News & Stories
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.
London/Beijing. The rumours about the InterContinental Hotels Group pitching for FRHI continue to persist. But Moevenpick denies being in the IHG focus. And Chinese Jin Jiang Group allegedly eying Starwood Hotels gave priority to other acquisition first: Last week it officially finalized the merger with Chinese Plateno Hotels, this week it bought the key stock of Chinese budget hotel chain 7Days.
Washington. After a six-month investigation period, the US Department of Justice finally gave its blessing to the merger of Expedia with its rival Orbitz yesterday.
New York/London. "Technology changes brands," Mike Tiedy says, Senior Vice President Global Brand Design & Innovation, Starwood Hotels & resorts, "and so communication changes in the brands. It's because of this that we're on our way to real global brands." Starwood is considered one of the bravest and most creative brand inventors of all hotel chains: The success story of W proves it. But others too - such as IHG - also realised the potential of lifestyle concepts quite early on. With 62 Indigo Hotels in operation and a further 64 in the pipeline, IHG is one of the "first movers" in the lifestyle boutique hotel scene. What makes these lifestyle hotels different and how do you create that "concept that has that little something different"? Mike Tiedy, his Starwood colleage Brian McGuinness and Dina Soliman, Brand Director Europe for InterContinental Hotels Group give their answers.
Verbier. Anyone staying in the W Verbier in summer must be prepared for surprises. In summer, it's much clearer that artistic-creative design is much more important to the hotel's owners than its functionality. On this Friday in June, guests were few and far between. To be alone in the W Verbier opens one's eyes for very different details to the ones that brand managers would like guests to see. Baerbel Schwertfeger reports.
Moena. The Alps are the most preferred playground for European bike tourists, as revealed by a study. However, the bike scene has become very colourful with high demands. The bike riders are looking for nature and culture. The e-bike boom will continue.