News & Stories

Amsterdam. A large majority of business travellers extend a business trip to enjoy extra days at a destination. Expedia Group Media Solutions' recent study confirms that the number of business trips turning into small holidays is growing at a rapid pace. Providing a deeper look at the influences and motivations of this "bleisure" audience, Expedia shares key data empowering marketers to strategically target and convert bleisure travellers. Service providers, have an opportunity here to understand a market worth hundreds of millions of dollars and capable of generating ancillary revenue.

Salzburg. Europe has Austria to thank for the theme hotel. Schlosshotels & Herrenhäuser, an association of stately home and manor house hotels based in Salzburg, has expanded beyond borders in recent years, as almost all these associations have done. Now the Waldness brand has been added as new theme hotel group.

Madrid/Bangkok. The hotel bazar is wide open: Buying and selling shares continues to be en vogue. This week Thailand-based Minor International increased its stake in the Spanish NH Hotel Group. Another deal was done between two Thai parties: retail developer Central Pattana acquired a 22.93% stake in the hotel company Dusit Thani Group.

Amsterdam. Over the past five years, startups promised to revolutionize the hotel industry. Several of them targeted hoteliers trying to get a commission on a service they should have been selling themselves in the first place. Phocuswright's last report clearly confirms that hospitality is entrepreneurs' preferred sector in the travel industry, even before rental accommodations. Investors though think the other way and their funding goes into alternative lodging instead. Nothing to fight over anyway as most of the money is invested in America and Asia.

London/Zagreb. The new luxury touches the soul – and one's innermost values. The "spiritualised" consumers are the new luxury guests. They question their surroundings, their lives, follow a healthy lifestyle and translate their personal transformations into their luxury behaviour. They are no longer impressed by tangibles and heady marketing. A new report by Horwath HTL Croatia and luxury lifestyle consultant Claudia Roth explain how to approach it.

Dubai. When in Dubai, during the Arabian Travel Market, the first rumours on AccorHotels/Moevenpick arose, Chris Hartley, CEO of Global Hotel Alliance was sitting in a meeting: with the 35 other CEOs who spearhead the hotel groups in this alliance of small and medium-sized chains. The current consolidation waves pushes GHA as an alternative to the giants' brands.

Munich. In future, virtual and real worlds will increasingly begin to merge. For sectors of industry which sell dreams, this opens up new doors to customers. Virtual Reality will be key in increasing revenues. Tests have shown: The brain is unable to distinguish between VR and the real world. For this reason, it can also be used to impact on customer behaviour. The step towards Augmented Reality is also a short one. It incorporates virtual reality images into everyday life, for instance, by means of virtual reality headset: Then monsters sit next to you on the sofa and little robots fall out of the ceiling... BNP Paribas has already tested VR for real estate. Researchers expect VR to cause a revolution similar to that provoked by the smartphone. Reason enough to take a closer look at the impact to date.

Paris/Zurich. In order to arrange the Moevenpick deal, probably only one single attempt was necessary: to convince Prince Alwaleed. The Saudi Arabian prince, head of the multi-billion Kingdom Holding, possessed 33.3 percent of Moevenpick Hotels & Resorts. At the same time, he holds 5.7 percent of the shares in AccorHotels since 2016. CEO Sébastien Bazin probably pushed open this door himself. A good move, which would have not been possible for several reasons three years ago… In any case, AccorHotels is stirring up the upscale and luxury rankings in the hotel industry now. Moevenpick, however, fits well into the brand puzzle of the French company. AccorHotels continues to be on the lookout for new business. After the acquisition of Moevenpick Hotels & Resorts on Monday was announced this week, the French company still has 1.5 billion euros at its disposal for new acquisitions.

Leipzig. What will economy hotels look like in the future? Will they do entirely without employees, or will they return to more humanity? How will the demographic change affect their hardware? A recent study takes a close look at this particular type of hotel.

Munich. The three loyalty programmes of Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and Starwood were merged in mid-April. "But another 17 systems have to be adapted and integrated by the end of this year," says Reiner Sachau, Marriott's Chief Operations Officer for Core Brands in Europe, describing the huge workload behind the scenes after the merger of Marriott und Starwood Hotels. "This is not a normal condition for us," he said. Therefore, it is not surprising that it has been quiet in the industry around Marriott for some time now. In Sachau's region, Starwood added 176 hotels. He has been "on the road" since then. Within 18 months, he has been able to talk to all owners respectively investors. Now, he has given Maria Puetz-Willems some background details during a meeting in Munich.