News & Stories

Turin. Allegro means cheerful and light-hearted. The Italian Allegroitalia Hotels & Resorts want to score with this feeling. The hotel group, which was founded by Piergiorgio Mangialardi in 2010, currently has six hotels operating and two projects in the pipeline under the two hotel brands Allegroitalia and Espressohotel and under the overlapping Condotel brand. Also, the group plans its entry in Hamburg as well to establish a small chain in China. But the hotel structure is difficult to understand.

Hamburg. The Ameron Hotel Speicherstadt is located in the former Coffee Exchange of Hamburg and now has another USP: The only hotel in Hamburg located in a landmark of the city of Hamburg is also now officially part of the UNESCO World Heritage.

Madrid. This week, NH Hotels Group's annual general meeting brought its share of surprises. Not only HNA representatives have been dismissed from the board but Federico J. González Tejera was not re-elected as CEO of the company. In the meantime, four new board members joined the party as well three new chief executives who will act as CEOs. That's not it.

Frankfurt/Paris. Just like big hotel chains, two European hotels consortia are joining forces in order to better control their distribution. French consortium Châteaux & Hôtels Collection and German-based Romantik Hotels & Restaurants agreed this week to work together to resist the M&A wave currently reshaping the hospitality sector.

Parsippany, NJ. Wyndham Hotel Group unveiled its vision for the democratization of travel. WHG's roadmap for the strategic transformation of its brands is aimed at elevating the travel experience for millennials and the diverse global middle class.

Paris. In the past 6 months, Chinese giant Jin Jiang, has been slowly but surely munching on AccorHotels' capital. Now it seems to be developing a real appetite – aiming for 29% of the shares. A new challenging chapter in the Chinese-Western story of M&A is emerging.

Beijing/Madrid/Brussels. Chinese conglomerate HNA is getting attention lately. Two years after betting on the Spanish NH Hotels Group, it is taking over the Carlson Wagonlit hotel branch, which boasts 1,400 properties and includes the Rezidor portfolio. Will HNA aim at taking control over both European chains? It might be good.

Amsterdam. Traveling from one city to another to inaugurate new NH Collection properties has become a full time job for Federico Gonzales Tejera. The NH CEO, who in the past few months, has been seen in Rome, Amsterdam and most recently in Berlin, travelled to the Dutch capital in April to celebrate the rebranding and re-opening of three iconic hotels joining the NH Collection. Together with Maarten Markus, Managing Director of NH Hotel Group in the Benelux, UK, France and Africa, he welcomed hundreds of guests and showed them what this new upscale brand was all about. Our correspondent in Amsterdam, Sarah Douag, checked out the new spirit of the three historical buildings and talked with Maarten Markus about brand positioning, guest expectations and development.

Toronto. In the last few days, the luxury hotel group Four Seasons has allegedly dismissed about 50 executives at global corporate level or transferred them around the globe. The history of Four Seasons has never before experienced such a wave of staff changes at top level. The company itself puts things into perspective.

Last night, Sorya Gaulin, Director Global Corporate Public Relations and Social Media, from Toronto, did not want to confirm the number 50 to hospitalityInside.com, but she admitted that single positions were eliminated and instead, investments made in other areas of responsibility. She talked about a "restructuring" of the company and a reconcentration of energies.

Insiders report the following changes – which were also confirmed by Sorya Gaulin on request: Christopher Norton, current Chief Product Officer, will also take over the position as COO. Chris Hart, President Americas, leaves the business after 27 years as well as William Makay in Singapore, who joined Four Seasons in 1982 and became President Hotel Operations Asia Pacific in 2014. Guy Rigby, Vice President Food and Beverage, will leave the company in a few months as well.

The position of Chris Hart will be taken over by Christian Clerc, who has been working as President Hotel Operations EMEA in Dubai up to now. Clerc's job will be assumed by Simon Casson, currently Regional Vice President in Dubai and GM of the Four Seasons Jumeirah Beach. The position of William Makay will be taken over by Rainer Stampfer, current Regional Vice President in Shanghai and GM of the Four Seasons Shanghai Pudong.

Amongst others, top-level managers in HR development, in sales USA, in PR as well as top finance experts such as Chris Garland and Jeff Blakeman have allegedly been dismissed. However, Sorya Gaulin did not want to confirm this explicitly. She did admit though that the procurement department will be outsourced – as many other hotel groups have already done.

Rumours that the development department should be closed down as well were rejected by Sorya Gaulin: on the contrary, they will invest vigorously in this business field. There will be great re-investments in half of the positions, generally speaking. It is simply not true that Four Seasons is losing its culture. And she added: "We have to realign our resources; we are a small group in competition with big groups."

Brussels. The red is quite a shock, especially when arriving in the evening as a single woman by taxi: Bright red fluorescent lights frame the entrance to the Radisson RED in Brussels. What's hiding behind them? A nightclub, here? Directly next door to the European Parliament? It's not obvious what's behind, as the broad glass front and the revolving door are also illuminated in red. A peek into the lobby is impossible. The entrance scenario is meanwhile a discussion point among guests and for Rezidor itself.  The red sends a clear signal: The Radisson RED is breaking with all classic hotel standards. And Rezidor wants to show that it too can do millennial! A visit to Brussels, to the global pilot project for the new brand and an interview with Rezidor CEO Wolfgang Neumann and COO Olivier Harnisch.