turnover rose by two and a half times in the first six months.
Bern. "A sad story with a happy end?" was the headline of an article by hospitalityInside.com in June 2008 about Rosebud selling the Schweizerhof in Bern, the hotel group on the Buergenstock near Lucerne and the Savoy in Lausanne to the quoted Barwa Malta Limited real estate company. Now the two parties are separating again and the Rosebud drama is starting all over.
Berlin. The International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin includes a series of breakout sessions such as "mergers & acquisitions" or "ownership strategies" - useful but difficult to always get excited about. So it was no surprise that a new session looking at the future leaders of the industry was well attended. The inaugural "Student Challenge" required teams of Masters students to develop an innovative and feasible hotel concept that would appeal to the 21-35 year old traveller. Eight teams from two schools were pitted against each other to be whittled down to a short list of two from each school.
Bern. Bern's minority shareholders clearly expressed their lack of confidence in members of the administrative board at Schweizerhof's extraordinary shareholders' meeting recently. The members criticised held office under the previous owner Rosebud. The new owners from Qatar are now in the majority.
It fits!
Frankfurt/M. "25hours Hotel Frankfurt tailored by Levi's" - the name says what it is, a "tailor-made hotel". In a side street off the Frankfurt railway district, between the Greek fur-cap stores, a red light district and the banking district, a new hotel opened last week which - from the cellar to the roof - literally lives jeans history. Materials, colours, lights - everything points to Levi's. The American cult jeans brand combined with a German hotel: lifestyle and lifestyle. But how do you make the jump from fashion label to hotel? Michael Strehler, Director of Levi Strauss Germany Ltd, explains how the world's first Levi's hotel came into being.
Kufstein. Arab businessman Sheikh Mohammed Bin Issa Al Jaber, currently resident in London, will assume 60 percent of the Austrian ski producer firm Kneissl. The Sheikh now intends to use the name to establish a line of sport resorts. Al Jaber is already represented in the Viennese hotel industry.