News & Stories

HI+

Schweizerhof plc: Qatar owners reign in management

1.8.2008

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.

HI+

Now an Irishman is getting involved

Choice Hotels Europe continue growing in different ways

25.7.2008

Munich. The growth of the Choice brand Clarion in Great Britain, Germany and Russia will be driven forward by the Irish company Kasterlee Limited from now on. In Germany, the expansion of the Choice brands Comfort, Quality and Clarion will be continued in the franchise system of the Choice Hotels Franchise GmbH, which will have to be coordinated with Kasterlee in future.

HI+

It fits!

The famous jeans brand Levi's and 25hours open their first joint hotel

18.7.2008

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.

HI+

Al Jaber plans Kneissl sport hotels

11.7.2008

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.

HI+

Focus remains on city and lease

Austria Trend Hotels to increase tempo for new openings

11.7.2008

Vienna. Austria Trend Hotels increasingly garnishes its core portfolio of 4-star business hotels with suitable event resorts held under management contracts. This at least, was the word of Harald Nograsek, Board Chairman of the largest Austrian tourism company Verkehrsbuero Group, to which ATH belongs. The hotel group itself recorded a significant drop in occupancy rates for last year, though compensated this by higher ARR. The expansion emphasis remains in the cities; the speed of expansion is, however, to be increased.

HI+

A sad story with happy end?

Rosebud now sells the hotel pearls Schweizerhof and Buergenstock

27.6.2008

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.

HI+

Luxury on a budget

The first CitizenM in Amsterdam Schiphol opens: 14 sq m with wow-effect

27.6.2008

Amsterdam. Any star classification of the new CitizenM would be absurd as the concept quite uniquely manages to extend the term "design-budget" by the word "luxury". However one wishes to categories the result, one can certainly say that last Tuesday, a hotel of the "next generation" opened at Amsterdam's airport Schiphol: You take 14 sq m, place WC and shower in the middle of the room, to the left and right hand sides, encase them in rounded glass, add a round wash-basin and a huge bed with the finest in modern bedding, hang a flat-screen TV on the wall, two mini-tables and a chair, a touch panel for TV, light, music and more - and there you have it. Yet although none of this sounds particularly new, it really is a revolution: The arrangement of furniture explodes classic design and the interior is constructed, in part, from the finest brand goods. Apart from that: Technical equipment actually works! And what you don't see: All 230 rooms were completely pre-fabricated. CitizenM Schiphol is the first hotel to pile designer rooms up like shoeboxes, yet maintain a real sense of luxury. A new hotel experience that sets luxury-budget standards of quite a different kind.

HI+

Sinn Hotels become Precise Hotel Collection

27.6.2008

Berlin. The Sinn Hotels Group will be managing its hotels under the brand "Precise Hotel Collection" from now on. The new name and the new image support the group's growth plans, mainly for the international market.

HI+

The subtle art of sensual temptation

Harrods London adds scent, music, vibrations and new lighting

20.6.2008

London. Westin meanwhile add subtle aroma to its hotels, so too does Moevenpick, Swissôtel and the new Holiday Inn... Little by little, the hotel industry is discovering the art of temptation through the nose, often combined with appropriate music. The famous London department store Harrods, a shopping heaven par excellence, went one step further this spring and transformed its sales halls and elevators to a world of five senses.

HI+

A professional dash of colour

Hotel Landgraf Linz: A youthful success story

13.6.2008

Linz. At first, they occupied middle management positions in the Viennese chain hotel industry: Manual Pree, his partner Nicole Egger and old school friend Dietmar Doppelmair. Now the three 28 year olds are held together by a common ambition: to provide Linz with an extraordinary hotel. And Linz’s trio seem to have managed it. Working under strict listed building protection criteria, they gave the "Landgraf" a new and modern interior. A youthful success story.

News & Stories

Newsletter