News & Stories

Berlin/Phoenix. Within five years, Best Western Hotels & Resorts has invested 25 million dollars for distribution, told CEO David Kong hospitalityInside.com at the IHIF Berlin. And compared to other hotel chains, he takes Airbnb as a segment threat absolutely seriously.

HOTTEST NEWS: Anbang withdraws 
Last night, Starwood Hotels & Resorts announced that the consortium consisting of Anbang Insurance Group Co., Ltd., J.C. Flowers & Co. and Primavera Capital Limited has informed Starwood that, as a result of market considerations, it has withdrawn its non-binding proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Starwood for $82.75 per share in cash and does not intend to make another proposal. This means, the planned merger procedure with Marriott will continue according to the amended merger agreement, as announced on March 21, 2016. Starwood shareholders will receive $21.00 in cash and 0.80 shares of Marriott Class A common stock for each share of Starwood common stock.
Editor's note: We will leave the following article for this Friday issue untouched, as it still explains which the pros and contras of the different merger options, based on yesterday's information.

Washington/Beijing. Only a few weeks away from becoming the largest hotel chain in the world, Marriott has to face a last-minute offer from Chinese Anbang Insurance Group. It made a 14-billion-dollar proposal to acquire Starwood, which is 2 billion dollars more than Marriott's initial deal. Last night obviously brought some motion to the issue.

Berlin. "Even though Jin Jiang owns 100% of Louvre Hotels, we act and run as a stand- alone company." That's how Pierre-Frédéric Roulot, CEO of Louvre Hotels Group started his press conference last week. The message couldn't be clearer. While the Chinese owner is paying for everything, and has been very generous lately, Louvre Hotels is following its own agenda led by an ambitious development strategy targeting the opening of over 100 hotels in 2016. All numbers and strategies he mentioned are impressive, and a new giant will speed up in Europe. Sarah Douag met Pierre-Frédéric Roulot for a personal interview at ITB Berlin.

Berlin. This year budget was again on everyone's lips at the IHIF Berlin, also since the Rezidor prizeotel deal was quite a surprise. As an aftermath, we asked Marco Nussbaum a couple of questions. Furthermore, the new COO of B&B, Fabrice Collet, and General Manager Germany Mark Thompson, explained the new pathway with the new owner PAI: tempo is the focus – and a luxury-ambition-driven budget group such as Motel One is history as a competitor! Two days prior to the IHIF the first German Super 8 in Munich opened softly; Wyndham CEO Geoff Ballotti and his team explained in Berlin, why their new budget brand should also be successful in Germany.

Paris. AccorHotels’ agenda for the next months is busy – aiming to reach the goals, CEO Sébastien Bazin's goals. The group has never been in such a development phase as it is today. What is more, rumors about a potential acquisition of Carlson Rezidor don't seem to by dying down.

Brussels/Bremen. The Rezidor Hotel Group acquires a 49% stake of prizeotel for a price of €14.7m, as hospitalityInside already reported in its "Breaking News" this Monday. The announcement at IHIF Berlin this week is Rezidor's entry to the economy segment. The deal means a win win situation for both parties: top-class budget for the chain, European growth for the small player.

Shanghai/Paris. Chinese giant hotel operator Jin Jiang is taking every opportunity to grow fast and steadily. Last week, Jin Jiang bought its minority stake in Plateno Hotel Group from market investor Actis. Last Monday, Jin Jiang also increased its stake in AccorHotels to 11.7 % - within a few weeks. AccorHotels is not amused.

Singapore. Turmoil in the Asian hotel chain Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts: nearly two weeks ago, a sudden change took place at the top. CEO Abid Butt as well as his VP Operations, Andrew Langston, and VP Sales and Marketing, David Spooner, left the business surprisingly. This was accompanied by bad news: the business wants to dismiss 12% of its staff members – a total of 1,400 people. Dus Pugson, the former VP China Operations, has taken over leadership now. Apparently, he wants to re-staff 18 other leading positions. However, it is still unclear, what the new team wants.

Frankfurt/M. The new peppy brand Jaz is intended to dust off Steigenberger's image. And large investments will also give the older core-brand hotels a makeover. Yet with InterCity Hotels, the group's cash cow, Steigenberger CEO doesn't want to push so quickly into other European countries - but rather into China. Maria Puetz-Willems met Steigenberger CEO Puneet Chhatwal for an update.