News & Stories

Munich. In Munich this week, Leonardo Hotels, part of the Israeli Fattal Group, better known by its brand Leonardo Hotels in Europe, presented their first lifestyle brand NXY in Germany. In contrast to other lifestyle brands, this hotel is not located in the city centre, but in the unassuming southern city district Obersendling. It aims to entice guests and locals with a franchise burger restaurant, a DJ and live music. Launched in 2016, the NYX brand is now represented with five hotels in Europe and Israel. On Monday, Leonardo management explained the concept and expansion of Leonardo and of NYX to journalists.

Hamburg. Everyone talks about including the "neighbourhood", but the 25hours Hotel Hamburg Altes Hafenamt is now doing it. From this coming Monday, residents of Hamburg's harbour district will be able to access around 40 different services through the lifestyle hotel – from window-cleaning to bike repairs all the way to the bread-roll delivery service. And best of all, the hotel charges nothing for arranging these services. The lobby contains the new Conciergerie – a small house as in the old days of the grand hotels.

Munich. Everything began in 2016. We now have Ruby Asia thanks to a joint venture between the young Lean Luxury group Ruby Hotels, based in Munich, and several Chinese partners spearheaded by Alex Zheng, founder of Plateno Hotels in China. Ruby-CEO Michael Struck has kept details to himself for a long while: "I wanted to be totally certain that the partnership really will work. The Ruby brand is sacred to me. But it was also clear that we will have to think bigger". In Shanghai, the first Ruby hotel in Asia is currently under construction. Struck has sought contractual guarantees that the Ruby DNA will not be diluted.

Paris. "Le Club AccorHotels", AccorHotels Group's loyalty program, is expanding. Since July 2, 2018, loyalty members of Raffles, Fairmont and Swissôtel programs have joined Le Club AccorHotels loyalty program. The group also announced a new proprietary system which will allow the real-time sharing of guest travel preferences.

Paris. No month, no week without another AccorHotels acquisition or new concept: This time the French group presents its "Flying Nest" concept in partnership with another French company and a 50% stake in the American SBE Entertainment Group. Other news concern the financial part of AccorHotels.

Innsbruck. At the Tiroler Tourismus-Forum, Tirol Werbung declared itself as Tirol Medienhaus for the first time. "The definite aim is to be in control of stories from and about Tyrol," explained TW's Managing Director Josef Margreiter and referred to role models such as Red Bull and Donald Trump. Tyrol's objective is coverage through relevance.

Paris. 2,200 members in France, 20 in Germany. The French cooperation Logis now wants to close this gap. While the name only occasionally pops up so far, the group is now blowing up at least by PR to attack private hotels with good cuisine in Europe's largest source market.

Cologne. After years of struggling, the German Dorint Hotel Group is once again confident about the future. The company closed 2017 with a profit of 3.7 million euros and has ambitious expansion plans. In Cologne, CEO Karl-Heinz Pawlizki and COO Joerg Boeckeler revealed what the future strategy should look like.

Salzburg. Destinations Touristic Services and Eurotours located in Salzburg and Kitzbuehel are two central shunting stations for hotel beds across the whole of Europe. DTS is owned by the retailing group Rewe, Eurotours by the Austrian Verkehrsbuero Group. Together, they generate billions in revenue and move millions of hotel rooms for tour operators. The travel packages for cruise ships, hotels or cottages that both put together for their major clients – including the discounters Aldi/Hofer among others – are becoming increasingly complex. Online business is useful for increasingly short-term bookings and is thus also helpful for hoteliers. Though they do not achieve higher rates. To start the summer travel season, a look behind the scenes of the two incoming professionals.

Frankfurt/Main. How much cheaper are serviced apartments compared to hotels? A recent survey shows huge price differences between this strongly expanding type of accommodation and conventional hotels. However, many customers do not seem to be aware of this yet.