News & Stories

Berlin. What if you lose 500 out of 1,000 employees in the pandemic? And how do you restore service levels overnight when travel suddenly booms? a&o Hostels have been super-flexible in their response, keeping an eye on market details and on profit margins. Juggling volume and price has paid off. CEO Oliver Winter knows what he is doing: Today he talks openly about the lows and highs since corona, about old and new numbers, about e-learning, his ESG ambition and school classes that take more city trips because of "travel shame".

Garching/Munich. The Dorint brand is clearly visible from a distance to drivers approaching the Garching Business Campus in the north east of Munich. Dorint has positioned itself well here and has managed to fit in perfectly. On Wednesday, the group opened its 66th hotel - a business and conference hotel. It continues to focus on 4-Star Classic at its core, is streamlining the overall concept and is in the process of overcoming the fallout from corona with solid results. CEO Jörg T. Böckeler and COO Bettina Schütt took time for a conversation after the opening.

Bern. SV Hotel wants to grow in the extended-stay sector with Stay Kooook. While the German debut of the own brand is still pending for 2023, the Swiss group has now opened its second property in Bern - but this time without kitchens and with rooms instead of studios. Stay Kooook is thus no longer a classic apartment product.

Stockholm. As a booking platform, the travel group TUI promises itself more shares in the solo booking business. Sweden has already kicked off with its hotel portal. The TUI booking function is also already available in the DACH region. So far, mainly non-TUI hotels are listed on the portal.

Latschau/Bludenz. The Falkensteiner Hotel Montafon in Vorarlberg opened its doors on December 16, 2022; on Christmas, 200 children were in the house. The youngest Family Hotel of the Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism Group has been positioned as a 5-star resort, and The Leading Hotels of the World will introduce a "Family Hotel" label. Four weeks after its opening, the resort in the west of Austria can impose rates like in Sardinia. The secret of success: the new "Open Plaza" concept.

Gurgaon. Oyo, the Indian unicorn is making the headlines again but not necessarily for good reasons. The lodging platform announced it is now downsizing and letting go 10% of its workforce to increase efficiency. But the truth is, it is restructuring prior to filing for an IPO in early 2023, something the travel tech company has been postponing due to bad results, Covid and significant mistakes in China.

Munich. In 2019, it already became apparent that the business needs a new structure. Corona challenged everyone; the sales figures dropped by more than half, "but we were able to manage the situation, even before we obtained aids from the state," says Marco El Manchi, CFO of Gorgeous Smiling Hotels. According to COO Edwin Jebbink, there is only one goal right now: "We have to reach the finishing line faster than all of our competitors."

Munich. A seat on the plane always needs a bed - but not a hotel brand. This is how simply the FTI Group thinks now. "Tour operators have to reinvent themselves after Covid," says Sabine Dorn-Aglagul, CEO Hotels at the group since May 2021 and explains further: "Through FTI as a strong operator, we want to double the hotel portfolio - without brands".

Frankfurt. Oliver Bonke has seen around 40 of 132 hotels in his first six months as CEO of Deutsche Hospitality, analysing costs as well as P&L. His spontaneous strategy was: How do we get through 2022 in profitable shape? Plans now go beyond that. After all, 2023 is just around the corner and the next decisions will also follow the motto: Costs down, efficiency up, profitable growth. Completely in the Chinese tradition.