News & Stories
Bob W. - the best of two worlds. The concept sounds as creative as the brand name. The Finnish group around co-founder and CEO Niko Karstikko belongs to the young, hyper-dynamic groups that want to conquer foreign terrain in a short time: A Bob W. can be anything from a mix of all serviced apartment types, of full-service hotels, rounded off with F&B, lifestyle, digitalisation all around and only one full-time employee on site. Is Bob W finally reinventing the hotel industry or is it just on the way to becoming a jack of all trades?
It was easy to become suspicious: Three times in a row, the Radisson Hotel Group has placed a long text ad in the online version of the German real estate trade magazin "Immobilienzeitung" with the first ambiguous headline: "prizeotel: sustainable, stylish, affordable". The garishly coloured budget chain has been fully owned by Radisson and therefore to the Chinese Jin Jiang Group since 2020. Rumours among insiders have long since been that prizeotel will be sold at some point. Is it now being made ready? We asked CEO Connor Ryterski.
The Italian Alpitour World group accelerates its development plans for its hotel brands Voihotels and VRetreats and continues to seek financiers, also for locations in the most important European cities. This is new. The holding does not lack financial strength: it will probably end this year with a turnover of 2.4 billion euros. It also wants to make greater use of the other divisions for its hotel expansion, including the tour operators as well as its own airline. The hotel business is one of the valuable pillars.
Munich. This year, the new brand The Porter will start in the serviced apartments and co-living segment. The first project was already planned for 2018, but it failed. Now, ten properties are to follow within the next two years. They will be located on big sites, following overall hotel concepts. Founder Martin Egner is an example für the latest trend to combine apartment concepts with other services in a hybrid way.
Berlin. Speaking on the fringes of the IHIF in Berlin last week, Accor CEO Sébastien Bazin told us he believes he should have made the switch from geographic responsibility to the new brand structure earlier. Now everything is more focused, especially for investors, he explained. Here, he doesn't place value on "higher, further, faster". He simply wants to stay ahead of the competition. A conversation with hospitalityInside about change fatigue, differentiated responsibility, AccorInvest, lease agreements and the inertia of Germany.
Berlin. From the operator crisis in the pandemic to the real estate crisis today: Once again, operators are hit hard because hotel owners refuse to cooperate in any way to reduce costs. Help yourself! is the motto. Question everything and make a special effort to check energy and F&B costs. Four industry insiders offer tips: Alexander Trobitz, Andreas Ewald, Christoph Härle and Uwe Niemann.
Vienna. After a difficult launch in November 2022, in the middle of Covid, and its location in the midst of a neighbourhood oversaturated with hotels around Vienna's main railway station, the relatively unknown Mooons Hotel is getting off to such a good start that further properties of the operator Munich Hotel Partners are only a matter of time.
Berlin. It’s impossible to stop the comparisons with the record year 2019. After all, statements like these are starting to make all operators look good - but only for as long as the record occupancy and rates figures keep coming. All the rest is only touched upon in individual details, certainly not as part of a broader picture. Currently, only their partners remain notably in the shadows: Project developers and financiers teeter on the bring as government(s) and banks place obstacles in their paths. The figures show the shadow is getting longer. Yet the optimists still claim that everything will be fine.
Vienna/Budapest. In Western Europe many desirable locations are already saturated with international brands. Compared to that, big brands view Central & Eastern Europe as virgin territory. The groups are correspondingly active. Smaller national groups have established a clear profile, international brands are gaining market presence through franchises. A lot is going on.
Cologne. This story begins with the fusty brand name Ghotel and ends with sweet chocolate. It all goes back to the British-American actor Cary Grant: While filming in St. Louis, he discreetly lured his lover into the right hotel room and up to the pillow with a trail of chocolates... The chocolate on the pillow. Now, German owner-operator Ghotel makes use of the same tactic to lay a trail to their new, more international umbrella brand "The Chocolate on The Pillow Group".