News & Stories

Munich. A former dentist is now a lateral entrant in the hotel business – and is finding his first successes in real estate niches. Wolfgang Kaefer, founder of BOLD Hotels based in Munich, has access to his own 100 properties. Having established four hotels in Munich, Frankfurt and Königstein near Frankfurt, he is now beginning to diversify into city hotels, hostels, upscale 4-star conference hotels and apartment hotels/Co-living.

Bangkok. Before the leading luxury hotel group in Thailand introduced its new ASAI lifestyle boutique brand, Siradej Donavanik, Director of Development and Projects of Dusit International, looked around in Europe. His grandmother founded the Dusit Thani Group back in 1948. Today, her grandson is introducing new aspects with a community-focused brand that comes with unusually sized 16-sqm rooms for Thai and other Asian standards, as well as a sustainability concept. In contrast to Europe, food and beverages play a vital role in this.

San Francisco/Lausanne. Airbnb and the International Olympic Committee today announced a significant agreement to support the Olympic Movement through to 2028. The organisers and athletes as well as the environment and the host cities will benefit from this. Now it is hailing criticism - and complaints and law suits from Paris.

Luxembourg. The next stage of the billion-euro deal has begun. On Tuesday, they submitted a concrete bid. The voluntary offer to the shareholders is apparently not subject to a minimum acceptance threshold. Conclusion is therefore expected to be prompt. The merger could possibly also create a new Dax candidate. Up to now, Aroundtown has been listed on the M-Dax index.

Munich. The dissolution of ArabellaStarwood Hotels nine years ago is now referred to within Schörghuber as the "foundation for the comeback". The Munich-based brewery and real estate group had at the time dissolved its joint venture with Starwood Hotels, resulting in the dissolution of the operating company as well. Today's Arabella Hospitality SE sees itself primarily as an investor, though it still acts as a manager and franchisee. The portfolio has now been adjusted and will be opened to further brands with no connection to Marriott, the new COO, Martina Maly-Gärtner, announces.

Vienna. Regional tourism managers are gradually becoming leisure managers. Classic advertising campaigns will in future no longer be used, the Österreich Werbung states. They will be replaced by social media and funny games for younger target groups.

Frankfurt/Singapore. "They are very happy," Steigenberger CEO Thomas Willms says, referring to the big story this week: The Chinese hotel group Huazhu acquires 100 percent of the German hotel legend Steigenberger Hotels AG at a price tag of 719.9 million euros. The deal gives the group the desired push in the upscale and luxury segment as well as its entry into Europe. Huazhu was founded in 2005 and today counts 5,151 hotels in 400 cities. Above all, the Steigenberger and Intercity brands are now expected to grow rapidly. Jenny Zhang, CEO of the ninth largest hotel group in the world, talks to us about the power of Huazhu and the perfect fit from Germany.

Augsburg. Accor and the Alibaba Group will collaborate to develop digital services and loyalty programmes. This was announced by the companies at a special ceremony during China International Expo 2019. The aim of the strategic cooperation is to improve the experience for consumers and travellers within the next five years.

Frankfurt. Huazhu Group Limited just announced that the Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary China Lodging Holding Singapore, entered into a share purchase agreement to acquire all shares in Steigenberger Hotels Aktiengesellschaft, Germany, for a base cash consideration of about €700 million, which is subject to net working capital and other post-closing adjustments as provided in the Agreement. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and certain other closing conditions, and is expected to close on or around early next year.

Berlin/Luxembourg. The planned billion-heavy merger of the large commercial real estate groups Aroundtown SA and TLG Immobilien is entering its next phase. At its core is a voluntary takeover bid for all TLG shares. As a result, one of Europe's largest real estate groups for office, hotel and residential properties could soon emerge. This is likely to create a significant stir in the market.