News & Stories

Berlin. Futuristic means of transport as pilotless flying drone taxis, virtual travel, personalized hotel rooms, trips to other planets or into underwater worlds: Many developments will revolutionize the future travel. Potential guests seem open-minded.

Munich/Berlin. With retroactive effect as per January 1, 2018, the Munich-based Hirmer Gruppe group of companies took over the operating company of Travel Charme Hotels & Resorts in Berlin. The documents were signed at the beginning of this week. Travel Charme currently operates eleven 4- and 5-star resorts in most beautiful locations in Germany and Austria. Three projects are currently underway, among them the company's first hotel in Italy. The Hirmer clothing store specialised in men's fashion located at Munich's Kaufinger Strasse strip mall forms the core of Hirmer Gruppe. The company became more widely known abroad in 2014: Hirmer is the owner of Hotel Campo Bahia in Brazil, where the World Cup-winning German football team was based. Hotel investments are nothing alien to Hirmer, but now the company is about to embark on a new chapter: hotel operation. The medium-sized German company is new in the industry, but it managed to assert itself against international hotel chains.

Bonn/Stuttgart. Two surveys in the German-speaking market show that managers in the hotel industry aren't the only ones with difficulties when it comes to digitalisation. Expectations in companies are high, yet new business or yield models on the back of digitalisation are still rare.

London/Taipei. IHG CEO Keith Barr announced a deal with "an ultra-luxury" brand at IHIF Berlin 10 days ago. It's Regent Hotels and Resorts, a forgotten luxury brand, still alive with six hotels and three projects under development today. InterContinental Hotels Group pays 39 million USD in cash.

Paris. Over the years, luxury goods brands have attempted to expand into the hotel industry with varying degrees of success. Versace never made its name become a hotel brand, as well as Marriott & Bulgari haven't managed to form a group of critical size. Rezidor tried it twice, only Italian Ferragamo family succeeded to develop a small group of "fashion" hotels. Now LVMH has started a development push by showing presence at the IHIF Berlin last week.

Berlin/Brussels. The change in name from The Rezidor Group to The Radisson Hotel Group is more evolution than revolution, even if it was presented as a big change at the press conference during IHIF Berlin. Some journalists joked that the abbreviation RHG had been chosen deliberately in order to provoke confusion with IHG. After all, RHG intends to become the third largest hotel group in the world in the near future. And it's exactly this position that is occupied by IHG at the moment – with RHG far behind in 11th place. The new plan is therefore extraordinarily ambitious. Here the facts and figures in addition to what CEO Federico J. González said at the IHIF. Since the beginning of this week, only one question remained: Whether the Chinese conglomerate HNA – the main shareholder of RHG – can leave the hotel group to act as it has just planned...

Berlin. "It's almost a perfect deal and mix", AccorHotels CEO Sébastien Bazin said happily, referring to the divestment of 55% of AccorInvest. He made this statement a week after the transaction, whilst on a stop off at the IHIF in Berlin. There, relaxed and content, he told three German journalists how he intends to apply the EUR 4.4 billion which has recently flooded into his coffers and under which deals the powerful funds are allowed to move forward. The transaction has not turned AccorHotels into the world's fourth mega-OTA, but Bazin is convinced that the company is one of the "eight gorillas" moving the world in the future.

London. Every industry talks about the growing role of robots. But how will their influence on the hospitality industry be in the future? Who will run hotels in 25 years – humans or robots? A study shows the opinions of hoteliers concerning this topic.

Paris. AccorHotels reported record earnings for 2017 two days ago and posted significant RevPAR growth in almost all its markets. The group opened a record number of 301 hotels in 2017 and intends to triple that number in 2018 and beyond. Luxury brands and new businesses should bring more value this year. As for its plan to sell stakes of its property business AccorInvest, CEO Sébastien Bazin didn't share much, except that French and international buyers are interested and it's only a matter of weeks before a deal is closed. He continues to fight for his vision. Sarah Douag listened carefully.

Berlin/Augsburg. The German project developer GS Star based in Augsburg sought a capital partner with whose support it would in future like to expand, both in real estate business as well as in operations. Both bundle their strengths into the new Gorgeous Smiling Hotels Holding.