News & Stories

Berlin. The official execution of the March announcement took place last Monday: 86.93 percent of the stockholders agreed to the "domination agreement" by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc. at the Design Hotels Plc General Meeting. As a result and for the first time in the history of the hotel industry, a hotel consortium and marketing/distribution association has become a brand of a global hotel chain. Not one hotel of the 270 Design Hotels resembles the other. What happens now with these creative, private hotels from every grid falling under the roof of a chain?

Berlin. How does the luxury customer travel? How can the hotelier welcome them before, during and after their trip, surprise them and enthuse? ITB Berlin uploaded their 1st "Luxury Webinar" last week. Claudia Roth, former Vice President EMEA for The Leading Hotels of the World and today, coach and consultant for luxury brands, as well as hospitalityInside Editor in Chief Maria Puetz-Willems talked to webinar participants from all over the world. Their question: "The Luxury Customer Journey - a revolution or back to the hospitality roots?"

Madrid. "NH Collection", already announced as new top brand of the Spanish hotel group in March, counts 23 hotels meanwhile.

Santo André/Munich. Germany is the World Cup 2014 Champion!! This is also how the staff members have felt since Sunday at Campo Bahia, the team hotel of the German National Football Team in Santo André, a town just 30 kilometres to the north of the Porto Seguro, Brazil seaside resort. Everyone is proud: Over the past four weeks, Jogi Loew and his boys lived in the newly-built resort and had been looked after by 90 hotel staff members and the 40-person team of the Deutschen Fussballbunds and guarded by an entire armada of security... The hotel was ready at around one o'clock in the morning and at eight o'clock in the morning, the German Football Association Team stood before the door – "this was an extremely cold start, from zero to 100", Professor Stephan Gerhard sighed two days ago while looking back, but is now greatly relieved. The Treugast Solutions from Munich was responsible for the completion of the resort. "This was the best German World Cup accommodation of all time!" German Football Association President Wolfgang Niersbach praised upon departure. And the master football players attested to the Campo Bahia in conversations with their colleagues: "This was the best World Cup accommodation of all 32 in Brazil!" So much praise is the true gold for Stephan Gerhard. He himself had not seen one, single live game there. His look back on Campo Bahia.

Vienna. In Austria, tax is to be reviewed for the hotel sector. Against a backdrop of increasingly precarious operating results, the aim is to provide some relief for hoteliers with respect to labour costs.

Prague. CPI Hotels is expanding its activities in the Czech Republic and has also entered into the European market. The portfolio of one of the largest Czech hotel groups has as of 1 July 2014 grown by the addition of Mamaison Hotels & Residences operating in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Russia.

Vienna. The book finds its way into the hotel in many ways, from the library to the bedside table all the way to cultural event. Now, Austria's private hoteliers have shown how it can be successfully turned into a useful customer loyalty tool. Sonja Juffinger-Konzett raves: "Hotels are my greatest love." "I love everything, the food, the wine, the decoration." Of course day-to-day obligations set limits. Yet the limits imposed by work are also helped by another passion: literature.

Wiesbaden. Particularly young lifestyle hotels are increasingly discovering in-house music as a marketing tool. They are trying out various kinds of concepts in order to attract and bind young guests. Ruby Hotels trusts in its "Ruby Radio", prizeotel trusts in music streams via the Internet and cloud. On the other hand, Rilano hotels have already cancelled their downloads solely trusting in their own radio, and Starwood Hotels demonstrates how to use musical preferences brilliantly for a loyality program. At any rate, the days of monotonous canned background music are finally over. Individual music mixes, dedicated radio programmes, or series of concerts bind customers, increase sympathy and hotel emotions.

Edinburgh / Frankfurt. Lost luggage, huge queues, congested gates: As a general rule, the greatest amount of travel stress stems from the arrival and departure. This should change. Airports and airlines are intensively working on offering more comfort to travellers.

St. Christoph/Arlberg. Florian Werner of Arlberg Hospiz is relieved: He succeeded with the interim financing for his new cultural project in the Austrian Alps at the very last minute. Only one single bank has understood what the owning family of the privately-controlled, internationally-known ski resort in Arlberg wished to do with their 27 million Euro investment. The work on the excavation for the new concert hall and arts centre at 1,800 metres began this week; 16 new residences that will be coupled with everything within the hotel operations will also originate. Florian Werner has financed the unusual "arlberg 1800" project with them that will provide for a publicity-effective platform for contemporary music and art as well as for its makers. The benefit is already in sight.