News & Stories
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.
Bern. The Rosebud Hotel Holding sold the Hotel Schweizerhof in Bern, the Savoy Royal and the hotel village located on the Buergenstock near Lucerne to the quoted real estate company Barwa Malta Limited. This is a hundred-percent subsidiary of the Barwa Real Estate Company located in Doha. 45% of the new owner`s shares belong to the State of Qatar. The run-down luxury hotel Schweizerhof in Bern should shine in new splendour and a hotel village is planned on the legendary Buergenstock.