News & Stories

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 The old-fashioned acronym SEH United has been replaced by a trendy, young brand: The Originals, Human Hotels & Resorts.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.

Dubai/Bangkok. Global Hotel Alliance has received substantial investments from two new shareholders: Singapore-based Pan Pacific Hotels with two brands and Bangkok-based Minor Hotels with more than160 hotels under several brands and since last Friday also the new majority owner of NH Hotels.

Toronto/Paris. "What would happen if we knew all your desires? If we could predict all your needs?", asked AccorHotels in a press release in July this year, and promised: "With Seeker, the customer loyalty programme Le Club AccorHotels will be able to make all this come true" – with the aid of biometric data such as brainwaves and pulse rate. Which desire do I have if my pulse is high? AccorHotels is able to do many things and the company tries many things. But will this one work? And how? It sounds like a personalised fairy tale. Baerbel Schwertfeger did some research, AccorHotels is keeping silent.

Munich. The brand chaos knows no bounds, but it's obviously viewed as a "necessary evil" and so accepted in the hotel sector that nobody appears to be bothered by the flood of brands entering the market. At least this was how it seemed at the Expo Real hotel conference where host, Prof Christian Buer, managed to get brand specialists from AccorHotels, citizenM and arcona Hotels to give details on the positioning of brands today, though failed to coax statements out of them as to where the downside of this development lies. Interestingly, brand awareness is no longer as important as it once was. The brand has to adjust better to the location and target group.

Munich. They are chic and trendy and often more streamlined in operations than their competitors. But how are boutique and lifestyle hotels doing in A locations in terms of occupancy and average room rate compared to "traditional" hotels? A current assessment by STR revealed: BL hotels are catching up in terms of their KPIs. STR took a closer look at three important European markets: London, Amsterdam and Munich. The data research company presented the result exclusively at the "Hospitality Industry Dialogue" at Expo Real in Munich.