Paris/London. The luxury group LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Belmond Ltd., owners, part-owners or managers of 46 luxury hotel, restaurant, train and river cruise properties, today jointly announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for LVMH to acquire Belmond. LVMH is to acquire Belmond for $25.00 per Class A share in cash. This represents an equity value of $2.6 billion in a transaction with an enterprise value of $3.2 billion.

Vienna. Almost all companies bet on innovation. But a lot of thus is just show. The right processes are absent. Alexander Osterwalder, one of the world's most popular innovation consultants, explained on the fringes of the "Global Drucker Forum” in Vienna why so many companies fail. Osterwalder, a 44-year-old Swiss national, believes it's a mistake to send young people to an incubator. Instead, he advises top managers to reserve a third of their time for innovation – and to see the positive in the lessons learned when experiments fail. But investors and human resources have to understand this. There's a long way to go...

Buchberg. Millennials wants to escape the daily grind and discover new things – but all of that on their terms. None of this includes a new motivation for travel, but the aspiration behind it sometimes seems aggressive. HolidayCheck looked at the holiday motivation and travel behaviour of this generation over summer – with the all-in deal as a provocative model.

Rome. A new circular issued by the National Institute of Social Insurance has raised the total value of vouchers usable in a year by accommodation operators from 5,000 to 6,666 euros, reveals "Il Sole 24 Ore". Vouchers are job coupons treated as remuneration arrangements dedicated to ancillary and casual work in several economic segments, hospitality included. Here, they are largely used in order to hire staff during special peak periods.

Paris. The French hotel cooperation Logis-Hotels continues to grow. Now it plans to merge with the hotel group Citotel, which unites independent hotels predominantly in France and represents similar values as Logis.

Augsburg. 30 years after the opening of the first capsule hotel in Osaka, Japan, the miniature hotel rooms have now also made their way to Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The new form of accommodation is likely to give rise to heated discussion as to whether capsules still have anything to do with hospitality at all. The guest sleeps in windowless plastic cells of between 3 and 6.5 sqm, does everything himself and, if he is lucky, still has a human contact person in the hotel. The CityHub in Amsterdam shows that you can earn lots of money with this concept. The area24|7 in Karlsruhe, Germany, even offers pods for long-stay guests, and the Capsule in Lucerne, Switzerland, anticipates a veritable booking storm.

Paris. French hospitality consortium SEH United keeps on moving forward. After partnering with German GreenLine Hotels in 2017, the entity, composed of 600 independent hoteliers, is now rebranding for the future. The old-fashioned acronym SEH United has been replaced by a trendy, young brand: The Originals, Human Hotels & Resorts.

Hamburg. The German population is ageing but still wants to travel. In addition, there has been progress on the topic of inclusion in society. This inevitably increases the need for barrier-free hotel rooms. A current study supports this trend.

London. Between the lines it became clear how difficult it is today for CEOs to make strategic decisions. IHG-CEO Keith Barr and Federico J. González, President & CEO Radisson Hotel Group, also feel driven by technology, consumers and staff.

Lausanne. The City of Lausanne and EHL Group have concluded an agreement for the development and refurbishment of the Lausanne city district Chalet-à-Gobet. It’s here that Europe's first innovation hub for hospitality is to be created.