News & Stories

Vienna. Vienna International Hotelmanagement AG is repositioning itself. Effective 1 February 2016, Austria's largest hotel group will flip the switch to recreate its brand identity from top to bottom. Vienna International Hotelmanagement AG is set to become "Vienna House". "We are not just another lifestyle brand on the market," Simoner makes clear from the start.

San Francisco. Airbnb announced an "insurance for the protection of hosts" yesterday. Now, one million Airbnb hosts in 16 countries are asked to conclude this liability insurance. It had been launched in the USA in January of this year.

Amsterdam. New logo, new visual identity, more colors, more youth, more connectivity, more loyalty, new recruits…Earlier this week, Choice Hotels organized its annual European Convention in Amsterdam where the regional headquarters are based. Choice certainly renewed its vows to invest, deploy and support its European partners just like it said it would, in Dublin back in 2013. More than 300 European guests were invited to hear about the plan Choice had orchestrated to improve its future and certainly its revenue. A message that sounded like music to the franchisees' ears.

Frankfurt. And another booking portal: The European frequent flyer and premium programme Miles & More has extended its programme for participants. They can now book their hotel room directly through the M&M homepage and at the same time collect air miles.

Munich. Six days after the end of the Expo Real, Accor officially opened a complex in Munich's Arnulfstrasse comprised of a newly-conceived Novotel and a refined Ibis Hotel. Prior to the opening, Accor Hospitality Germany provided a brief insight into the new elements of its strategy.

Paris. AccorHotels has won a bid which allows the group to put its name on the façade of the Paris indoor concert hall and sports arena Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy. For Sébastien Bazin, CEO AccorHotels, "this is part of the group's strategy to boost brand awareness and thus revenue".

Berlin. On October 1, 2015, Secret Escapes had taken over the Travista.de portal and as a result, swallowed its German competitor.

Phoenix/Eschborn. The Best Western hoteliers in North America have to master a difficult task. They have to examine and approve the newly designed logos for the hotel group; however, they look very different from everything existing before. One could also say they need quite a bit of getting used to. Best Western also introduced a seventh brand at the North American market.

Hamburg. A German hotel group has created a stir of talk: Novum Group Hotels has grown from 12 to 57 hotels over the past five years and as a result, operates 4,900 rooms in Germany today. David CEO Etmenan is stepping it up even further – through franchising with Moxy and Courtyard, ibis Styles and Mercure. The cooperation is close to be concluded. At the same time, Novum is providing its own brand, Novum Style, with a sharpened lifestyle profile. Moreover, the Hamburg-based hotel group is now looking for locations in Austria and Switzerland for the first time. Tucked behind the dynamic company is an equally dynamic as well as young and new hotelier generation that outsources nothing and scales everything. Expansion has been calculated. And it will pay for itself.

Vienna. Everything is changing except for the agreements? Experts will shed light on this subject in a panel discussion at this year's hotel conference at Expo Real. Martin Schaffer, Managing Partner at the consultancy MRP Hotels in Vienna, explains the topic of distribution costs, franchise fees and performance control in this guest contribution.