News & Stories

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.

Düsseldorf. Lindner Hotels made a name for itself this week with a vague press release on the "2022 business year": One day before the new, listed distribution partner Hyatt published its business figures for the 3rd quarter, the German hotel group also wanted to spread optimism. However, this went wrong, at least from hospitalityInside's point of view - which resulted in an interesting conversation with Lindner CEO Arno Schwalie.

Munich/Hamburg. Although Novum Hospitality announced 35 new hotels at Expo Real, to be implemented over the next four years up to the end of 2026, expansion will slow at the end of this year. CEO David Etmenan's priority is: "At the end of 2024, we would like to take the company out of the economic stabilisation fund." He wants to accelerate the plan to build up a PropCo next to OpCo - Novum Real Estate. The Novum CEO took time at Expo Real for a conversation with hospitalityInside.

Wiesbaden. The Dutch developer Borealis Hotel Group has taken over the German hotel operating company Bierwirth & Kluth. Together, the two partners want to further develop the company in Europe, focusing on their respective strengths.

Berlin. From a German to a European to a global group: The Berlin HR Group is once again accelerating its expansion course and grows to 145 hotels and 20 signed projects with the triangular deal around HRG, Vienna House and Wyndham announced yesterday. It implies share transfers, property changes, a brand sale, a franchise agreement and a tricky ownership and operator structure. And all this between four countries: Thailand, Austria, Germany and the USA. This deal is hard to understand in two minutes.

Frankfurt. In June 2021, the Flemings Hotels group parted with four of its properties; three of them were located in the trade fair city, which was hit very hard by corona. This gave the family-run group enough air to keep breathing; now, CEO Rob Hornman is even talking about expansion again, also as a white label for other brands. Under the Flemings roof, a new brand architecture has to be established and F&B is the current king of cash.

Munich. On Tuesday of this week, Ruby made an "epochal" decision: The Lifestyle Group will massively upgrade the status of its employees, introduce a 35-hour week, make everyone's working hours more flexible, allow workation in other European countries, and will finally give employees a share in the company's profits. Personnel costs are shooting up. "We don't have to do all this, we want to," says CEO Michael Struck. He is thinking far into the future. He doesn’t want to fail because of the current crises and cost increases, and rather wants to expand further with Ruby Leisure Hotels.