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SPECIAL MARCH 2015 // ITB EDITION FOR EXPERTS IN HOSPITALITY & TOURISM Hotel Industry 2015: Between Mainstream and Mindset SPECIAL MARCH 2015 // ITB EDITION FOR EXPERTS IN HOSPITALITY & TOURISM Hotel Industry 2015: Between Mainstream and Mindset

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Dear hospitalityInsiders and guests of ITB 2015, The "ITB Hospitality Day" has a good reason to celebrate: this year marks the 10th anniversary of the hotel conference! What started in March 2006 with 880 participants has attracted 12,600 ITB visitors in total until last year. As organizer of this conference, I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all the panelists of the years past! Without the knowhow of these hoteliers, tourist experts and specialists – also from other sectors – the Hospitality Day wouldn't have become a magnet at the ITB congress. On pages 14-15 we look back with a few pictures ... Over and over again, we have discussed challenges, in step with practice, controversially, objectively and passionately. And, of course, as internationally as possible to do justice to ITB's reputation as the largest tourism trade fair in the world. On this big birthday, the ITB Hospitality Day will deal with the truly big trends and let minds wander ... What changes will have which consequences, and how should you position yourself in the future? The hotel business has become extremely fragile over the past few years. The keywords of the 2015 "ITB Hospitality Day" are: cyber attacks, sharing economy, budget and luxury & lifestyle, digitization vs. values, and online distribution. And there is yet another reason to celebrate: this year is hospitalityInside. com's 10th anniversary. In 2005, we considered ITB a perfect occasion to start an ad-free German/English hotel magazine – solely online! Ten years ago, this was rather bold, but this multiple somersault has paid off: hospitalityInside has readers in more than 20 countries and is considered – small but powerful – one of the opinion leaders among international hotel trade media. You can find our retrospect on pages 6-7. Your partner for holistic spa concepts Let's have a toast; pay us a visit at the "World of Hospitality" in hall 9, booth 109! For the fourth time, we are present at ITB with a joint booth and we're happy that we have managed to assemble a circle of both well-known and competent co-exhibitors once again this year (see pages 8-11). Since 2011, this ITB special issue has presented insights into the trade fair, the ITB Hospitality Day as well as the joint booth. In addition, you can find articles from the hospitalityInside.com online magazine that are normally reserved for our subscribers (starting on page 20). This special issue is also available online in both German and English at www.hospitalityinside.com. For more than 25 years THALGO COSMETIC stands for strong brands, unique spa concepts, intensive training as well as for professional marketing and consulting services. Versatile treatment concepts, sensory spa rituals and efficient cosmetics create holistic spa concepts, that completely match the requirements of our corporate partners and our costumers. Permanent developments, an excellent insight on new trends due to long-term experience, a comprehensive training program and a customizable shop concept are the keys for your success. I wish you all a successful ITB 2015! Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems Editor-in-Chief hospitalityInside.com Visit us! WORLD OF HOSPITALITY ITB, Hall 9 Stand 109 SPECIAL märz 2015 // iTB-AusgABe Für experTen en Aus HoTellerie & Tourismus Hotellerie 2015: Also available as eMagazine at www.hospitalityInside.com ! zwischen mainstream und mindset SPECIAL march 2015 // iTB ediTion For eXPerTS in hoSPiTaLiTY & TouriSm hotel industry 2015: Between mainstream and mindset info@thalgo-cosmetic.de | .at · www.thalgo-cosmetic.de | .at 3,900 copies distributed. hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 Your partner for holistic spa concepts For more than 25 years THALGO COSMETIC stands for strong brands, unique spa concepts, intensive training as well as for professional marketing and consulting services. Versatile treatment concepts, sensory spa rituals and efficient cosmetics create holistic spa concepts, that completely match the requirements of our corporate partners and our costumers. Permanent developments, an excellent insight on new trends due to long-term experience, a comprehensive training program and a customizable shop concept are the keys for your success. info@thalgo-cosmetic.de | .at · www.thalgo-cosmetic.de | .at

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 CONTENT Editorial 3 Small, sophisticated, personal 19 Power napping under a hood 30 B2B fair loop a complete success: Mirror for luxury trends Trend: Hotels can benefit from their guests' 10 years of HospitalityInside – Thank you! 6 growing need for sleep Copy & Paste 20 A pool of renowned businesses 8 "World of Hospitality" at ITB 2015 and its co-exhibitors The next plague: Exchangeable lifestyle brands flood the market Images from a drone 32 Future of Hotel Marketing: How an octocopter Managers searching for truffels 23 and videos can enliven it Increasing IT influence 12 4th "Freitagshappen" focused on lifestyle & luxury hotels ITB Berlin 2015: 190 exhibitors and a lot of innovation Travellers want more mobility 34 Budget in a royal dress 24 Future of mobility: The market lags far behind the expectations 226 speakers and 12,600 attendees 14 Motel One Vienna Staatsoper & Ruby Vienna 10 years ITB Hospitality Day: stand for a new competition The standard off-the-shelf is taboo 36 A global mirror of the colourful hotel world How purchasing companies view trends – Yotel is a Mindset 26 Young hoteliers calculate differently Trends every hour 16 Concept being transferred to cities – Robots & more 10th ITB Hospitality Day: On track with the big movements Fair is Eco & Social 38 New desire for health 28 Fairtrade products growing in popularity – In search of sentiment – live und online 18 Nature, vegan and deep-penetrating New USP for hotel industry 4th "HospitalityInside Investment Barometer" supported by ingredients drive well-being trends Union Investment IMPRINT Publisher: hospitalityInside GmbH, Paul-Lincke-Strasse 20, 86199 Augsburg, Gemany. www.hospitalityInside.com // Editorial office: Maria Puetz- Willems, Editor in chief, hospitalityInside.com // Articles: The articles published in this Special are written on the occasion of ITB 2015 or are extracts of articles published in the online magazine www.hospitalityInside.com // Authors: Romana Kanzian, Maria Puetz-Willems, Susanne Stauss // Cover: © Yotel // Photos were kindly provided by the persons and hotels/companies mentioned, also by Camflight, Bernotat, Fairtrade Deutschland, Christian Mueller Fotolia, Hans-Juergen Krahl Fotolia, Mark f Fotolia, Jonas Wolff Fotolia, ITB Berlin, Maria Pütz-Willems // Advertisements: This Special was supported Messe Berlin, Motel One, Ronnefeldt, Thalgo Cosmetic // Layout: Cornelia Anders, www.blueorangeblue.de // Print: Silber Druck, www.silberdruck.de // Copyright: hospitalityInside GmbH. This content is protected by law. Publishing this content or parts of it in print or online media requires the written permission of hospitalityInside GmbH. In case of violation we will charge current market fees. Beyond, we reserve the right to take legal action and claim damages. PARTNERS 2015 Partners of the joint stand "World of Hospitality“ 2015 are (in alphabetical order): Horwath HTL (consulting firm) hospitalityInside (publishing company), i-FRONTDESK (mobile Concierge), KOS International (object textiles), Macnetix (digital signature and IPTV specialist), Media Carrier (content provider), MIKU (tiles and natural stones), Motel One Group (hotel group), NextGenOpti (software developer), Puetter GmbH (eCommerce consultant) March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Dear hospitalityInsiders and guests of ITB 2015, The "ITB Hospitality Day" has a good reason to celebrate: this year marks the 10th anniversary of the hotel conference! What started in March 2006 with 880 participants has attracted 12,600 ITB visitors in total until last year. As organizer of this conference, I would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to all the panelists of the years past! Without the knowhow of these hoteliers, tourist experts and specialists – also from other sectors – the Hospitality Day wouldn't have become a magnet at the ITB congress. On pages 14-15 we look back with a few pictures ... Over and over again, we have discussed challenges, in step with practice, controversially, objectively and passionately. And, of course, as internationally as possible to do justice to ITB's reputation as the largest tourism trade fair in the world. On this big birthday, the ITB Hospitality Day will deal with the truly big trends and let minds wander ... What changes will have which consequences, and how should you position yourself in the future? The hotel business has become extremely fragile over the past few years. The keywords of the 2015 "ITB Hospitality Day" are: cyber attacks, sharing economy, budget and luxury & lifestyle, digitization vs. values, and online distribution. And there is yet another reason to celebrate: this year is hospitalityInside. com's 10th anniversary. In 2005, we considered ITB a perfect occasion to start an ad-free German/English hotel magazine – solely online! Ten years ago, this was rather bold, but this multiple somersault has paid off: hospitalityInside has readers in more than 20 countries and is considered – small but powerful – one of the opinion leaders among international hotel trade media. You can find our retrospect on pages 6-7. Let's have a toast; pay us a visit at the "World of Hospitality" in hall 9, booth 109! For the fourth time, we are present at ITB with a joint booth and we're happy that we have managed to assemble a circle of both well-known and competent co-exhibitors once again this year (see pages 8-11). Since 2011, this ITB special issue has presented insights into the trade fair, the ITB Hospitality Day as well as the joint booth. In addition, you can find articles from the hospitalityInside.com online magazine that are normally reserved for our subscribers (starting on page 20). This special issue is also available online in both German and English at www.hospitalityinside.com. I wish you all a successful ITB 2015! Yours, Maria Puetz-Willems Editor-in-Chief hospitalityInside.com Visit us! WORLD OF HOSPITALITY ITB, Hall 9 Stand 109 Also available as eMagazine at www.hospitalityInside.com ! 3,900 copies distributed. SPECIAL märz 2015 // iTB-AusgABe Für experTen en Aus HoTellerie & Tourismus Hotellerie 2015: zwischen mainstream und mindset SPECIAL march 2015 // iTB ediTion For eXPerTS in hoSPiTaLiTY & TouriSm hotel industry 2015: Between mainstream and mindset

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Thank you for 10 years 10 years HospitalityInside in figures 1 issue per week (Friday) 5 staff members at the publishing base in Augsburg of HospitalityInside 6 translators and graphic designers 8 joint stands organized (ITB + Expo Real) 9 heads producing one issue Dear hospitalityInsiders, When we announced the start of hospitalityInside.com in the middle of February 2005, only very few believed in the success of a solely editorial online medium without any advertisements. At ITB 2015, our hotel trade magazine will celebrate its 10th anniversary and nobody has copied our model so far: hospitalityInside. com is – just as conceived from the beginning – "online only", published in two languages (German/English) and it refrains from advertisements (except for this marketing Special). Top managers, who are frequent travellers, read our magazine any time at any place, we have readers in more than 20 countries and are able to criticise – objectively and constructively – as we are not controlled by advertising budgets. The readers pay for this sophisticated editorial online information service with their subscriptions. Managing directors and board members, general managers of hotels, heads of staff departments, owners, investors and financiers appreciate the up-to-date variety and editing of topics and news. Even critical words rarely lead to disagreements as we have proved often enough in the meantime that we do not want to harm but convey an objective and constructive picture of the market, its participants and their opinions. Freedom of expression, independence of the press, and the responsibility of all for the community has been the basis for living and the economic activities in our society up to the present day. We are happy to see that a "community" has formed around hospitalityInside in the past 10 years. It accompanies and inspires us. With our magazine, the events and our activities, we would like to bring this network closer together, online as well as offline, provide a platform for good ideas, and enable new cooperations and partnerships in future. We provide transparency. On that account, we will continue each week to reduce the flood of information radically to the essential and broach subjects again as soon as there is a space. We are able to accomplish this with a set of clear rules for professional journalists, who take their readers seriously, listen to them and pick up on their issues. In future, we also wish to think value-oriented and act fairly towards our partners. We are all convinced in the team: it pays off to remain true to these principles. We would like to thank all those sincerely, who have accompanied us in numerous ways! Thank you for 10 years of HospitalityInside!" Publishing & Editorial, Michael Willems & Maria Puetz-Willems The HospitalityInside team 2015: Managing Director Michael Willems, (from left) Editor-in-Chief Maria Puetz-Willems, Anne-Laure Duval (Sales & Marketing), Anne Greisel (Administration, Fairs & Events), and (sitting) Christine Tassinger (Editorial office, conferences). 10 years to celebrate at ITB 2015 11 editorial experts / content advisors 15 regular authors in 6 countries 17 hotel conferences organized (ITB + Expo Real) 482 issues in 10 years 1,000 sceptics at the start 8,000 articles in 10 years (in one language) 1,000,000 ideas for the future 2015 We still have great plans! 0 1 2 3 4 5 2005 1st issue published on March 11 2006 Premiere "ITB Hospitality Day", ITB Berlin 2007 2nd "ITB Hospitality Day" 2008 Take-over "Hospitality Industry Dialogue", Expo Real Munich 2009 Premiere networking event "BRICKS & BRAINS" 2010 5 years hospitalityInside 2011 Premiere joint stand "World of Hospitality" at Expo Real 2012 Premiere joint stand "X-PERTS Lounge" at ITB 2013 Premiere Get- Together "Investment Kitchen" at Kempinski Vier Jahreszeiten 2014 Start "hospitality- Inside Investment BAROMETER" Magazin / Rubriken / Editorial • 02.02.2015 • 9595 • 84 Editorial 11.03.2005 - Willkommen bei hospitalityInside! Liebe User und Leser, der weltweit größte Marktplatz für touristische Informationen – die ITB 2005 Berlin - ist das ideale Umfeld für den Start dieses neuen, grenzüberschreitenden Online-Magazins. Herzlich willkommen bei hospitalityInside! Wir geben der Berichterstattung in der Hotellerie eine neue Perspektive. Warum? Weil wir kein herkömmlicher Newsletter sind, der bestehende Print- Informationen übernimmt und möglichst schnell verbreitet. Wir gehen tiefer. hospitalityInside bietet gleichzeitig Aktualität und Hintergrund. Professionelle Redakteure recherchieren für Sie. Und das auch noch unabhängig von Sponsoren- oder Anzeigenverpflichtungen. http://www.hospitalityinside.com/articles/print-article,editorial-11-03-... HI becomes media partner of Cornell University/CHS + with over 1,000 attendees for the first time + 1st readers trip to Dubai + HI becomes media partner of ITB Asia + 1st hospitality- Inside SPECIAL ITB + 1st hospitality- Inside SPECIAL Expo Real + Premiere talk round "Freitagshappen" with Nassauer Hof, Wiesbaden supported by Union Investment Sie dürfen uns vertrauen: Mit hospitalityInside bekommen sie qualifizierten Content. Dank unserer Unabhängigkeit können wir Themen transparent machen, vor denen sich andere scheuen. Das ist Ihre und unsere Chance. In Ihrem Auftrag stellen wir nämlich gerne ungestraft kritische Fragen. Sagen Sie uns, was Sie wissen möchten, wir suchen die Antwort. Als Ihr Fachinformationsdienst mit Wissenswertem aus Hotellerie und Investment, Marketing, Wissenschaft u.v.a. schlagen wir die Brücke von der „Hospitality-Industrie“ zu ihren Geschäftspartnern. Auch das ist neu. hospitalityInside feiert nicht die Branche, sondern diskutiert ihre Themen kritisch und sachlich. Unsere Zielgruppe sind die Top Executives dieser Branche(n). Weil diese reisen und an jedem Platz der Welt aktuelle Informationen benötigen, publizieren wir nur online. Wir sagen Ihnen, wer was wo wann wie und warum macht! Wir sind selbst „inside“. Meine Kollegin Susanne Stauß und ich gehören zu den führenden Hotelfachjournalisten in Deutschland. Seit mehr als 20 Jahren beobachten wir die Branche und ihre internationalen Einflüsse. Wir wissen, dass Trends, die an einem Ende der Welt gesetzt werden, morgen schon am anderen Einfluss nehmen können. Wir haben internationale Führungsstile und andere Kontinente kennengelernt. Kurz, wir wissen, wovon wir und worüber Sie sprechen. Die ITB ist nach fünf Tagen schon wieder zu Ende. In wenigen Stunden haben sich neue und alte Geschäftspartner und Freunde wieder auseinander dividiert. hospitalityInside bleibt. Von jedem Computer der Welt aus können Sie sich in diesen neuen Infopool einloggen und verfolgen, was Ihre Kollegen und Geschäftspartner gerade tun. Wir freuen uns, Sie im Kreis der „hospitalityInsider“ willkommen zu heißen! Unsere erste Ausgabe soll Ihnen zeigen, wie und wo wir Schwerpunkte setzen. Noch sind nicht alle Rubriken gefüllt, weil wir Sie nicht mit hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 CONTENT Editorial 3 10 years of HospitalityInside – Thank you! 6 A pool of renowned businesses 8 "World of Hospitality" at ITB 2015 and its co-exhibitors Increasing IT influence 12 ITB Berlin 2015: 190 exhibitors and a lot of innovation 226 speakers and 12,600 attendees 14 10 years ITB Hospitality Day: A global mirror of the colourful hotel world Trends every hour 16 10th ITB Hospitality Day: On track with the big movements In search of sentiment – live und online 18 4th "HospitalityInside Investment Barometer" supported by Union Investment Small, sophisticated, personal 19 B2B fair loop a complete success: Mirror for luxury trends Copy & Paste 20 The next plague: Exchangeable lifestyle brands flood the market Managers searching for truffels 23 4th "Freitagshappen" focused on lifestyle & luxury hotels Budget in a royal dress 24 Motel One Vienna Staatsoper & Ruby Vienna stand for a new competition Yotel is a Mindset 26 Concept being transferred to cities – Robots & more New desire for health 28 Nature, vegan and deep-penetrating ingredients drive well-being trends IMPRINT Publisher: hospitalityInside GmbH, Paul-Lincke-Strasse 20, 86199 Augsburg, Gemany. www.hospitalityInside.com // Editorial office: Maria Puetz- Willems, Editor in chief, hospitalityInside.com // Articles: The articles published in this Special are written on the occasion of ITB 2015 or are extracts of articles published in the online magazine www.hospitalityInside.com // Authors: Romana Kanzian, Maria Puetz-Willems, Susanne Stauss // Cover: © Yotel // Photos were kindly provided by the persons and hotels/companies mentioned, also by Camflight, Bernotat, Fairtrade Deutschland, Christian Mueller Fotolia, Hans-Juergen Krahl Fotolia, Mark f Fotolia, Jonas Wolff Fotolia, ITB Berlin, Maria Pütz-Willems // Advertisements: This Special was supported Messe Berlin, Motel One, Ronnefeldt, Thalgo Cosmetic // Layout: Cornelia Anders, www.blueorangeblue.de // Print: Silber Druck, www.silberdruck.de // Copyright: hospitalityInside GmbH. This content is protected by law. Publishing this content or parts of it in print or online media requires the written permission of hospitalityInside GmbH. In case of violation we will charge current market fees. Beyond, we reserve the right to take legal action and claim damages.

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Hotel, Tourism and Leisure supported by contract textiles contract textiles eCOMMERCE SERVICES MOBILE SOLUTIONS Hotel, Tourism and Leisure eCOMMERCE SERVICES SOLUTIONS hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 THE "WORLD OF HOSPITALITY" AT ITB 2015 AND ITS CO-EXHIBITORS PARTNERS of the „World of Hospitality“ 2015 Below, the partners will introduce themselves in alphabetical order. A pool of renowned businesses MOBILE Berlin. The joint stand "World of Hospitality" at ITB 2015 obtains a new profile with renowned businesses from software and e-commerce, consulting and the hotel industry. It is becoming noticeably clearer that technology/software businesses and IT-based service providers want to show their own colours constantly at the ITB. Log in here! For free. Planning as of Feb 16, 2015. Rendering: fliegendebauten24.de Hotel, Tourism and Leisure HORWATH HTL: is the world’s number one hospitality consulting network. We are the industry choice; a global network offering complete solutions across all markets. At Horwath HTL, we focus one hundred percent on hotels, tourism and leisure. With over two hundred and fifty professionals world wide, our network can draw on a tremendous amount of international experience and local knowledge that gives us, and our clients, a unique advantage. Over the last 20 years, Horwath HTL has gained extensive market knowledge through involvement in thousands of projects. We use this experience to bring the maximum value to any assignment. Horwath HTL has become synonymous with quality, service, impartial advice and expertise. We are known for always providing the highest level of service to our clients. We offer a broad range of advisory solutions that covers the whole cycle of the hotel product, starting with planning and development, on to asset management and operational advice, to transactional and financial restructuring. At any stage, Horwath HTL will add value to your project and ensure that you receive the very best support every step of the way. Whatever your requirements, large or small, national or global, Horwath HTL can help you succeed. http://horwathhtl.com HOSPITALITYINSIDE is the initiator of the joint stand "World of Hospitality" at ITB Berlin. The Augsburg-based company publishes the online magazine www.hospitality- Inside.com, the online trade magazine for the international hotel industry, launched in March 2005. The weekly magazine publishes in two languages (German/English) every Friday, focuses on pure editorial content (no advertisements) and geographically on Continental Europe and the Middle East. Of course, the publication includes all global players of the industry. It’s no newsletter publishing (paid) press releases but a journalistic magazine focusing mainly on own research and background articles. The columns pick up topics like investment, financing, marketing, human resources, technology etc. – everything that keeps a hotel group alive. Readers are spread over more than 20 countries: General Managers, Area Managers, Managing Directors, CEOs, consultants, designers, developers, bankers, investors, leading hotel chains as well as reputable private hotels belong to the "hospitalityInsiders”. Furthermore, the company connects executives of the industries during fairs, workshops, hotel conferences and own events by its grown information network. In the "Network” column at the website you will find announcements and reports about the events and fair activities. Since 2006, hospitalityInside also organizes annual hotel conferences: the "ITB Hospitality Day” at the world’s biggest tourism fair ITB Berlin and since 2008 the "Hospitality Industry Dialogue” at Europe’s leading real estate fair Expo Real in Munich; for both fairs hospitalityInside also initiates hospitality joint stands. www.hospitalityInside.com i-FRONTDESK is a multilingual, mobile concierge for tablets (iOS, Android, Windows8) that provides hotel guests with a whole variety of both internal and external services at any time. i-frontdesk will be introduced not only in hotels without the classical concierge desk but also in those which already have such a service available, but want to significantly reduce its work load. A very intuitive device that allows guests to book an appointment for a massage, order food in their room, or access the wide range of products from the media library, for example, with just one swipe of their finger on the screen of an iPad, a Google Nexus, or a Microsoft Surface. Additionally, information about the opening hours of restaurants or swimming pools can be found within seconds using the device. And there’s more: it allows guests to book concert tickets, city tours, or even a Personal Shopper based on the recommendations of the hotel staff. i-frontdesk is "The concierge at your fingertips". www.i-frontdesk.com contract textiles KOS OBJEKTTEXTILIEN: As a specialist in realizing any kind of customized flame retardant articles the company KOS Contract Textiles has been well known since almost 20 years. While working together with international interior architects, general contractors and interior decorators we have created a high confidence and we established ourselves as a reliable supplier in the textile Hospitality and Health Care market. Plenty of excellent references are attesting our high experience and knowledge of the March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Power napping under a hood 30 Trend: Hotels can benefit from their guests' growing need for sleep Images from a drone 32 Future of Hotel Marketing: How an octocopter and videos can enliven it Travellers want more mobility 34 Future of mobility: The market lags far behind the expectations The standard off-the-shelf is taboo 36 How purchasing companies view trends – Young hoteliers calculate differently Fair is Eco & Social 38 Fairtrade products growing in popularity – New USP for hotel industry PARTNERS 2015 Partners of the joint stand "World of Hospitality“ 2015 are (in alphabetical order): Horwath HTL (consulting firm) hospitalityInside (publishing company), i-FRONTDESK (mobile Concierge), KOS International (object textiles), Macnetix (digital signature and IPTV specialist), Media Carrier (content provider), MIKU (tiles and natural stones), Motel One Group (hotel group), NextGenOpti (software developer), Puetter GmbH (eCommerce consultant)

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eCOMMERCE SERVICES MOBILE SOLUTIONS hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 branch. A fine selection of base-textiles meet the requirements for the most intended uses, as there are flame retardant sheers, decoration and blinding draperies (woven dimouts and coated blackouts), upholsteries, microfiber and artificial leather as well as shower curtain fabrics. Our main focus is the knowledge of developing and producing customized fabrics by meeting all requirements the customer MEDIA CARRIER is specialized in the distribution of digital newspapers and magazines. It is part of the Munich-based Trunk Group, one of the largest independent press wholesalers in Europe. Media Carrier has developed a digital natural stone, showers of glass, ceramic floor and wall tiles or mosaics of any type or form from our own production. You can choose between natural stone, ceramic, glass, and solid-surface materials. Thanks to our expertise, we are able to contribute to the sustainability of any planned measures and avoidance of costs already during the planning phase. Our well-trained tilers are able to lay all our was voted "Kopf des Jahres" (Head of the Year) by Immobilienmanager Magazine in 2014. By 2017, Motel One is planning to expand their portfolio to 70 hotels with approximately 19,300 rooms, of which 20 properties will be outside of Germany. www.motel-one.com Services", as sometimes software solutions alone are not enough. Beyond software support there are always strategic decisions that need competence and today competent revenue & yield managers are a scarce resource. We understand the benefits gained from the basics of data quality and small operational tweaks through hotel market positioning, to advance pricing and optimization strategies. desires. As our most particular ability "we create textiles that comply with the customer’s option and fulfill all qualitative demands". Along with visual appearance and surface-feel we give special attention to quality characteristics such as flame retardant properties, abrasion resistance, light support our service is exactly what our customers expect. More than 2500 realized installations speak their own language, they represent experiences from 15 years and report on projects from all around the world. Our products have continuously been further optimized and survive library which offers digital editions of print media. These digital editions can be downloaded on any mobile device such as smartphones, tablets or laptops without any additional software installation. Based on clients' requirements, Media Carrier buys digital editions of newspapers offered products – from the smallest to the largest – throughout Europe. Hotels as well as residential and nursing homes benefit from our solutions just as office and private buildings. http://miku-natursteine.de http://nextgenopti.com fastness and easy-care performances. In a constant dialogue with our customers the requested features as material, production type (e. g. if woven or printed), design and color-scheme are worked out. Following these will be implemented "in textile". in the market from day one. With editIT/Playit we created a solution that is flexible, which is the requirement of the hotel and catering industry, but also the clinics and rehabilitation centers over grown. Today editIT/playIT is known as a and magazines from publishing houses and composes individual portfolios using its own technical solution for distribution: the "Media Box". Media Carrier already sources and composes tailor-made portfolios for international NEXT GEN OPTI operates the high-end Reservations & Distribution Platform rezNG, which is designed for all possible types of eDistribution, including integrated market intelligence and rate optimization modules. Next Gen Opti also offers the "Tool Box" PUETTER GMBH: based in Cologne, stands 11 This happens within a manageable timeframe and by meeting your budget – for sure! Due to the cooperation with professional interior decoration and sewing-companies not only material sold by meter, but as well ready-made decoration and drapery can be delivered. So the customer gets all from a single source. The full concentration to the international contract market since 1997 distinguishes the company KOS Contract textiles as a renowned specialist in supplying customized textiles of all kinds- even within short time-frames and in line with your budget. www.kos-international.de MACNETIX Since our foundation, our products have proven in the market and inspire largely thanks to the easy-to-use interface, customers in the hotel and gastronomy just as schools, universities, banks or retail. Our support thought corresponds to our own claim of services. Starting with free updates and upgrades, to the 24/7 direct top program on the digital signage market and shows its strengths both through ease of use as well as its stable system structure. To provide our customers with resourcesaving solutions, we use our expertise as a licensed Internet and access provider to offer with openApp.DS and openApp.TV cloud-based software solutions. Macnetix consists of a strong team, builds partnerships and stands as a full service provider to the side of its customers. Projects are also accompanied on their completion and held out both customers and partners through free updates and upgrades on the pulse of time. MArketing – We develop software solutions that are used for sales promotion, so for the marketing area, and are tailored to the needs of the customer. Communication – Communication is not only an essential element in the exchange between people, it is also essential in the exchange between humans and computers. Our products create intelligent solutions for successful communication. NETwork – Networks are more important than ever. For a company, it is also important to find the best partners and integrate them into a strong network. Inter-eXchange – The efficient exchange between humans and computers is our driving force, and the challenge we face. www.macnetix.de airlines, lounges and luxury hotel chains. Amongst others, passengers of Lufthansa, Germanwings and airberlin and hotel guests of the Steigenberger, Mandarin Oriental and Dorint hotel chains already enjoy great benefits of the Media Box. With Media Carrier GmbH as its subsidiary, the Trunk Group is expanding its business to include marketing and distribution of digital content. The Trunk Group not only entailes the Pressevertrieb Trunk press wholesaler, but for example also the News-Log AG, which supplies airports, airlines and catering companies throughout Europe with print media, and is market leader in Germany and Switzerland. www.media-carrier.de MIKU Fliesen und Natursteinhandel GmbH – for 20 years, this name has been a synonym for reliability and quality in consulting, materials and workmanship. Our modern machinery allows us to provide custom designs of any shape and size in excellent quality, be it washstands of MOTEL ONE: The Munich-based company Motel One was founded in 2000 and has currently 48 hotels with over 12,900 rooms across Germany, Austria, UK, Belgium and Czech Republic. Guests as well as industry experts appreciate Motel One's concept of "Great design for little money", combining high service standards, quality materials and great design in prime urban locations. In the One Lounge, which is the breakfast café, living room and bar all in one, a local topic is chosen and reflected in the sophisticated and unique design. Room prices start from as little as 59 Euro. In November 2014 Motel One was awarded the "GRAND PRIX 2014" at the World Wide Hospitality Awards in Paris. The award honoured the innovation power, growth and economic performance of the company. Furthermore Motel One received the award for "Best Budget-Hotel" in Germany from the institution "Deutsches Institut für Service-Qualität” in 2014. The previous year Motel One had already been awarded the "Deutsche Servicepreis 2013" in the category of tourism. Also in the real estate and investment sector, Motel One won various awards. Dieter Müller, CEO Motel One Group, received the "ULI Leadership Award 2013" in the category of real estate business and with a variety of apps helping revenue managers with price recommendations, benchmarking and hotel reputation management. All solutions are easy to deploy, simple to use and ensure full control by the hotel. rezNG can handle today's and tomorrow's requirements for all eDistribution. Next Gen Opti software has been offered to the hospitality industry over the last two decades and has been sold to over 2.000 hotels in more than 20 countries. The company is fully funded with own capital, has no outside investors and owns 100% of all software sold. rezNG is probably the most versatile distribution solution, focusing on hotel direct sales through its bookNG booking engines, meta search integration and in-built marketing options. All this is complemented with uniquely integrated modules for price optimization and market intelligence. From the "Tool Box", highlights are performNG and yieldNG. These two solutions are designed to improve hotel revenue by applying fresh algorithms determining the best selling price based on hotel performance, market patterns and events. performNG furthermore enables hotels with rich reporting and dynamic analysis with a better informed overview. performNG can distribute pricing decisions to any channel. Next Gen Opti also supplies "Managed for quality advice and services in the field of digital and networked communication. The agency is a certified Google Partner and has recently been awarded with the SEO performance certificate for strategy and on-page optimization. It helps companies in the international tourism and hotel industry in digital communication tasks on the objective of the implementation through to performance. The optimization of the direct distribution is thereby the central aspect. An analytical approach with involvement of modern and efficient systems and transparent reporting characterize the operation of the privately owned and service-oriented company. The experienced team, consisting of hotel and online experts, has specialized in different disciplines in the online communication: SEO, SEA, content marketing, e-mail marketing, social media, mobile websites, Google Analytics, online pr and blogger relations. www.puetter-online.de hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 Thank you for 10 years of HospitalityInside Dear hospitalityInsiders, When we announced the start of hospitalityInside.com in the middle of February 2005, only very few believed in the success of a solely editorial online medium without any advertisements. At ITB 2015, our hotel trade magazine will celebrate its 10th anniversary and nobody has copied our model so far: hospitalityInside. com is – just as conceived from the beginning – "online only", published in two languages (German/English) and it refrains from advertisements (except for this marketing Special). Top managers, who are frequent travellers, read our magazine any time at any place, we have readers in more than 20 countries and are able to criticise – objectively and constructively – as we are not controlled by advertising budgets. The readers pay for this sophisticated editorial online information service with their subscriptions. Managing directors and board members, general managers of hotels, heads of staff departments, owners, investors and financiers appreciate the up-to-date variety and editing of topics and news. Even critical words rarely lead to disagreements as we have proved often enough in the meantime that we do not want to harm but convey an objective and constructive picture of the market, its participants and their opinions. Freedom of expression, independence of the press, and the responsibility of all for the community has been the basis for living and the economic activities in our society up to the present day. We are happy to see that a "community" has formed around hospitalityInside in the past 10 years. It accompanies and inspires us. With our magazine, the events and our activities, we would like to bring this network closer together, online as well as offline, provide a platform for good ideas, and enable new cooperations and partnerships in future. We provide transparency. On that account, we will continue each week to reduce the flood of information radically to the essential and broach subjects again as soon as there is a space. We are able to accomplish this with a set of clear rules for professional journalists, who take their readers seriously, listen to them and pick up on their issues. In future, we also wish to think value-oriented and act fairly towards our partners. We are all convinced in the team: it pays off to remain true to these principles. We would like to thank all those sincerely, who have accompanied us in numerous ways! Thank you for 10 years of HospitalityInside!" Publishing & Editorial, Michael Willems & Maria Puetz-Willems 0 1 2 3 4 2005 1st issue published on March 11 2006 Premiere "ITB Hospitality Day", ITB Berlin 2007 2nd "ITB Hospitality Day" 2008 Take-over "Hospitality Industry Dialogue", Expo Real Munich 2009 Premiere networking event "BRICKS & BRAINS" Magazin / Rubriken / Editorial • 02.02.2015 • 9595 • 84 Editorial 11.03.2005 - Willkommen bei hospitalityInside! Liebe User und Leser, der weltweit größte Marktplatz für touristische Informationen – die ITB 2005 Berlin - ist das ideale Umfeld für den Start dieses neuen, grenzüberschreitenden Online-Magazins. Herzlich willkommen bei hospitalityInside! Wir geben der Berichterstattung in der Hotellerie eine neue Perspektive. Warum? Weil wir kein herkömmlicher Newsletter sind, der bestehende Print- Informationen übernimmt und möglichst schnell verbreitet. Wir gehen tiefer. hospitalityInside bietet gleichzeitig Aktualität und Hintergrund. Professionelle Redakteure recherchieren für Sie. Und das auch noch unabhängig von Sponsoren- oder Anzeigenverpflichtungen. Sie dürfen uns vertrauen: Mit hospitalityInside bekommen sie qualifizierten Content. Dank unserer Unabhängigkeit können wir Themen transparent machen, vor denen sich andere scheuen. Das ist Ihre und unsere Chance. In Ihrem Auftrag stellen wir nämlich gerne ungestraft kritische Fragen. Sagen Sie uns, was Sie wissen möchten, wir suchen die Antwort. Als Ihr Fachinformationsdienst mit Wissenswertem aus Hotellerie und Investment, Marketing, Wissenschaft u.v.a. schlagen wir die Brücke von der „Hospitality-Industrie“ zu ihren Geschäftspartnern. Auch das ist neu. hospitalityInside feiert nicht die Branche, sondern diskutiert ihre Themen kritisch und sachlich. Unsere Zielgruppe sind die Top Executives dieser Branche(n). Weil diese reisen und an jedem Platz der Welt aktuelle Informationen benötigen, publizieren wir nur online. Wir sagen Ihnen, wer was wo wann wie und warum macht! Wir sind selbst „inside“. Meine Kollegin Susanne Stauß und ich gehören zu den führenden Hotelfachjournalisten in Deutschland. Seit mehr als 20 Jahren beobachten wir die Branche und ihre internationalen Einflüsse. Wir wissen, dass Trends, die an einem Ende der Welt gesetzt werden, morgen schon am anderen Einfluss nehmen können. Wir haben internationale Führungsstile und andere Kontinente kennengelernt. Kurz, wir wissen, wovon wir und worüber Sie sprechen. Die ITB ist nach fünf Tagen schon wieder zu Ende. In wenigen Stunden haben sich neue und alte Geschäftspartner und Freunde wieder auseinander dividiert. hospitalityInside bleibt. Von jedem Computer der Welt aus können Sie sich in diesen neuen Infopool einloggen und verfolgen, was Ihre Kollegen und Geschäftspartner gerade tun. Wir freuen uns, Sie im Kreis der „hospitalityInsider“ willkommen zu heißen! Unsere erste Ausgabe soll Ihnen zeigen, wie und wo wir Schwerpunkte setzen. Noch sind nicht alle Rubriken gefüllt, weil wir Sie nicht mit http://www.hospitalityinside.com/articles/print-article,editorial-11-03-... HI becomes media partner of Cornell University/CHS + with over 1,000 attendees for the first time + 1st readers trip to Dubai + HI becomes media partner of ITB Asia

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 ITB BERLIN 2015: 190 EXHIBITORS AND A LOT OF INNOVATION Increasing IT influence Berlin. The prospects are excellent for ITB Berlin's 49th edition that will take place from 4 to 8 March 2015. More than 10,000 exhibitors from around 190 countries and regions will be presenting their innovative products and services in the 26 display halls on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. Over 100,000 trade visitors are expected to attend the world’s largest travel trade show in order find out about all the tourism industry’s products and services at this year’s event. The influence of the IT developments can not be overlooked any more. Dr. Martin Buck, director of the Competence Center Travel & Logistics, Messe Berlin: "Due to political and economic events such as the conflict in Ukraine and the financial crisis many destinations around the world are facing new challenges. Against this backdrop ITB Berlin has become an important networking platform and marketing instrument for exhibitors and trade visitors. As the world’s leading travel trade show it accurately reflects economic developments in this sector." Demand for places from the Arab states has been extremely high and unable to be fulfilled in every case. Halls 5.2a and 5.2b were booked up at an early stage. India is among the countries occupying an entire hall again. Afghanistan is making its return to ITB Berlin. Bangladesh and Gilgit-Baltistan, a hiking destination in Pakistan, are newcomers to the show. Iran is becoming increasing popular as a tourism destination and for the first time has its own Hall (7.2a). As in 2013 at ITB Berlin, Asian countries are well represented in the display halls, with the exception of Russia which has reported a few cancellations due to the weak rouble. The Central Asian countries (previously in Hall 7.2a) have now moved to Hall 2.1, alongside Russia and the USA. Brazil and Argentina, where tourism is booming, are increasingly making their way onto the market and this year are represented in larger numbers than at any previous ITB Berlin. Brazil can be found in three separate locations: in Hall 4.1 (Eco Tourism, Adventure Travel), Hall 3.1 (LGBT) and with a large combined national display in Hall 1.1. Visitors can find out more about Argentina on the country’s stand in Hall 1.1 as well as in the LGBT section in Hall 3.1. Exhibitors from Africa are also strongly represented in all areas at the fair. The Turkish Village is a newcomer to Hall 3.1, where tourist boards, tour operators (including first-time exhibitors novissima Touristic, Suay Tour and Afrodit Tour) as well as those representing the culture and wellness segments are gathered under one roof. Poland has a new stand concept and in Hall 15.1 is exhibiting a concentrated display of its new products. Newcomer and new concepts Around 45 exhibitors are representing the Netherlands at ITB Berlin in Hall 10.2 on a display area covering 280 square metres, larger than in any previous year. The Benelux countries can be found as one group in Hall 10.2, with Belgium, Flanders, the Netherlands, and for the first time Luxembourg, which was previously in Hall 18. Italy is exhibiting the entire range of its tourism products in Hall 1.2 where, on a display are covering 700 square metres, ENIT is represented with numerous Italian regions and exhibitors. Hall 14.1 has been completely reorganized. This is where hotels, car hire companies, tour operators and many other companies from Berlin are showcasing their latest This year, the Travel Technology segment records over 170 companies, of which 30 are new. products. Hall 9, which features hotels, is all the more attractive now that, following an absence, the premium brands Hilton and Hyatt are returning to ITB Berlin. Hall 8.1 welcomes a newcomer, Meeting Masters, one of Germany’s leading MICE portals, as does Hall 18, where Lidl-Reisen is represented. Verband der Fährschifffahrt, Warner Brothers und Greenland Travel are now back at the show. Hall 11.1 focuses on careers in tourism, and with 40 exhibitors from eight countries now has an even more international appeal. Germany's National Job Centre is operating a central placement service for jobs abroad. Emirates Academy, hoteleducation.ch and Sixt are newcomers to the show and are advising job seekers in their role as employers. Travel Technology: the driving innovative force Travel technology can now be found everywhere in the global travel market. Be it back or front offices, computer-aided custom marketing services or hotel software and booking platforms, it now extends far beyond social media and mobile travel ser- vices. ITB Berlin 2015 reflects the rapid pace of these developments. At the world’s leading travel trade show Travel Technology has become one of the biggest and fastest-growing segments, attracting exhibitors from all over the world. Over 170 companies, including around 30 newcomers, will be showcasing their innovations and products on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. Among those exhibiting for the first time are Baidu, a search engine from China as large as Google, and Qunar, one of the country’s biggest booking platforms. In particular, the Travel Technology segment is attracting a growing number of international exhibitors. In addition to companies from China, others from the UK (Intuitive Systems, Hotel Room Auction), Finland (Frosmo), India (Travel BPO, Moxiter), France (Flatswire) and Turkey (Yield Planet) have also secured display areas at the show. Furthermore, a number of Italian travel startups will be occupying a combined display under the heading of 'Start VISIT US! HALL 9, BOOTH 109 WORLD OF HOSPITALITY Up Italia'. In the age of the digital revolution there is now an increasing demand for web-based tools, across industries and individual sectors alike. In order to meet the growing need for information ITB Berlin is collaborating with tools – Expo and Conference. Taking as its slogan "working webbased in tourism" the tools Lounge will be showcasing web-based products that target tourism market professionals and show how business processes can be successfully digitized and automated. tools exclusively exhibits web-based business solutions and from 16 to 17 June 2015 will be taking place for the second time on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. For more information about tools please visit www.tools-berlin.com. New: ITB Innovators The eTravel World is another attraction at the show. As part of the supporting programme, papers and workshops will be taking place on two stages. The range of forum events includes an introduction to Travel Tech, panel discussions on social GREAT DESIGN FOR LITTLE MONEY! More information and contact details: media, papers on current developments in the markets of Asia and South America, as well as an ’Innovators’ Panel’ that includes brief pitches on the topic of apps. With ITB Innovators this year's ITB Berlin is again showcasing innovative and practical travel industry products and is keeping track of the latest innovations. These innovative products can be viewed on the website at www.itb-kongress.de/en/ITBBerlinConvention/ITBConvention365/ITBInnovators and can be reviewed as well. ITB visitors can find out more about unique products that make travelling easier by coming to Hall 7.1b. On 6 March 2015 at 4:45 p.m. at the ITB Berlin Convention a presentation will take place of the innovations which received the most votes in the 'London' Room in Hall 7.1b. / kn Advertisement 3114-15MO_AZ_ITB_185x128_RZ.indd 1 02.02.15 18:00 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 10 years HospitalityInside in figures 1 issue per week (Friday) 5 staff members at the publishing base in Augsburg 6 translators and graphic designers 8 joint stands organized (ITB + Expo Real) 9 heads producing one issue 10 years to celebrate at ITB 2015 11 editorial experts / content advisors 15 regular authors in 6 countries 17 hotel conferences organized (ITB + Expo Real) 482 issues in 10 years 1,000 sceptics at the start 8,000 articles in 10 years (in one language) 1,000,000 ideas for the future The HospitalityInside team 2015: Managing Director Michael Willems, (from left) Editor-in-Chief Maria Puetz-Willems, Anne-Laure Duval (Sales & Marketing), Anne Greisel (Administration, Fairs & Events), and (sitting) Christine Tassinger (Editorial office, conferences). 2015 We still have great plans! 5 6 7 8 9 2010 5 years hospitalityInside 2011 Premiere joint stand "World of Hospitality" at Expo Real 2012 Premiere joint stand "X-PERTS Lounge" at ITB 2013 Premiere Get- Together "Investment Kitchen" at Kempinski Vier Jahreszeiten 2014 Start "hospitality- Inside Investment BAROMETER" + 1st hospitality- Inside SPECIAL ITB + 1st hospitality- Inside SPECIAL Expo Real + Premiere talk round "Freitagshappen" with Nassauer Hof, Wiesbaden supported by Union Investment

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 10 YEARS ITB HOSPITALITY DAY: A GLOBAL MIRROR OF THE COLOURFUL HOTEL WORLD 226 speakers and 12,600 attendees 2006–2008 2006–2008 Selection of our many guest speakers and panelists since 2006 – of the industry's "Movers & Shakers" (from left): speaker's desk for the opening 2006 + moderator Maria Puetz-Willems; Panel with Claus Sendlinger/Design Hotels, Sir Rocco Forte/Rocco Forte Hotels, Simon Cooper/The Ritz-Carlton Hotels – and the gentlemen exchanging business cards in the speakers' room; Audience 2007: over 1,000 attendees for the first time; Reto Wittwer/Kempinski Hotels; Philippe Weyland/Motel One; hospitalityInside info corner; Panel with Joe Strodel/Cornell University, Dr. Christoph Juen/hotelleriesuisse, Christopher Norton/Four Seasons, Andreas Pflaum/Pflaums Posthotel Pegnitz, Peter O'Connor/Essec Business School Paris; Panel with Benjamin Ploppa/ Deloitte, Martina Fidlschuster/Hotour, Carsten Rath/Arabella Int.; Prof Dr. Monika Echtermeyer/Bad Honnef University. 2009–2010 2009–2010 Karl Pojer/TUI Hotels; Prof. Dr. Christian Buer/Heilbronn University; Michael Ball/Worldhotels; Erich Falkensteiner/Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism speakers' room; Scott Woroch/Four Seasons; Guy Dittrich (journalist); Panel with Wolfgang Neumann/ArabellaStarwood Hotels, David Fattal/Fattal Group; Gerald Lawless/Jumeirah; Andrew Cosslett/InterContinental Hotels Group & Ed Fuller/Marriott; Samih Sawiris/Orascom; Preparations in the Group, Matthias Schroeder/auditor; info table for ITB Convention in the halls; Wybcke Meier/Oeger Tours. 2011–2013 2011–2013 Müller/Motel One; Siradej Donavanik & Daniel Mueller in the speakers' room; Siradej Donavanik & Chanin Donavanik/Dusit Hotels; Hall 7.1b/audito- gren/Sextantio Group; Katharina Jaeger/Student EHL, Adrian Ruch/Student EHL, Ingrid Eras/Starwood Hotels, Reto Candrian/Suvretta Haus St. Moritz. Panel with Reto Wittwer/Kempinski Hotels & Christian Windfuhr/Grand City Hotels; Tobias Ragge/HRS; Thomas Willms/Starwood Hotels; Dieter & Daniel rium London; Maria Puetz-Willems; Claus Sendlinger/Design Hotels; Christoph Hoffmann/25hours Hotels, Loh Lik Peng/Unlisted Collection; Daniele Kihl- 2014 Bernhard Bohnenberger/Six Senses, Maria Puetz-Willems & Ross Harding/Finding Infinity; Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Arlt/China Outbound Tourism Research; Darren Gearing/Shangri-La Hotels; Tom Breckwoldt/TripAdvisor; Michael Buller/VIR-Verband Internet-Vertrieb; Benjamin Jost/TrustYou; Carolin Brauer/ Quality Reservations; Christopher Oster/Wimdu, Thomas Allemann/hotelleriesuisse. Hotel, Tourism and Leisure supported by contract textiles Log in here! For free. contract textiles eCOMMERCE SERVICES MOBILE SOLUTIONS Hotel, Tourism and Leisure eCOMMERCE SERVICES SOLUTIONS hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 THE "WORLD OF HOSPITALITY" AT ITB 2015 AND ITS CO-EXHIBITORS A pool of renowned businesses Berlin. The joint stand "World of Hospitality" at ITB 2015 obtains a new profile with renowned businesses from software and e-commerce, consulting and the hotel industry. It is becoming noticeably clearer that technology/software businesses and IT-based service providers want to show their own colours constantly at the ITB. MOBILE Planning as of Feb 16, 2015. Rendering: fliegendebauten24.de

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 10TH ITB HOSPITALITY DAY: ON TRACK WITH THE BIG MOVEMENTS Trends every hour THE PANELISTS (selection) Berlin. 880 trade show visitors attended the talk rounds of the first "ITB Hospitality Day" in 2006 and there have been 12,600 in total until this year: The hotel conference of the ITB takes place this year for the 10th time. In the meantime, it has developed a leading position in the extremely comprehensive programme of the trade fair. Hotels have simply remained sexy. The buzz words of the "ITB Hospitality Day" on Thursday, March 5, 2015 in Hall 7.1b/London auditorium: Cyber Attacks, Sharing Economy, Luxury & Lifestyle and Budget & Lifestyle, Digitalisation or Values and Internet Distribution. 10.30-11.30 h "Check Out – Hack In": Demonstration And Live Presentation Of Cyber-Attacks". How to steal customer data, copy magnetic cards and break into video conference systems. Two security professionals demonstrate security traps for the hotel industry. Speakers: Stefan Hölzner, Senior Manager, KPMG Security Consulting Dr. Florian Kohlar, Assistant Manager, KPMG Security Consulting 11.45-12.45 h Sharing Economy: What Can The Hotel Industry Learn From The New Trends, And How Can It Benefit? A search for new opportunities. Moderated by: Hans-Juergen Klesse, Editor, Wirtschaftswoche Panel guests: Marcus Bernhardt, Group Chief Commercial Officer & Member of the Executive Board, Europcar Michael Hartmann, Senior Executive Advisor, Executive Board, Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne Marco Nussbaum, Chief Enabling Officer, prizeotel Robert Wissmath, Managing Director, DICON Marketing and Consulting 13.00-14.00 Luxury & Lifestyle, Budget & Lifestyle: A Global Attitude Toward Life Turns The Conventional Hotel Industry Model Upside Down. How can a hotel find its (new) position in these times when everything is in flux? Moderated by: Claudia Roth, Advisor for Luxury Brands & Managing Partner, Totally Indispensable Panel guests: Emile Bootsma, Managing Director, Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin Dina Soliman, Director Brand Management Europe, InterContinental Hotel Group Michael Struck, Chief Executive Officer, Ruby Hotels 14.15-15.15 h CEO Panel: Design Flashes, Digitalization Or Sustainable Values? In which direction are hotels drifting, What do guests want? Moderated by: Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor in Chief, hospitalityInside.com Panel guests: Gesine Haag, Digital „ITB Hospitality Day“ – LIVE Stream under www.techcast.com/ events/itb/en Entrepreneur & Founder, barefoot living Hubert Viriot, CEO, YOTEL 15.30-16.30 h IT Takes Over Hotel Industry: How Software And Internet Distributors Are Shaking Up The Industry. While hotel managers are still arguing about commissions, behind the scene online distributors are engaged in an entirely different struggle. Moderated by: Wilhelm Konrad Weber, Partner, Swiss Hospitality Solutions Panel guests: Vassilis Syropoulos, Founder & Director, Juyo Analytics Peter Verhoeven, Managing Director EMEA, Booking.com Brannon Winn, Vice President Business Development EMEA, Sabre Hospitality Solutions Luis del Olmo, EVP Group Marketing & Asia Pacific, Meliá Hotels International and Executive Chairman, IDISO From left: Marcus Bernhardt, Emile Bootsma, Gesine Haag, Luis del Olmo, Stefan Hoelzner, Marco Nussbaum. Marcus Bernhardt, Chief Commercial Officer and Member of the Executive Board at Europcar Group. He held the position of COO in Radisson SAS Hotels & Resorts as well as the position of COO and CCO in Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts. In 2010, he was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Services Officer (CSO), member of the Executive Board, at Gulf Air in Bahrain. Emile Bootsma already managed several prestigious Kempinski Hotels such as Vier Jahreszeiten Munich, Beijing Lufthansa Center and Corvinus Budapest. Previously, he has been responsible for Food & Beverage operations at ArabellaStarwoood Hotels in Cape Town and Munich. He has led the Kempinski flagship in Berlin since September 2014. Gesine Haag has long experience in developing brands in the internet. Besides working for various companies such as amazon.com, match.com, etc. she has great insights into the travel business such as Thomas Cook, Neckermann Travel etc. Her newly founded company Barefoot Living offers barefoot luxury – everything for a relaxed time and feeling good. Luis del Olmo has recently been appointed to Executive Chairman of Idiso S. A., a Melia Joint Venture in Hotel Technology and Distribution Marketing. Before joining Meliá Hotels International, Luis was involved in the areas of Operations, Sales and Marketing of Holiday Inn (IHG) in Europe, Middle East and Africa and part of the opening team of Disneyland Paris. Stefan Hoelzner leads the German KPMG Security Testing team. He is an expert for the technical hardening of IT systems and processes against unauthorized data access and the defense against IT espionage. He focuses on securing IT infrastructure, systems and applications from internet attacks and the protection of internal systems against abusive and unauthorized access to critical corporate data. Marco Nussbaum, Chief Enabling Officer of prizeotel, a young and unconventional budget design Claudia Roth, Peter Verhoeven, Hubert Viriot. group in Germany. He was working for Astron Hotels, in his final position as a member of the board in charge for Sales & Marketing. After NH Hoteles took over Astron, he was also responsible for the rebranding process. His last stop was with Ramada Hotels. Claudia Roth today is Managing Partner at Totally Indispensable, a service provider creating cultures of service excellence for global luxury brands. Previously, she worked for global brands of excellence, including IHG, Hilton, Shangri-La, Kempinski – and lately for The Leading Hotels of the World as Vice President Europe, Middle East & Africa. Peter Verhoeven, since July 2014 Managing Director Europe, Middle East and Africa of Booking.com. He began his career in operational positions at Golden Tulip and Gran Dorado. After ten years at Disneyland Paris in senior leadership roles, he joined Avis UK as Group Director of Sales for EMEA. In 2007, he began with Accor Hospitality as Managing Director in the Netherlands. In 2009, he took over the position of COO of Accor Hospitality Germany. In 2014, he moved to Paris to become the new CEO Hotel- Services Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. Hubert Viriot, Chief Executive of YOTEL. He joined the lifestyle hotel group in May 2014 to roll out an aggressive growth strategy. Prior to this, he was Chief Executive Officer of Raimon Land, a leading real estate developer in Thailand. Previously, Hubert spent 5 years with the global consulting firm HVS. March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 PARTNERS of the „World of Hospitality“ 2015 Below, the partners will introduce themselves in alphabetical order. Hotel, Tourism and Leisure HORWATH HTL: is the world’s number one hospitality consulting network. We are the industry choice; a global network offering complete solutions across all markets. At Horwath HTL, we focus one hundred percent on hotels, tourism and leisure. With over two hundred and fifty professionals world wide, our network can draw on a tremendous amount of international experience and local knowledge that gives us, and our clients, a unique advantage. Over the last 20 years, Horwath HTL has gained extensive market knowledge through involvement in thousands of projects. We use this experience to bring the maximum value to any assignment. Horwath HTL has become synonymous with quality, service, impartial advice and expertise. We are known for always providing the highest level of service to our clients. We offer a broad range of advisory solutions that covers the whole cycle of the hotel product, starting with planning and development, on to asset management and operational advice, to transactional and financial restructuring. At any stage, Horwath HTL will add value to your project and ensure that you receive the very best support every step of the way. Whatever your requirements, large or small, national or global, Horwath HTL can help you succeed. http://horwathhtl.com HOSPITALITYINSIDE is the initiator of the joint stand "World of Hospitality" at ITB Berlin. The Augsburg-based company publishes the online magazine www.hospitality- Inside.com, the online trade magazine for the international hotel industry, launched in March 2005. The weekly magazine publishes in two languages (German/English) every Friday, focuses on pure editorial content (no advertisements) and geographically on Continental Europe and the Middle East. Of course, the publication includes all global players of the industry. It’s no newsletter publishing (paid) press releases but a journalistic magazine focusing mainly on own research and background articles. The columns pick up topics like investment, financing, marketing, human resources, technology etc. – everything that keeps a hotel group alive. Readers are spread over more than 20 countries: General Managers, Area Managers, Managing Directors, CEOs, consultants, designers, developers, bankers, investors, leading hotel chains as well as reputable private hotels belong to the "hospitalityInsiders”. Furthermore, the company connects executives of the industries during fairs, workshops, hotel conferences and own events by its grown information network. In the "Network” column at the website you will find announcements and reports about the events and fair activities. Since 2006, hospitalityInside also organizes annual hotel conferences: the "ITB Hospitality Day” at the world’s biggest tourism fair ITB Berlin and since 2008 the "Hospitality Industry Dialogue” at Europe’s leading real estate fair Expo Real in Munich; for both fairs hospitalityInside also initiates hospitality joint stands. www.hospitalityInside.com i-FRONTDESK is a multilingual, mobile concierge for tablets (iOS, Android, Windows8) that provides hotel guests with a whole variety of both internal and external services at any time. i-frontdesk will be introduced not only in hotels without the classical concierge desk but also in those which already have such a service available, but want to significantly reduce its work load. A very intuitive device that allows guests to book an appointment for a massage, order food in their room, or access the wide range of products from the media library, for example, with just one swipe of their finger on the screen of an iPad, a Google Nexus, or a Microsoft Surface. Additionally, information about the opening hours of restaurants or swimming pools can be found within seconds using the device. And there’s more: it allows guests to book concert tickets, city tours, or even a Personal Shopper based on the recommendations of the hotel staff. i-frontdesk is "The concierge at your fingertips". www.i-frontdesk.com contract textiles KOS OBJEKTTEXTILIEN: As a specialist in realizing any kind of customized flame retardant articles the company KOS Contract Textiles has been well known since almost 20 years. While working together with international interior architects, general contractors and interior decorators we have created a high confidence and we established ourselves as a reliable supplier in the textile Hospitality and Health Care market. Plenty of excellent references are attesting our high experience and knowledge of the

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 + Ongoing hospitalityInside surveys +++ Media partnerships +++ Ongoing hospitalityInside surveys +++ Media partnerships +++ Ongoing hospitalityInside surveys +++ Media partnerships +++ Ongoing hospitalityInside surveys +++ Media pa 4TH “HOSPITALITYINSIDE INVESTMENT BAROMETER” SUPPORTED BY UNION INVESTMENT In search of sentiment – live and online Augsburg/Hamburg. Your opinion is important! hospitalityInside and Union Investment are inviting hotel experts to participate in their spring survey: it will only take two minutes and a few clicks to tell us your opinion on how the hotel real estate market can develop further... The hotel market is booming. Therefore, the 4th “Investment Baromter” is asking about yields, amongst other things. All those who participate live at stand 109 in hall 9 at the ITB 2015 or online at www.hospitalityInside.com will receive all results. B2B FAIR LOOP A COMPLETE SUCCESS: MIRROR FOR LUXURY TRENDS Small, sophisticated, personal Frankfurt/M. The ILTM in Cannes is considered a hot spot for B2B in the international luxury business; last year though ‘loop’ (“luxury on our planet”) set a new emphasis as the first B2B luxury trade fair in Frankfurt for the important Germany, Austria and Switzerland source market. In conversations with hoteliers from 31 countries as well as with hosted buyers from 12 countries, hospitalityInside.com also got a feel for what well-heeled guests are looking for and how hotels are looking to benefit. The second loop this year will start again right after ITB from 9-11 March 2015 – a second time at Kempinski Hotel Gravenbruch in Frankfurt. hospitalityInside.com will also accompany the event again as a media partner. Last year, 70 hotel representatives met 70 boutique hotels under private ownership, clients. Its leisure clients include many pent-up purchasers. In 15-minute intervals, they switched business partners. Relais & Châteaux and Leading Hotels) all guests ask for everything, in particular tra- consortium hotels (e.g. Design Hotels, demanding individual travellers. “Our The result was as challenging as it was efficient, as both parties admitted. The sales Kerzner, Sofitel, Six Senses, Virgin Limited For this reason, he invested two days in the the way to renowned brand hotels (e.g. vellers from the US demand a lot,” he said. Tourism is booming: according to Log in! At the ITB stand or online – 5 questions with only a few clicks in multiple- HAVE TO DO WITH HOTEL professionals generally found this quarter of Edition). The range of tour operators/travel Loop circle in order to make contacts to WHAT DOES TOURISM UNWTO, the number of overnight stays was 1.138 billion last year! And choice mode... PROPERTIES? an hour enough to find out whether the agents and individual buyers was also destination agencies. the outlook is still bright... This also leads to offer was attractive or whether the wishes broad – from Thomas Cook to Lufthansa The atmosphere at the conference hotel, the People who travel also need a place to an increasing demand for (new) hotels. The survey at ITB 2015 Berlin takes place of their interlocutor were capable of being City Center travel agents as well as niche Kempinski Gravenbruch near Frankfurt, was 19 Therefore, hotel investors are looking for at the joint stand “World of Hospitality” in operators and individual purchasers. profitable hotel markets and expansionkeen hotel groups. specific survey terminal. Hall 9/Stand 109. There, you will find a Trust decides – on all sides hospitalityInside.com and Union Investment are jointly tracing this sentiment. The hotel trade magazine and Germany’s leading investment company with a focus on hotels want to catch this sentiment in concrete terms... The last and 3rd “Investment BAROMETER” at the turn of the year 2014/15 showed clearly: investors, owners, and project developers, amongst others, saw the current offer as a positive effect for their own businesses and are even expecting stimulation in their pipelines in the next six months – which implies even more offers for new hotels. Therefore, the new survey for the first half of 2015 poses specific follow-up questions: 1. In which direction are European hotel investment markets tending in the next 6-12 months or in the next 24-48 months respectively? 2. The demand on the hotel investment markets remains high. Which are your business investment strategies in response to this pricing pressure? In order to participate in the online survey, please follow the link at www.hospitalityInside.com. We are looking forward to your opinion! All survey participants will obtain all details and analyses as a PDF document in a personal eMail later on. Parts of the survey results will be published in hospitalityInside’s magazine. People interested in the survey will be able to find a summarizing graph under “Market Check” on the website. The 2nd “Investment BAROMETER” confirmed the hotel real estate market’s overall good sentiment in the first quarter of 2014. The respondents expressed the following: Currently, yield reflections are driving the investments in hotels, followed by diversification and security aspects. In the first survey, which was related to the fourth quarter of 2013, the survey’s participants professed that core properties are in very high demand. And, in specific terms, Aparthotels and Serviced Apartments were attested to have the largest potential to become an investment product. / map sleep! The hotel industry is a large pillar in the tourist business; its services have a great influence on the travellers’ satisfaction with their holidays. Therefore, hotel operators are always competing with new concepts to win over more demanding customers. Currently, new, slim, and smart lifestyle hotels are flooding the market – all over the globe. However, the chains are only “leaseholders”, the hotel properties belong to third parties. Today, these might be affluent private individuals as well as funds or insurances, for example. A growing number of these investor types have become enthused with hotels in the meantime. They are able to conclude long-term agreements with one hotel operator, for example; this means, they communicate with only one “leaseholder” for 15 to 20 years – which makes life much easier compared to residential or commercial properties, where leaseholders change far more frequently. Now, investors, just like hotel operators, are intent upon being represented in growth markets or at promising locations. The property has to fit the hotel concept and vice versa. The better these two harmonise, the more successful the hotel. In order to achieve this, both parties have to make many small adjustments to the parameters as competition is great and the customers are demanding. Therefore, hotel investors are posing the same questions as other investors do: how much will my yield be, in which hotel segment should I invest, which locations are stable, which countries and tourist regions will have enough potential for the next 20 years? The answers to these questions are very exciting. / map fulfilled. Motives for taking part at the Loop premier differed greatly: Joseph Dajana, Sales Manager from Dolder Grand in Zurich, expected new contacts “in this very difficult German market”, for Xavier Echeverria from the tour operator Latin Trails from Ecuador, Loop was an appealing follow-on to the ITB in Berlin, for Daria Nykyforova and Galina Martynyuk from the design hotel 11Mirrors in Kiev, it was a glimmer of hope in these politically turbulent days around the annexation of Crimea, and for Séverine Montoni from the luxury hotel Les Suites in the French Courchevel, Loop provided a forum for detailed explanations for personal USPs... The participating hotels ranged from small Kick-off for the big loop closing party 2014, at Kameha Suites Frankfurt. “For our clients, the destination is of primary interest, then the hotel” Steven Becher reported, Junior Product Manager of Thomas Cook Selection, which brings together the travel agent’s luxury hotels. “The decision per booking is ultimately taken by the person in the hotel,” he said on the fringe of the event. For this reason, he was looking for trustworthy hotel sales managers. After all, no travel agent tests every hotel for its wealthy clients. Stefan Laubner, owner of the travel agency Mannheimer Hof, a Lufthansa City Center partner, has just as many business as leisure relaxed and personal from the very beginning. It was also the first large event in the newly refurbished and elegant banquet hall of the luxury hotel. Lobster Experience, the organiser of the new B2B trade fair, underlined the personal nature of the event by sending its team members dressed casually in jeans and Loop shirts; their job also included ensuring that each person complied with the rotation principle. This got conversations going right from the very start and these continued without further prompting into the breaks and over lunch among the 140 persons taking part. Loop to take place annually Astrid Oberhummer and Andreas Mueller, Managing Directors of Lobster Group, are pleased with the success of their loop premier: “There is, meanwhile, a strong sales market for luxury travel, but no corresponding platform on the German-speaking market on which providers and sellers can meet and exchange ideas on developments, trends or business relationships. For this reason, we have developed this concept to fill perfectly the gap.” (www.lobsterexperience.com and www.little-lobster. com). / Maria Puetz-Willems Extract of hospitalityInside, March 21, 2014. SAVE THE DATE! loop 2015, March 9-11, 2015 Kempinski Gravenbruch Frankfurt hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 branch. A fine selection of base-textiles meet the requirements for the most intended uses, as there are flame retardant sheers, decoration and blinding draperies (woven dimouts and coated blackouts), upholsteries, microfiber and artificial leather as well as shower curtain fabrics. Our main focus is the knowledge of developing and producing customized fabrics by meeting all requirements the customer desires. As our most particular ability "we create textiles that comply with the customer’s option and fulfill all qualitative demands". Along with visual appearance and surface-feel we give special attention to quality characteristics such as flame retardant properties, abrasion resistance, light fastness and easy-care performances. In a constant dialogue with our customers the requested features as material, production type (e. g. if woven or printed), design and color-scheme are worked out. Following these will be implemented "in textile". This happens within a manageable timeframe and by meeting your budget – for sure! Due to the cooperation with professional interior decoration and sewing-companies not only material sold by meter, but as well ready-made decoration and drapery can be delivered. So the customer gets all from a single source. The full concentration to the international contract market since 1997 distinguishes the company KOS Contract textiles as a renowned specialist in supplying customized textiles of all kinds- even within short time-frames and in line with your budget. www.kos-international.de MACNETIX Since our foundation, our products have proven in the market and inspire largely thanks to the easy-to-use interface, customers in the hotel and gastronomy just as schools, universities, banks or retail. Our support thought corresponds to our own claim of services. Starting with free updates and upgrades, to the 24/7 direct support our service is exactly what our customers expect. More than 2500 realized installations speak their own language, they represent experiences from 15 years and report on projects from all around the world. Our products have continuously been further optimized and survive in the market from day one. With editIT/Playit we created a solution that is flexible, which is the requirement of the hotel and catering industry, but also the clinics and rehabilitation centers over grown. Today editIT/playIT is known as a top program on the digital signage market and shows its strengths both through ease of use as well as its stable system structure. To provide our customers with resourcesaving solutions, we use our expertise as a licensed Internet and access provider to offer with openApp.DS and openApp.TV cloud-based software solutions. Macnetix consists of a strong team, builds partnerships and stands as a full service provider to the side of its customers. Projects are also accompanied on their completion and held out both customers and partners through free updates and upgrades on the pulse of time. MArketing – We develop software solutions that are used for sales promotion, so for the marketing area, and are tailored to the needs of the customer. Communication – Communication is not only an essential element in the exchange between people, it is also essential in the exchange between humans and computers. Our products create intelligent solutions for successful communication. NETwork – Networks are more important than ever. For a company, it is also important to find the best partners and integrate them into a strong network. Inter-eXchange – The efficient exchange between humans and computers is our driving force, and the challenge we face. www.macnetix.de MEDIA CARRIER is specialized in the distribution of digital newspapers and magazines. It is part of the Munich-based Trunk Group, one of the largest independent press wholesalers in Europe. Media Carrier has developed a digital library which offers digital editions of print media. These digital editions can be downloaded on any mobile device such as smartphones, tablets or laptops without any additional software installation. Based on clients' requirements, Media Carrier buys digital editions of newspapers and magazines from publishing houses and composes individual portfolios using its own technical solution for distribution: the "Media Box". Media Carrier already sources and composes tailor-made portfolios for international airlines, lounges and luxury hotel chains. Amongst others, passengers of Lufthansa, Germanwings and airberlin and hotel guests of the Steigenberger, Mandarin Oriental and Dorint hotel chains already enjoy great benefits of the Media Box. With Media Carrier GmbH as its subsidiary, the Trunk Group is expanding its business to include marketing and distribution of digital content. The Trunk Group not only entailes the Pressevertrieb Trunk press wholesaler, but for example also the News-Log AG, which supplies airports, airlines and catering companies throughout Europe with print media, and is market leader in Germany and Switzerland. www.media-carrier.de MIKU Fliesen und Natursteinhandel GmbH – for 20 years, this name has been a synonym for reliability and quality in consulting, materials and workmanship. Our modern machinery allows us to provide custom designs of any shape and size in excellent quality, be it washstands of

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 Dear Readers, In this magazine, we focus on the content of the „ITB THE NEXT PLAGUE: EXCHANGEABLE LIFESTYLE BRANDS FLOOD THE MARKET Copy & Paste Lifestyle hotels are in – and have been for quite a time now. But in the meantime, it has changed, as always: The creative kick comes from the private ones, the chains simply create a multipliable product off the rack. Will the mass labels be able to take up the successes of the originals or Wiesbaden. Everybody is longing for lifestyle. It sounds like a fun, comfortable, and fashionable life – and the hotel is the perfect stage for it. Moreover, the term is wonderfully vague and can be adapted to any lifestyle mood in any country. This is probably the reason why the chains are now flooding the market with new labels in increasingly shorter intervals. In reality, they do not provide much individualism but empty, interchangeable catchwords instead. Our comparison shows: The creativity of the inventors of lifestyle brands can be reduced in brief to "copy & paste". And everything started so honestly once. do they only have one goal in the end – to become fashionably leaner in order to save costs in the background? To some insiders, the lifestyle wave seems like déjà-vu. Was it not the same with the design hotels? 25 years ago, Ian Schrager was able win over Philippe Starck for the new design of the Paramount in New York; 22 years ago, the German Claus Sendlinger developed the idea of design hotels and thus created the brand Design Hotels. He recognised the marketing power of this segment very quickly and the chains immediately pounced on it – with fashion desig- ners and designers including Bvlgari, Armani and Missoni. Today, it is not always easy to recognise a real Design Hotel among all the other design hotels at first glance: not because the copies are so good, but because there are too many copies. Today, Design Hotels is a subsidiary brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts. There are tangible economical reasons for this as well as a spiritual kinship between these two: In 1998, Starwood invented the W brand – in order to strike out new paths through the combination of design, fashion, music and entertainment, similar to Claus Sendlinger's progressive way of thinking in 1993. Starwood's ambition is to create a "balance between style and substance" everywhere... an appropriate description in the brand's portrait of W. Nobody wants to do without lifestyle At first, many hotels belittled the new competitors, but then they started thinking about fashionable brands of their own (Bvlgari by Ritz-Carlton, Missoni by Rezidor (no more alive), ME by Mélia, Indigo by IHG, etc.), or they started clearing out their existing ones and spiced them up (Holiday Inn, ibis, H2, H4 or H+ Hotels by Hospitality Alliance). Others (Marriott, Hilton, Jumeirah) announced new lifestyle brands over many years, but their development took a long time coming. In the meantime, Marriott has developed a Moxy, Hilton a Canopy, Rezidor a Radisson Red, Jumeirah a Venu, Hyatt a Centric and even Steigenberger is talking about a new brand… but are these "new" concepts really able to keep what they promise in their fullbodied and sometimes rather mysterious messages? And does the creation of constantly new brands make sense at all? USP lags behind The value of a brand is defined by its clear profile. Business students learn this principle danger of becoming old-fashioned," he explained in December 2014 during an interview with hospitalityInside.com. There is a question mark behind the high expectations of the chains and their franchisees. One reason: From a historical viewpoint, lifestyle concepts are (almost) outdated and are therefore at risk becoming exchangeable again. Lobby lounges for chilling, eating and working, grab&go Since W, the lifestyle wave has been rolling around the globe in nearly every country. in their very first semester at university. And food, rooms without cupboards, bathrooms Starting in Amsterdam, citizenM trigge- successful hoteliers, regardless if they are with rainforest showers, free Wi-Fi – where 21 red the first accents of a new generation, from private hotels or a chain, take this nearly at the same time as Yotel; Starwood approach to heart. Those who create created the cheaper W sister Aloft (perfectly brands mostly fill in a market gap. But marketed with the slogan "with the brands become endangered when they DNA of W"); in Germany, Motel One followed become commodity. And this is exactly as low budget design chain, 25hours what has happened to many hotel groups hotels as atypical theme hotels as well as with their existing brands lately, says Simon pentahotels, revived by star-designer Allison of the association of hotel property Matteo Thun, amongst others, who breathed investors Hoftel: Newer concepts are "new a new lifestyle touch into them. creations of older brands, which are The lifestyle brand in the IHG portfolio. Aloft – the sister brand of W benefits of W's success. As she got "the DNA of W". citzenM – budget or lean luxury? For sure, it's lifestyle. Hospitality Day“ and other hotel-related events taking place at ITB. Furthermore, you will find excerpts from the hospitalityInside.com online magazine. are they not available yet? While some of the large chains are still tinkering on their first "lifestyle concept", other pioneers are developing further and are honing their profiles. Examples: In January, the Motel One Group separated from nine older hotels in less optimal locations and handed them over to Louvre's Premiere Classe. This way, the group only concentrates on top new hotels at top city locations. Or another example: 25hours hotels have sharpened their corporate philosophy. After the opening of hitherto seven hotels in the most important German-speaking metropolises, the makers of 25hours analysed their most important products and re-defined the brand's core values. The first 25hours Hotel was opened as a clear commitment to "affordable style" in Hamburg in 2003. "We wanted to create something cool, fresh, dynamic. Back then, good design hotels were only available in the upper price segment, always with the ballast of top services. Fun and sexiness were missing. The gap in the market was found," remembers Kai Hollmann, shareholder at 25hours. 25hours defines new essentials With every new 25hours Hotel, new product and service facets were developed. In the "25hours essentials", which were defined in 2008, innovative services as well as responsibility towards society and staff members eCOMMERCE SERVICES MOBILE SOLUTIONS March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 natural stone, showers of glass, ceramic floor and wall tiles or mosaics of any type or form from our own production. You can choose between natural stone, ceramic, glass, and solid-surface materials. Thanks to our expertise, we are able to contribute to the sustainability of any planned measures and avoidance of costs already during the planning phase. Our well-trained tilers are able to lay all our offered products – from the smallest to the largest – throughout Europe. Hotels as well as residential and nursing homes benefit from our solutions just as office and private buildings. http://miku-natursteine.de was voted "Kopf des Jahres" (Head of the Year) by Immobilienmanager Magazine in 2014. By 2017, Motel One is planning to expand their portfolio to 70 hotels with approximately 19,300 rooms, of which 20 properties will be outside of Germany. www.motel-one.com Services", as sometimes software solutions alone are not enough. Beyond software support there are always strategic decisions that need competence and today competent revenue & yield managers are a scarce resource. We understand the benefits gained from the basics of data quality and small operational tweaks through hotel market positioning, to advance pricing and optimization strategies. http://nextgenopti.com MOTEL ONE: The Munich-based company Motel One was founded in 2000 and has currently 48 hotels with over 12,900 rooms across Germany, Austria, UK, Belgium and Czech Republic. Guests as well as industry experts appreciate Motel One's concept of "Great design for little money", combining high service standards, quality materials and great design in prime urban locations. In the One Lounge, which is the breakfast café, living room and bar all in one, a local topic is chosen and reflected in the sophisticated and unique design. Room prices start from as little as 59 Euro. In November 2014 Motel One was awarded the "GRAND PRIX 2014" at the World Wide Hospitality Awards in Paris. The award honoured the innovation power, growth and economic performance of the company. Furthermore Motel One received the award for "Best Budget-Hotel" in Germany from the institution "Deutsches Institut für Service-Qualität” in 2014. The previous year Motel One had already been awarded the "Deutsche Servicepreis 2013" in the category of tourism. Also in the real estate and investment sector, Motel One won various awards. Dieter Müller, CEO Motel One Group, received the "ULI Leadership Award 2013" in the category of real estate business and NEXT GEN OPTI operates the high-end Reservations & Distribution Platform rezNG, which is designed for all possible types of eDistribution, including integrated market intelligence and rate optimization modules. Next Gen Opti also offers the "Tool Box" with a variety of apps helping revenue managers with price recommendations, benchmarking and hotel reputation management. All solutions are easy to deploy, simple to use and ensure full control by the hotel. rezNG can handle today's and tomorrow's requirements for all eDistribution. Next Gen Opti software has been offered to the hospitality industry over the last two decades and has been sold to over 2.000 hotels in more than 20 countries. The company is fully funded with own capital, has no outside investors and owns 100% of all software sold. rezNG is probably the most versatile distribution solution, focusing on hotel direct sales through its bookNG booking engines, meta search integration and in-built marketing options. All this is complemented with uniquely integrated modules for price optimization and market intelligence. From the "Tool Box", highlights are performNG and yieldNG. These two solutions are designed to improve hotel revenue by applying fresh algorithms determining the best selling price based on hotel performance, market patterns and events. performNG furthermore enables hotels with rich reporting and dynamic analysis with a better informed overview. performNG can distribute pricing decisions to any channel. Next Gen Opti also supplies "Managed PUETTER GMBH: based in Cologne, stands for quality advice and services in the field of digital and networked communication. The agency is a certified Google Partner and has recently been awarded with the SEO performance certificate for strategy and on-page optimization. It helps companies in the international tourism and hotel industry in digital communication tasks on the objective of the implementation through to performance. The optimization of the direct distribution is thereby the central aspect. An analytical approach with involvement of modern and efficient systems and transparent reporting characterize the operation of the privately owned and service-oriented company. The experienced team, consisting of hotel and online experts, has specialized in different disciplines in the online communication: SEO, SEA, content marketing, e-mail marketing, social media, mobile websites, Google Analytics, online pr and blogger relations. www.puetter-online.de

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 4TH "FREITAGSHAPPEN" FOCUSED ON LIFESTYLE & LUXURY HOTELS OF THE FUTURE played an important role in addition to dynamics and design. Prior to the now upcoming expansion into foreign-language countries, the concept had to be re-defined again. "The further the geographical and cultural distance, the more important it is that everyone has the same pictures in their minds," explains brand manager Bruno Marti. With the help of the psychological measuring of effects, the existing 25hours hotels were set in the human motivation system of security, thrill and autonomy. At the same time, a survey was carried out among the shareholders and the hotel management. "A real eye-opener," says CEO Christoph Hoffmann enthusiastically, "we never surveyed our guests in the eleven business years. We already have enough opinions of our own. However, the measuring of effects gives us a neutral evaluation of the products, independent of tastes." After several workshops and heated discussions about the future "look & feel" of a 25hours Hotel, the "25hours essentials" were re-phrased. Remarkable: Design only plays a marginal role now. Christoph Hoffmann: "The focal point of our brand is experience and adventure. Multi-faceted rooms also play an important role here, of course." The chains' desperate race to catch up Many chains will never be able to achieve the USP of 25hours due to their stringent standardisation. Every hotel is an arbitrary grab bag with appropriate, timely services. In the hotel there is always something going Moxy – lifestyle standardized. on: International travellers and local guests form a community, they talk to each other and are entertained. The team does not take itself all too seriously and the guests should have fun as well. In contrast to rather lifelessly presented salads or sandwiches to go of other "lifestyle" brands, the individual hotels are developing customised gastronomic offers with live-fresh character on their own or in cooperation with partners, depending on the location. Contrary to design-like budget hotels, 25hours works with relatively many staff members – not least because of its F&B offers – who underline the personality of the individual hotels. Standardised lifestyle newcomers have relatively little to set against such pioneers. The first Moxy by Marriott and by the Ikea subsidiary Vastint Hospitality (former Inter Hospitality) – also located in the lifestyle sector of course – did not win high praise from everyone after its debut in Milan. The serious German daily newspaper "FAZ" wrote on December 7, 2014, in its travel section: "Marriott claims to have developed the concept over more than two years. However, it seems that the group only took a closer look at the competition for two weeks." Tina Edmundson, Global Brand Officer for the luxury and lifestyle brands at Marriott International, emphasises: "At Moxy, every feature is based on careful research in order to react specifically to the continuously changing demands of this rapidly growing customer segment." Now, Venu by Jumeirah (announced for the second time in September 2014) or Vib by Best Western, Canopy by Hilton, Centric by Hyatt or Jen by Shangri-La are to open soon. While Venu and Vib have been/are being newly created, Jen is a further development of Shangri-La's second brand Traders, which was introduced in 1989. "Concerning services, Traders was too similar to the Shangri-La Hotels," says President & CEO Greg Dogan, justifying the strategic change to hospitalityInside.com. The new brand, oriented to Millennials, will have a completely new management team, its own culture and its own brand standards – and differentiate itself from the local 5-star hotels by fewer F&B outlets. Self-service kiosks, grab-to-go boxes at the breakfast buffet and check-in via tablets are exemplary for the new style. A key instrument will be technology. However, this does not sound very new either. Full-bodied messages for exchangeable ideas However, it is highly remarkable that the wording reaches new heights with every new lifestyle brand appearing in the market. The marketing experts of the individual chains create dramatic and theatrical messages to emphasise the "power and energy" of the hotel. Here a few examples of the linguistic pirouettes: • Kristine Rose, Vice President of Brands at Hyatt: "We believe Hyatt Centric hotels will deliver on our guests' desire for experiential travel while inspiring them to go out and explore. From the eclectic and fun hotel design to colleagues who are explorers themselves, the Hyatt Centric brand will be the perfect launching pad for our guests to start their experience within the destination." • Nicholas Clayton, CEO Group Operations at Jumeirah Group, about Venu: "Its provenance and energy comes from Dubai. The brand is ultimately a powerful way of taking the core essence of Dubai out into the international market, reflecting the city's energy, dynamism and cosmopolitan nature." • John T. A. Vanderslice, Global Head, Luxury & Lifestyle Brands, Hilton Worldwide: "Canopy by Hilton is the streetlamp of the neighborhood… " And: "With a 'positively yours' service culture, hotel 'Enthusiasts' will deliver a one-stop approach to front-of-house service." • And a press release by Best Western states: "Vib is a stylish and technology-centric hotel concept created to meet the needs of today's connected traveller." Not only fashionable but also profitable And what do experts think of the new flood of brands under the cover of the lifestyle promise? Max C. Luscher, Senior Manager at KPMG and specialised in the hotel industry, adds the following for consideration: "First of all, you have to ask yourself, how sustainable they are. Concerning recent developments, lifestyle aspects of new brands often stand for reduced services: e.g. a get-together in the lobby for a beer often means there is no room service or there are no longer mini-bars available. Therefore, guests should enquire in detail about which services each brand does and does not promise. Consequently, the customers decide on the final success of the brand. In general, limited services do not necessarily have to be bad because some of them – such as mini-bars or room service – are unpopular among guests as they are very expensive." However, Luscher is convinced: "For hotel chains, this indirect new definition of services under a new brand makes sense: In most cases, limited-service hotels are more profitable than full-service hotels. Other examples how hotel chains can become more profitable and flexible through lifestyle brands are: smaller but completely styled rooms; no traditional spa areas but wellness showers in the rooms instead; selfcheck-in and -out via touch-screen instead of the reception; F&B offers reduced to the minimum with signature meals instead of extensive menus with maximum variety." Martina Fidlschuster, CEO at Hotour, a consultancy specialised in hotel industry from Frankfurt, points out another reason for the flood of brands: "Some chains already have too many hotels of a single brand at one location," she says. Then, these new brands are accounted for by the expansion. Basically, the lifestyle concepts are meeting today's mega trend as the travellers want to feel at home and have therefore changed their behaviour drastically. "The young generation likes to sprawl in public on sofas designed by Philippe Starck," she says. And she knows another reason why some groups prefer to invent new brands rather than adapt their old ones: "As soon as you have finished the upgrading, another new trend has already emerged." And this new trend stems – you can always bet on it – from a private entrepreneur. / Susanne Stauss Extract of hospitalityInside, February 6, 2015. Managers searching for truffles Wiesbaden. The prospects opened up by Google Glass, the "Internet of Things" and fully networked worlds were unable to get participants of the 4th "Freitagshappen" (Friday's titbit) in Nassauer Hof in a fluster: Obviously they know what "lifestyle and luxury hotels of the future" will be like and where "the truffles grow". Under this motto, Karl Nueser, Managing Director of the luxury hotel in Wiesbaden, and Hospitality Inside invited guests to their annual discussion with an exclusive circle of senior managers from the hospitality and other industries. In small groups, the conversation was informal, the focus was on human capital while Social Media and technological developments were considered to have only limited effect as drivers on the luxury hotel industry. What statistics and studies show and announced, wasn't always greeted by hoteliers. The luxury battle is decided by the product, this much was clear after the first hour. Employees – human capital – are, however, the key to high-end clientele and top room rates. The term "luxury" no longer exists today. Problem-free access to the internet and 24/7 high-speed internet everywhere in the hotel is accepted by hoteliers as a given. "That can be bought," they explained soberly and warned of overestimating technology. The menu provided on an iPad for room service has resulted in revenues falling in various hotels. After all, it's the over 50s who dictate revenues, and those from this generation too shy to reveal himself a non-IT freak simply doesn't order the club sandwich. Luxury sold only through personality It's always the small things that define luxury today. And the human factor. "It's about the human touch and people facing each other again", host Karl Nueser summarised. "People want a break from IT," Dr Udo Stein from Deutsche Bank confirmed. Rolf Broennimann from Swiss Hospitality Group from Zurich and Head of Operations for the luxury hotel Budersand on the German island of Sylt challenged luxury hoteliers: "We have to become hoteliers, hosts, again! We can't just be managers!" His call was accepted. Luxury hotels today again need personality, character – in management as well as on the guest front, every day, every hour. Somebody to take care of is required, or, in the lingo a 'touch point' for the guest, a storyteller. The guest should later remember: Who greeted me? What's the name of the maitre d'hotel? Not technology, but experiences, emotions, stories are the key to happiness. Hoteliers with a core of top-qualified, committed and guest-oriented staff, hoteliers who can motivate them and keep them in the hotel for the long term, they have the qualities necessary for success in the luxury hotel industry of the future. "In this sense," Inge Struckmeier from Romantik Hotels & Restaurants concluded, "the privately-owned 4-star Romantik Hotels are today's luxury hotels." The investment in Human Capital is not reflected on any balance sheet, much to the chagrin of the hotel operator. The problem is the same for them all: how to make it clear to investors and owners that human capital costs money and is necessary for provide unique guest experiences... After all, guests only come back when their – emotional – expectations have been satisfied. The buzzword on the lips of the future luxury guest is Now & Wow. / Maria Puetz-Willems Extract of hospitalityInside.com, July 11, 2014. hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 ITB BERLIN 2015: 190 EXHIBITORS AND A LOT OF INNOVATION Increasing IT influence Berlin. The prospects are excellent for ITB Berlin's 49th edition that will take place from 4 to 8 March 2015. More than 10,000 exhibitors from around 190 countries and regions will be presenting their innovative products and services in the 26 display halls on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. Over 100,000 trade visitors are expected to attend the world’s largest travel trade show in order find out about all the tourism industry’s products and services at this year’s event. The influence of the IT developments can not be overlooked any more. Dr. Martin Buck, director of the Competence Center Travel & Logistics, Messe Berlin: "Due to political and economic events such as the conflict in Ukraine and the financial crisis many destinations around the world are facing new challenges. Against this backdrop ITB Berlin has become an important networking platform and marketing instrument for exhibitors and trade visitors. As the world’s leading travel trade show it accurately reflects economic developments in this sector." Demand for places from the Arab states has been extremely high and unable to be fulfilled in every case. Halls 5.2a and 5.2b were booked up at an early stage. India is among the countries occupying an entire hall again. Afghanistan is making its return to ITB Berlin. Bangladesh and Gilgit-Baltistan, a hiking destination in Pakistan, are newcomers to the show. Iran is becoming increasing popular as a tourism destination and for the first time has its own Hall (7.2a). As in 2013 at ITB Berlin, Asian countries are well represented in the display halls, with the exception of Russia which has reported a few cancellations due to the weak rouble. The Central Asian countries (previously in Hall 7.2a) have now moved to Hall 2.1, alongside Russia and the USA. Brazil and Argentina, where tourism is booming, are increasingly making their way onto the market and this year are represented in larger numbers than at any previous ITB Berlin. Brazil can be found in three separate locations: in Hall 4.1 (Eco Tourism, Adventure Travel), Hall 3.1 (LGBT) and with a large combined national display in Hall 1.1. Visitors can find out more about Argentina on the country’s stand in Hall 1.1 as well as in the LGBT section in Hall 3.1. Exhibitors from Africa are also strongly represented in all areas at the fair. The Turkish Village is a newcomer to Hall 3.1, where tourist boards, tour operators (including first-time exhibitors novissima Touristic, Suay Tour and Afrodit Tour) as well as those representing the culture and wellness segments are gathered under one roof. Poland has a new stand concept and in Hall 15.1 is exhibiting a concentrated display of its new products. Newcomer and new concepts Around 45 exhibitors are representing the Netherlands at ITB Berlin in Hall 10.2 on a display area covering 280 square metres, larger than in any previous year. The Benelux countries can be found as one group in Hall 10.2, with Belgium, Flanders, the Netherlands, and for the first time Luxembourg, which was previously in Hall 18. Italy is exhibiting the entire range of its tourism products in Hall 1.2 where, on a display are covering 700 square metres, ENIT is represented with numerous Italian regions and exhibitors. Hall 14.1 has been completely reorganized. This is where hotels, car hire companies, tour operators and many other companies from Berlin are showcasing their latest This year, the Travel Technology segment records over 170 companies, of which 30 are new. products. Hall 9, which features hotels, is all the more attractive now that, following an absence, the premium brands Hilton and Hyatt are returning to ITB Berlin. Hall 8.1 welcomes a newcomer, Meeting Masters, one of Germany’s leading MICE portals, as does Hall 18, where Lidl-Reisen is represented. Verband der Fährschifffahrt, Warner Brothers und Greenland Travel are now back at the show. Hall 11.1 focuses on careers in tourism, and with 40 exhibitors from eight countries now has an even more international appeal. Germany's National Job Centre is operating a central placement service for jobs abroad. Emirates Academy, hoteleducation.ch and Sixt are newcomers to the show and are advising job seekers in their role as employers. Travel Technology: the driving innovative force Travel technology can now be found everywhere in the global travel market. Be it back or front offices, computer-aided custom marketing services or hotel software and booking platforms, it now extends far beyond social media and mobile travel ser-

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 MOTEL ONE VIENNA STAATSOPER & RUBY VIENNA STAND FOR A NEW COMPETITION Budget in a royal dress March 2015 Vienna. Does this photo above look like a budget hotel room? One can only say no on the basis of the photos of the new Motel One Vienna Staatsoper. The hotel chain from Munich opened their third hotel in Vienna on Tuesday and with this, has also established new standards in interior design – that most certainly reduces the hotel group's own description as a "low budget design" to absurdity. The term of "Lean Luxury" lies closer here but this term has been taken by Ruby Hotels – delivering a room product with their new Ruby Sofie Hotel in Vienna that likewise has nothing to do with the feeling of "cheap sleep". These two hotel openings have placed new accents – and both also symbolically stand for the next level in budget competition… Motel One playing with the royal charm: Turquoise-coloured velvet curtains and velvet cushions, noble wallpaper and upholstered bed headboards in the rooms. March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 daily; as a cheese, the guests will find specialities such as the Zillertal Mountain cheese. There is fresh, hand-pressed orange juice or 100% direct-press juices in bottles for the hasty guests … This all sounds like an upgrading of the budget breakfast. The competition within the budget brands has – vividly spoken – reached the next level. Which area will subsequently follow? The Internet, Multimedia? This would be desirable from the point of view of the business traveller: Since there is much left to be desired in the internet speed here – as with the Motel One experiences in different properties in recent times. The bandwidth is brought to its knees when a property is full. Bridging over to Ruby Hotels: The young group has installed a 200 Megabit bandwidth at their 77 room-pioneer project in Vienna; two parallel-switched servers ensure the capacity and the high-quality routers with a high signal strength provide for the fact that every guest can activate up to five devices in their room. Whether this is also sufficient in practise during a full occupancy is yet to be demonstrated. Moreover, Ruby has created the Internet-based "Ruby Radio" and installed a sound system in the rooms that can dock with Smartphones and E guitars. New with Motel One Vienna Staatsoper: Now guests find power sockets and USB interfaces integrated in the upholstered bed headboards – small enhancements to be implemented in all new hotels in future. Entertainment is strengthening customer loyalty – is it also the next standard accelerating the budget/lean luxury competition? And so, the budget segment continues to be exciting. The debate over the question of how much quality can be crammed into in a low price has not yet been answered. At least, the design is only the benchmark at a first glance. Other benchmarks will follow. / map Extract of hospitalityInside.com, November 14, 2014. KNOW TODAY WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TOMORROW. 4 – 7 March 2015 · itb-convention.com The 54th hotel the Motel One Group is in a historic building from the turn of the century (19th/20th) that was entirely redeveloped without losing its original charm. It stands in an unbeatable, central location in the 1st District of Vienna (Elisabethstrasse 5, at the Opera). With 400 rooms, the property will siphon off large overnight volumes – but then, who would still complain about the overnight price of 69 or 79 Euro with this ambience in this location? Even the Viennese luxury hoteliers are supposedly "trembling" at this price-performance ratio, a developer recently said to hospitalityInside.com. However, Motel One is learning: For the first time, there are several room categories with different prices at this hotel. The single room begins at 69 Euro, the larger rooms cost 79 Euro to book; the 2nd person pays a 15 Euro surcharge. Bridging over to Ruby Hotels: There are already three room categories – "cosy" as the smallest unit with 15-17 square metres, "wow" with 18-25 square metres and "loft" with 20-30 square metres. The prices are accordingly scaled from 79 Euro through to 89 and up to 99 Euro for the three categories (single room); the 2nd person pays a 15 Euro surcharge. More or less "organic": the upgrade with breakfast Contrary to some media reports in Austria, Motel One will not be offering an organic breakfast at the Vienna Staatsoper, but rather an extended and modified breakfast can be expected amongst all the properties from 2015 onward. Some organic products will also be included in this, confirmed Motel One spokesperson, Julia Naebrich, from the headquarters in Munich. The new breakfast concept will be first introduced in Germany and Austria and then will be implemented everywhere else step by step. Up to now, the breakfast cost 7.50 Euro; from 2015 the price will be 9.50 Euro per person. Bridging over to Ruby Hotels: The breakfast there costs 9.50 Euro and presents itself as "100% organic". Examples: The guests will find a great deal of whole food at the buffet with bread, cakes and pastries alongside the muesli. The fruit salad is hand-cut fresh Ruby Hotels were the first to focus on a "100% organic" breakfast as part of their lean luxury concept. Top-class lectures about global tourism trends: ITB Future Day · ITB Hospitality Day · ITB Marketing and Distribution Day · ITB CSR Day · ITB Destination Days · ITB Business Travel Days · ITB Young Professionals Day · ITB Workshops · eTravel World · PhoCusWright@ITB · ITB Experts Forum Wellness Official Partner Country ITB Berlin 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 vices. ITB Berlin 2015 reflects the rapid pace of these developments. At the world’s leading travel trade show Travel Technology has become one of the biggest and fastest-growing segments, attracting exhibitors from all over the world. Over 170 companies, including around 30 newcomers, will be showcasing their innovations and products on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. Among those exhibiting for the first time are Baidu, a search engine from China as large as Google, and Qunar, one of the country’s biggest booking platforms. In particular, the Travel Technology segment is attracting a growing number of international exhibitors. In addition to companies from China, others from the UK (Intuitive Systems, Hotel Room Auction), Finland (Frosmo), India (Travel BPO, Moxiter), France (Flatswire) and Turkey (Yield Planet) have also secured display areas at the show. Furthermore, a number of Italian travel startups will be occupying a combined display under the heading of 'Start Up Italia'. In the age of the digital revolution there is now an increasing demand for web-based tools, across industries and individual sectors alike. In order to meet the growing need for information ITB Berlin is collaborating with tools – Expo and Conference. Taking as its slogan "working webbased in tourism" the tools Lounge will be showcasing web-based products that target tourism market professionals and show how business processes can be successfully digitized and automated. tools exclusively exhibits web-based business solutions and from 16 to 17 June 2015 will be taking place for the second time on the Berlin Exhibition Grounds. For more information about tools please visit www.tools-berlin.com. New: ITB Innovators The eTravel World is another attraction at the show. As part of the supporting programme, papers and workshops will be taking place on two stages. The range of forum events includes an introduction to Travel Tech, panel discussions on social media, papers on current developments in the markets of Asia and South America, as well as an ’Innovators’ Panel’ that includes brief pitches on the topic of apps. With ITB Innovators this year's ITB Berlin is again showcasing innovative and practical travel industry products and is keeping track of the latest innovations. These innovative products can be viewed on the website at www.itb-kongress.de/en/ITBBerlinConvention/ITBConvention365/ITBInnovators and can be reviewed as well. ITB visitors can find out more about unique products that make travelling easier by coming to Hall 7.1b. On 6 March 2015 at 4:45 p.m. at the ITB Berlin Convention a presentation will take place of the innovations which received the most votes in the 'London' Room in Hall 7.1b. / kn Advertisement VISIT US! HALL 9, BOOTH 109 WORLD OF HOSPITALITY GREAT DESIGN FOR LITTLE MONEY! More information and contact details: 3114-15MO_AZ_ITB_185x128_RZ.indd 1 02.02.15 18:00

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 CONCEPT BEING TRANSFERRED TO CITIES – HIGH OCCUPANCIES – ROBOTS & MORE Yotel is a Mindset London. The British low budget lifestyle brand, Yotel, announced a global expansion in December: There should additionally be more than 3,000 "cabins" by 2018. However, the new planned city centre properties in Singapore, Paris, Miami and San Francisco and in a second hotel in New York City will be transformed from the windowless sleeping boxes that are at the airport hotels into pleasant comfort rooms. Hubert Viriot, Chief Executive Officer of the hotel group since May, 2014, explained how the change of mind and strategy had come about in a conversation with hospitalityInside.com. Viriot will also be a guest on the CEO Panel on March 5 at this year's "ITB Hospitality Day", the hotel conference of ITB Berlin. In 2007, the first Yotel opened at London Gatwick Airport – with small six and nine square metre "cabins" following the model of the Japanese capsule hotels. The rooms have become larger and the locations more varied. However, the aspiration of booking the cabins several times in one day at the airports remains. Devised by Gerard Greene and Simon Woodroffe, Yotel had originally been conceived as a mirror of the deluxe cabin by British Airways. They had gained the Kuwaiti IFA Hotels & Resorts as a partner to develop the prototypes. In 2006, the Arabian developer for hotel and tourism projects in the Mixed Use segment effected the first investment in the Yotel Hotel. "These were courageous concepts, but we will now multiply this worldwide," CEO Hubert Viriot summed up. "This is the only way to grow. And we have learnt a great deal in the meantime." The group currently operates properties at the Gatwick and Heathrow airports in London, at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and since 2011, the first Yotel two blocks away from Times Square in New York. Currently, there are several hotels in the pipeline (see below). The native Frenchman, Viriot, who left his home country 37 years ago, has been active with Yotel's parent company, IFA, for ten years and is simultaneously their Chief Investment Officer. He had completed his Bachelor Degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management at the Glion Institute of Higher Education in Switzerland and had also obtained at second International Management degree in Wales. He subsequently worked for the HVS consulting company as well as for the Thai land developer, Raimon Land, among others. Experiences in the smallest space With this foreknowledge, Hubert Viriot seems to be the ideal driver and controller for the global Yotel expansion. "Now, it is not only the airports that are the key locations, but rather all hubs," he described the development of the concepts. With the successful New York premiere, additional city locations will complement the airport focus in the future. "By now, Yotel is no longer a niche product, but mainstream. Yotel is a Mindset." Therefore, one product has become a multiple product in the meantime and likewise falls under the Yobot in action lifting luggage automatically. catchwords "Convenience, Comfort, Connectivity". "The travellers are searching for experiences and they do not need a lot of space for this!" An example of this is "Yobot", the luggage robot that immediately brought the New York property into the headlines. The diligent guy is continually hoisting bags and suitcases into the luggage box day by day (see link) and from a company point of view, is considered as a significant part of the Yotel DNA: Yobot stands for CANI, the internal abbreviation for "Constant And Never-ending Innovation," reports Marketing Director Jo Berrington. "And we will introduce additional innovations with the next hotels," she announced. The cabins at the first Airport Yotel that are categorised as "Premium" and "First Class" are 8 to 11 square metres in size; they will even out to 11 square metres at the future airport hotels (for two people, including shower). In the City Yotel, the standard room will measure 13 square metres, the premium room, 21 square metres and the deluxe room will be as much as 35 square metres. On average, the developer is calculating 16 square metres per room. Top occupancies According to Viriot, the model is extremely efficient in any case. On the one hand, because the airport hotels are small due to the restricted floor space (with an average of 40 to 140 rooms). And on the other hand, because the city hotels with an average of 200 to 700 rooms do not need any more space than 350-room hotels in the 4-star segments, the CEO explained. A guest at the airport hotel stays for an average of six to seven hours and also on Hubert Viriot: We have learnt a great deal. average, a cabin is booked four times in 24 hours. In the city, the guest stays for an average of 3.5 nights. An Airport Yotel rents its standard cabins from four hours and from a price of around 32 British Pounds Sterling (currently approx. 43 Euro); a premium cabin costs around 40 pounds (approx. 54 Euro). At the city hotel in New York, the most favourable price lies at 129 USD (approx. 115 Euro) and in the annual average, 200 USD (approx. 178 Euro). The Yotel New York registers an average occupancy of 97% with a room revenue (RevPar) of 200 US dollars, the CEO reported. The occupancy at the airports (due to the multiple daily usages) lies between 140 and 250%, the RevPar at 130 USD. Premium cabin at Yotel New York, the group's first city hotel. City hotels offer more room categories. In January, the Yotel management signed off on a 600-room project for the Singapore City, Hubert Viriot continued, and a 110-cabin Yotel will follow in Williamsburg (Brooklyn, New York) whereas the Yotels in Miami and San Francisco will have 200 to 300 rooms. Another desired location is Dubai. A digital brand today The rooms may be entirely minimalistic in the design, but smart. In the new properties, they will be equipped with more robust materials because only eight minutes are conceded to Housekeeping for the cleaning of the cabin. "However, we have also learnt from the guests. They require, for example, more privacy in the bathroom." The service should on no account be "lean". Every hotel will be different, Hubert Viriot reported; these will receive F&B areas as a part of the open lobby concepts. A unique customer connection programme for corporate guests was brought to life in May, 2014 with "The Club" with which they can receive, for example, VIP tickets to events with entrepreneurs from the industry. "In the beginning, Yotel had its focus on the design and the rooms," the CEO summarised while looking back, "today, we are a digital brand." Investments in our own website and in Social Media are starting to pay off: 45% of the bookings already come through their own website www.yotel.com. And the guests do not come – surprisingly – from the circle of the young Millennials, but are just as frequently between 50 and 60 years old. "Everybody enjoys the ease that can we offer them," he said proudly. The staff members will happily provide information about what can be experienced in the immediate neighbourhood. And it is not only the leisure traveller that likes this, but also corporate clients from IT, fashion or entertainment. High yield promise The management has identified 30 to 40 airports worldwide as potential locations; the potential in the cities appears to be enormous. "But we do not need premium locations," the CEO said. The districts that are just now coming into fashion are ideal. He is also quite happy to look at very specific locations with which the "standard" developer may have their difficulties. Only one good traffic connection need exist. Yotel sees itself as a smart investment for smart guests – and smart investors. Ordinarily, as Viriot allows his thoughts to wander, investors would expect a two to three percent yield, but Yotel would deliver from eight to nine percent. "Investors are not thinking about concepts, but about real estate," he reasons. The planned Yotel in San Francisco will be the first conversion from an office building. The IFA Hotels & Resorts parent company is primarily only involved in the management company and up to now, it is merely the Yotel New York that has been financed by and still owned by them. The remaining properties have been and will be financed with external third parties. / Maria Puetz- Willems Extract of hospitalityInside.com, Jan 30, 2015 CURRENT YOTEL PROJECTS YOTEL Paris, Charles De Gaulle. Development with ADP (Aeroports de Paris). Opening 2016. YOTEL Singapore, Orchard Road. Opening 2017. Developed by Hong Fok Corporation Limited, Singapore, 600 cabins. YOTEL Williamsburg, New York (Brooklyn). Opening 2017, 110 cabins. YOTEL San Francisco. Opening 2017. Conversion by IFA Hotels & Resorts and New York-based real estate developer Synapse Development, 200 cabins. YOTEL Miami Downtown. Opening 2017. Developed by Aria Development Group in partnership with Aqarat (Kuwait real estate company) as part of a mixed-use development project, 250 cabins. hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 10 YEARS ITB HOSPITALITY DAY: A GLOBAL MIRROR OF THE COLOURFUL HOTEL WORLD 226 speakers and 2006–2008 Selection of our many guest speakers and panelists since 2006 – of the industry's "Movers & Shakers" (from left): speaker's desk for the opening 2006 + and the gentlemen exchanging business cards in the speakers' room; Audience 2007: over 1,000 attendees for the first time; Reto Wittwer/Kempinski pher Norton/Four Seasons, Andreas Pflaum/Pflaums Posthotel Pegnitz, Peter O'Connor/Essec Business School Paris; Panel with Benjamin Ploppa/ 2009–2010 Karl Pojer/TUI Hotels; Prof. Dr. Christian Buer/Heilbronn University; Michael Ball/Worldhotels; Erich Falkensteiner/Falkensteiner Michaeler Tourism speakers' room; Scott Woroch/Four Seasons; Guy Dittrich (journalist); Panel with Wolfgang Neumann/ArabellaStarwood Hotels, David Fattal/Fattal 2011–2013 Panel with Reto Wittwer/Kempinski Hotels & Christian Windfuhr/Grand City Hotels; Tobias Ragge/HRS; Thomas Willms/Starwood Hotels; Dieter & Daniel rium London; Maria Puetz-Willems; Claus Sendlinger/Design Hotels; Christoph Hoffmann/25hours Hotels, Loh Lik Peng/Unlisted Collection; Daniele Kihl- 2014 Bernhard Bohnenberger/Six Senses, Maria Puetz-Willems & Ross Harding/Finding Infinity; Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Arlt/China Outbound Tourism Research; Darren Gearing/Shangri-La Hotels; Tom Breckwoldt/TripAdvisor; Michael Buller/VIR-Verband Internet-Vertrieb; Benjamin Jost/TrustYou; Carolin Brauer/ Quality Reservations; Christopher Oster/Wimdu, Thomas Allemann/hotelleriesuisse.

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 New desire for health NATURE, VEGAN AND DEEP-PENETRATING INGREDIENTS DRIVE WELL-BEING TRENDS Augsburg. Exactly 77 percent of wellness tourists look for "health" according to the Nuremberg-based GfK Group consumer research institute in its 2013 MobilityMonitor. Certainly, health is a far-reaching term: it starts with the simple desire of guests to be active in nature and continues with encountering an authentic ambience in the hotel as well as regional and vegan food... And it might end with ladies interested in the subject, who pay exact attention to which hotel uses what kind of cosmetics. Consultants as well as the industry agree that many wellness guests are very proficient today and are able to question wellness trends as well as prevention promises seriously. Therefore, large cosmetics companies are promoting their own in-house development – in the direction of "health". For the first time two years ago, a guest asked me where our cosmetics come from. I could not answer them," Martin Klein, owner of the Wellness Hotel Hochschober in Carinthia, describes his key experience on the subject. He could, however, name every farmer, baker and supplier for the meat, fish and bread used at his hotel. But beauty? The private hotel, which has already been influencing trends in Austria for two generations (www.hochschober.com) decided to join the Best Wellness Austria consortium last year – as it offers an alternative application and product concept: "Balance Alpine 1000 +" defines Asian Ayurveda anew with European ingredients. Health experts have joined together in this: the head of the consortium, a naturopathy chemist, a spa consultant and a well-known cosmetics institute. The alternative use and product concept is "Made in Austria". 20 of the 24 Best Wellness Austria hoteliers have immediately joined in. Nearly all of the 24 Best Wellness Hotels Austria lie in the mountains and over 1,000m above sea level. Many offer exotic treatments such as Ayurveda. "We had been discontent with it for quite some time," reports Michaela Thaler, Managing Director of the consortium (www.bestwellnesshotels.at), since ultimately the Alps also offers natural sources of vitality: Healing water, salt grottos and herbs, for example. The taking of inventory of the alpine health treasures led to their own "Spagyrik" concept. Simplistically represented, a comprehensive method of treatment based on the use of a whole medicinal plant is hidden behind the Greek concept. The goal is to strengthen the self-healing powers at a physical, spiritual and mental level. Guests show enormous knowledge Whether such essences ultimately have a therapeutic effect – in medicinal terms – is argumentative. Spagyrik combines different medicinal systems. Therefore, Best Wellness Austria has no problem propagating its own Spagyrik definition under the name "Balance Alpine1000+" and assigning it under "Traditional European Medicine" (TEM). Initiatives like these originate from the guests' demands and try to meet expectations of preventive, natural as well as regional and authentic cosmetics. Transparency concerning production, reference of the source of ingredients and promises that can be kept increase the credibility of natural products. The knowledge of wellness guests and the common trend towards nature have made many industrial producers of cosmetics that were known for their efficiency-oriented cosmetics so far, rethink about medically and scientifically supported cosmetics with a highly preventive goal. "Medical beauty is on the rise!" Franz Dannhauser, Managing Director of Thalgo Cosmetic in Karlsruhe, is sure of that. "And not only regarding wellness hotels but also with respect to day spas." And he immediately realises the next challenge: "This requires new competence from therapists!" For many years, Thalgo has felt its way in this field, and tried its luck with a single product many years ago, failed with it, and carried on with its research. Last autumn, the business launched "Therapeia", developed in cooperation with a plastic and aesthetic surgeon. The product stimulates the skin's collagen output. In September 2015, "M-CEUTIC", the next "cosmoceutical" product will hit the market. Important for Dannhauser: Wellness hotels that want to use these cosmetics have to have their therapists intensely trained by Thalgo. According to Dannhauser, beauty products have significantly gained in demand over the last few years: while "facials" once generated 25 percent of Thalgo's revenue, they now generate 75 percent. One reason for this is that there are many more products available for body treatments than several years ago. In general, the market has become both larger and more confusing. In this respect, experts warn hoteliers to examine formulas and their effects carefully and even think about the selected brand in their spas. In addition, expert advice is an absolute must. This cannot be guaranteed by many spas, as therapists are often much too young to be able to afford expensive products. Inversely, this was reflected in the quality of treatments using high-quality products. "Spa guests no longer want random treatments," says Dannhauser. Franz Dannhauser, Thalgo: "Spa guests no longer want random treatments." Luise Koefer, Vinoble: "Natural cosmetics have to feel like luxury on the skin." Essentially, Luise Koefer, CEO of Vinoble Cosmetics in Styria, Austria, totally agrees with him. Beauty was focusing more and more on active ingredients. "Natural cosmetics have to feel like luxury on the skin", just as efficient cosmetics up to now. This is why it was only logical to make positive use of medical findings when further developing products. Vegan cosmetics are up and coming Vinoble's products are based on ingredients from grapes and other natural extracts – all produced in Vinoble's own "manufactory" (www.vinoble-cosmetics.at). The team is currently working intensely on recipes that ultimately contribute to the regeneration of stem cells. Sun protection without hormonal substances has just been on the market for a short while, and there will be further products in the future. Vinoble's future message will be that all their products are 100 percent vegan. Vegan is one of the trend terms that particularly attracts "young people and men", says Koefer. And she is currently in contact with a young hotel group in Germany that wishes to use Vinoble's vegan cosmetics. Both lifestyle and luxury hotels are grateful buyers. Moreover, there are initial consortiums of vegan hotels such as www.veggiehotels.de, www.vegotel.com, or extensive hotel and vacation portals like www. veganhotels.com and www.vegan.eu. / map March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 12,600 attendees 2006–2008 moderator Maria Puetz-Willems; Panel with Claus Sendlinger/Design Hotels, Sir Rocco Forte/Rocco Forte Hotels, Simon Cooper/The Ritz-Carlton Hotels – Hotels; Philippe Weyland/Motel One; hospitalityInside info corner; Panel with Joe Strodel/Cornell University, Dr. Christoph Juen/hotelleriesuisse, Christo- Deloitte, Martina Fidlschuster/Hotour, Carsten Rath/Arabella Int.; Prof Dr. Monika Echtermeyer/Bad Honnef University. 2009–2010 Group; Gerald Lawless/Jumeirah; Andrew Cosslett/InterContinental Hotels Group & Ed Fuller/Marriott; Samih Sawiris/Orascom; Preparations in the Group, Matthias Schroeder/auditor; info table for ITB Convention in the halls; Wybcke Meier/Oeger Tours. 2011–2013 Müller/Motel One; Siradej Donavanik & Daniel Mueller in the speakers' room; Siradej Donavanik & Chanin Donavanik/Dusit Hotels; Hall 7.1b/auditogren/Sextantio Group; Katharina Jaeger/Student EHL, Adrian Ruch/Student EHL, Ingrid Eras/Starwood Hotels, Reto Candrian/Suvretta Haus St. Moritz.

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 TREND: HOTELS CAN BENEFIT FROM THEIR GUESTS' GROWING NEED FOR SLEEP Power napping under a hood A Dutch company thinks about sleep chairs. Takes you home extremely slowly. Meanwhile in Europe, the mobility behaviour of today is providing for the fact that sleep is being increasingly taken while on the go. The sleeping capsules that originated from Japan are already on the advance in American and European airports. The sleeping chair According to the study and by analogy with the successful "food truck " concepts, "sleep trucks" that would appear in varying places and offer different sleeping surroundings for testing out would be conceivable in the future. In Canadian Toronto, sleeping tubes that are available to passers-by for a 20 minute nap were constructed in the middle of the city. In the future, couch possibilities could regularly be installed on trains, in waiting rooms or outdoors alongside chairs. The great success of cafés with loungers shows that today, the seat mode is quite in the past as a standard. Likewise today, the modern office worker is no longer working while being seated. The new working tools such as Smartphones and Tablet have provided for a differentiation of postures in the office. The industry is not sleeping and is always developing new products surrounding flexible seating and lying down in public areas. Thus, the "Hoodini" chair cover product from the Dutch design company, Bernotat & Co, provides the privacy required during relaxation: It disposes of a suspended hood that can be drawn over as a cover according to need and thus the chair is converted into a sleeping chair – including darkening and a privacy shield. According to the authors, a tool box that is helpful toward power napping as a basic facility for those who travel frequently could be equipped with sleeping masks, soothing sounds and an App that indicates suitable nap locations nearby. Today on Googlenaps.info, the overtired are already able to find tips for good sleeping nooks. As another example, the "Napper" scarf provides for security during public sleeping: It disposes of integrated earphones that are linked to the luggage via Bluetooth and an alarm sounds if someone moves the luggage. The new GDI study "The Future of Sleeping – New Markets in the Always-On Societies" can be obtained free of charge under www.gdi.ch/schlafstudie. / sst Extract of hospitalityInside.com, November 21, 2014. New sleeping culture in the office? The need for a restful sleep has increased and with their constant commitment, the "always-on" societies are consuming so much energy that the depth of their recovery phases is increasing in importance. This is the knowledge of a current study called "The Future of Sleeping – New Markets in the Always-On Societies" that the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI) in Rueschlikon has published. According to the authors, Daniela Tenger and Karin Frick, this trend is bolstered by the rising health awareness. According to Rüschlikon/Zurich. The changing sleeping habits and demands toward the sleeping environment of the "Always-On" societies are placing new challenges before the hotel industry. It should act as swiftly as possible rather than retreat from the field of this new competition. The industry is not sleeping and in this case, could even develop into a popular partner. For one thing, because hotels are the ideal experimental zones, worldwide! Knowledge and ideas from a study on the future of a night's sleep. the study, sleep is more important today than ten years ago for nearly half of the Swiss population. Interestingly, this increase in importance applies significantly more frequently to those among the 54-year-old employed persons who are presumably more strongly exposed to a permanent, 24 hour accessibility in their professional lives than the (soon) to be retired seniors. The fact that sleep is increasingly moving into focus is also demonstrated in the increasing need for one to measure and compare their own sleep behaviour. This service is offered, for example, by the sleepingtime.org website: It calculates the resting phases of the Twitterer. The manufacturers of the Jawbone fitness bracelet have also analysed the activities of their users worldwide and in this, have amazingly discovered that: New York – the city that never sleeps – is the first to go to bed; in Dubai, at least ten percent of the Jawbone users are always active; in China and Madrid, there is also sleeping during the day. More than 5,000 users per city were considered within this study. The sleep industry is booming: Software developers are offering Apps for the monitoring and optimisation of sleep and there are Mindfulness Trainings for relaxation in fitness centres alongside the hotels advertising healthy sleeping experiences. Another market surrounding dreaming has also emerged: Thus, a small start-up in Brooklyn has recently developed a dream mask that promises "active dreams with a clear mind". All that is natural is likewise booming – from valerian tea through to sleeping tablets and up to the biological alarm clock; from down bedding up to the high-tech blanket. The hotel industry is already utilising this trend today: Five-star hotels are advertising with exclusive sleeping experiences and are standing out from the mid-range properties while they equip their rooms with tailormade bed systems. And so, it is hardly surprising that the five-star hotel is considered as the first, most desirable destination during a foreign overnight stay for nearly one third of the Swiss; another third primarily wishes for a quiet, secluded village. However, alongside the bed as the core element, factors such as noise level, the possibility to regulate the temperature, the availability of fresh air and the option to plunge the room into complete darkness at any time are also named. These points play a fluctuating, strong role according to nationality, gender and age. According to the study, the hotel industry can contribute a great deal to the rebranding of sleep. For example, while not only social zones such as bars and lounges are maintained by the hotel, recovery rooms could also be furnished and the appropriate value attached to them. In the Park Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo, guests today can already make use of the "Good Night Sleep Stretch" offer: The body and mind are harmonised with relaxation exercises for the upcoming night's rest. Alongside the "pillow menus", hotels are already offering mattresses, bed systems, sources of light, sleeping masks and sleep measurement devices. For the sleep inquisitive, hotels are the ideal experimental zones for trying out the various sleeping products that the dealers have made available. The new sleeping awareness has arose from the growing need for slowing down that is already being taken into account by the tourism and catering industries in the form of "Slow Tourism". The "Turtle Taxis" in Japan drive to the destination particularly slowly for their customers and local, sustainable and deliberate eating is celebrating the Slow Food movement worldwide. Sleep in the café The American sleep researcher, Dr. James Mass, had already established the connection between napping and efficiency in 1998. Yet, power naps are still not being used in these efficiency-oriented societies. "The consumers in Europe will only hesitantly accept power napping because – even if it is only short and efficient – sleeping in public or in the office is not socially established," said Frieder Kuhn, Founder and Managing Director of Third of Life GmbH. And Dr Stephan Rueller, Managing Director from sleepingpower regrets: "Fa tigue is a shortcoming that one does not show in public." Interestingly, 33 percent of the non-nappers believe that they would happily take a nap if they had the additional opportunity to do so. And the 15 to 54 year-old employed persons with a high level of education are represented in this group particularly strongly. In Japan, there are already sleeping cafés whose guests can take a break the just same as in traditional cafés – not at a table, but in a bed for a small fee. China is also wellknown for its napping culture. And the phenomenon likewise does not end at the Chinese IKEA: Tired customers will regularly lie down in the showrooms and nap completely in public – and completely without inhibition. Waldorf Astoria Berlin: today with pillow menus. hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 10TH ITB HOSPITALITY DAY: ON TRACK WITH THE BIG MOVEMENTS Trends every hour Berlin. 880 trade show visitors attended the talk rounds of the first "ITB Hospitality Day" in 2006 and there have been 12,600 in total until this year: The hotel conference of the ITB takes place this year for the 10th time. In the meantime, it has developed a leading position in the extremely comprehensive programme of the trade fair. Hotels have simply remained sexy. The buzz words of the "ITB Hospitality Day" on Thursday, March 5, 2015 in Hall 7.1b/London auditorium: Cyber Attacks, Sharing Economy, Luxury & Lifestyle and Budget & Lifestyle, Digitalisation or Values and Internet Distribution. 10.30-11.30 h "Check Out – Hack In": Demonstration And Live Presentation Of Cyber-Attacks". How to steal customer data, copy magnetic cards and break into video conference systems. Two security professionals demonstrate security traps for the hotel industry. Speakers: Stefan Hölzner, Senior Manager, KPMG Security Consulting Dr. Florian Kohlar, Assistant Manager, KPMG Security Consulting 11.45-12.45 h Sharing Economy: What Can The Hotel Industry Learn From The New Trends, And How Can It Benefit? A search for new opportunities. Moderated by: Hans-Juergen Klesse, Editor, Wirtschaftswoche Panel guests: Marcus Bernhardt, Group Chief Commercial Officer & Member of the Executive Board, Europcar Michael Hartmann, Senior Executive Advisor, Executive Board, Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne Marco Nussbaum, Chief Enabling Officer, prizeotel Robert Wissmath, Managing Director, DICON Marketing and Consulting 13.00-14.00 Luxury & Lifestyle, Budget & Lifestyle: A Global Attitude Toward Life Turns The Conventional Hotel Industry Model Upside Down. How can a hotel find its (new) position in these times when everything is in flux? Moderated by: Claudia Roth, Advisor for Luxury Brands & Managing Partner, Totally Indispensable Panel guests: Emile Bootsma, Managing Director, Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin Dina Soliman, Director Brand Management Europe, InterContinental Hotel Group Michael Struck, Chief Executive Officer, Ruby Hotels 14.15-15.15 h CEO Panel: Design Flashes, Digitalization Or Sustainable Values? In which direction are hotels drifting, What do guests want? Moderated by: Maria Puetz-Willems, Editor in Chief, hospitalityInside.com Panel guests: Gesine Haag, Digital „ITB Hospitality Day“ – LIVE Stream under www.techcast.com/ events/itb/en Entrepreneur & Founder, barefoot living Hubert Viriot, CEO, YOTEL 15.30-16.30 h IT Takes Over Hotel Industry: How Software And Internet Distributors Are Shaking Up The Industry. While hotel managers are still arguing about commissions, behind the scene online distributors are engaged in an entirely different struggle. Moderated by: Wilhelm Konrad Weber, Partner, Swiss Hospitality Solutions Panel guests: Vassilis Syropoulos, Founder & Director, Juyo Analytics Peter Verhoeven, Managing Director EMEA, Booking.com Brannon Winn, Vice President Business Development EMEA, Sabre Hospitality Solutions Luis del Olmo, EVP Group Marketing & Asia Pacific, Meliá Hotels International and Executive Chairman, IDISO

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 FUTURE OF HOTEL MARKETING: HOW AN OCTOCOPTER AND VIDEOS CAN ENLIVEN IT Images from a drone Kaspar Mueller- Bringmann: Send a message in a 4-minutes clip! Jochen Tack (left) with his drone: it can fly up to 150 metres. Below: Hugenpoet Castle, a hotel in Essen, from the bird's eye, photographed by the drone. Essen/Cologne. The octopus with the red head stretches its legs from its body. This "octopus" does not particularly seek to swim in water – like an octopus – but rather prefers to take to the air. It is an octocopter – and is also commonly called a drone! It has nothing to do with delivering packages, but does deliver professional photos and videos from a bird's-eye view. And these are no dreams of the future, but reality. Professional Photographer Jochen Tack from Essen and his colleague have been the proud owners of such a flying robot for the past year. It flies over everything with a digital camera in its belly – landscapes and golf courses as well as hotels, pools and parks – and delivers impressions from an unusual perspective." The images contribute to the credibility terrifically," emphasises PR Professional Kaspar Mueller-Bringmann from Moenchengladbach. He has also recognised the opportunities of the "new media" and has been providing journalistic and content-focused videos for companies for many years. And this occasionally also involves a flying robot. This is the future – and likewise for hotel marketing. YouTube proves it: Moving images are playing an increasingly larger role and are fascinating the masses throughout the globe: 100 hours of video material is being uploaded on YouTube every minute. Apart from the Smartphone fun of the amateur filmmakers, absolutely new and professional dimensions have emerged in the meantime. And this could also bring fun and new customers to hotels. Imagine: As the car turns onto the gravel path and through the archway of the castle hotel entrance … as a lady with a champagne glass comes out onto the balcony and turns to the evening sun … as the golfer putts in at the 18th hole and contentedly places their clubs back in the bag … as the cooks harvest from the hotel garden and the hotel boat slowly careens across the sea. Moving images evoke emotions more strongly than frozen photos. The drone can fly alongside the car on the gravel path, it can capture motifs from the archway, stop in the air at a great distance from the lady on the balcony and fly in parallel with the boat moving through the sea. All of this provides new perspectives and new points of view for the somewhat different hotel story. "With the octocopter, we are also able to fly around in a ballroom…," Jochen Tack adds to once again demonstrate that no limits on imagination have been set for such "camera journeys". As a result, the times in which one could only produce aerial images with great expense and complexity and in which one might only expect photography with a general view at a 90 degree angle are now a thing of the past. Tack's drone flies up to 150 metres high and around the ground control with a radius of about 300 metres. Moreover, it can reach speeds up to 50 km/h. Theoretically, an octocopter can remain in the air for up to 20 minutes, but as a general rule, four, five-minute flights will produce a sufficient amount of video and image material. Ultimately, the drone is precisely controlled and also primarily follows a "screenplay": Jochen Tack moves the drone by remote control and at the same time, tracks the recordings live on the computer. As a result, he can zoom into or out from targets or change the flight angle or direction. And finally, the client can stand beside him and establish their own points of accent. With this, the photo and film professional's drone clearly stands in contrast to the amateur drones that are already to be had from 500 Euro and up. In addition, the disadvantage of the inexpensive models is that they can carry no appreciable load. Tack´s professional octocopter that had cost some ten thousand Euro weighs 5 kg and can there- fore also carry the 2 kilo-heavy digital, singlelens reflex camera. Alongside this, the drone disposes of a complex, high-tech camera suspension that holds the photo and video equipment almost entirely free of vibration. This all sounds exciting and innovative, but Jochen Tack and his colleague Ralf Schanze nevertheless still bump into a great deal of scepticism. "Many simply do not know what they should do with it," he has experienced. The moving images from the air are absolutely affordable: Camflight, as the name of the duo's joint company from Essen states, requires a daily rate of 1,000 to 1,800 Euro according to each effort and its scope of services. The team delivers the processed photos and, including all rights of use, the video as raw material and if requested, even the additional processing. Colleagues who are professionals themselves in this sector organise the sounds and music (www.cam-flight.de). Video clips with powerful content An individual who has already utilised the Camflight drone for his own clients is Kaspar Mueller-Bringmann, owner of the media office of the same name in Moenchengladbach (www.muebri.de). The PR Professional – originally a newspaper editor and radio and TV author – has been observing the career of the moving image on the Internet for a long time. "The video is the marketing instrument of today," he says. "Messages conveyed in 3 or 4-minute video clips via Internet are more effective because they can make companies, people and subjects understandable from the very beginning." The well-known saying from the print world that "a picture is worth a 1000 words" is most certainly proving itself to be true in the age of the Internet: Videos increase in their efficiency when the images are under laid with the appropriate music and powerful content. "Nobody should recite prospectus text," the media professional knows, because the people are oversaturated with advertisements. Consequently today, only facts and authenticity are believably conveyed – in an entertaining and sophisticated manner. In a world in which the search engines are beginning to rank "stories", quality content will become increasingly more valuable. The Schaffrath home furniture store, one of Mueller-Bringmann's PR customers, ventured a step into the video message with powerful content: Thus, the department store presents, for example, home trends or asks for decorating favorites. And after ten months on the Internet, nearly 10,000 users have clicked on the Schaffrath trend messages. In turn, Kaspar Mueller-Bringmann works together with professionals – for example, with a former BBC reporter for English settings – and to begin with, he composes "screenplays" for the client and even tries to find several locations for the 4 minute videos. He allows the key people to speak – always with the addressee in mind – and explain / demonstrate their products (the costs per project range between 3,000 and 4,000 Euro). His goal: Even in a world of transient images, an impression must still stick. A movement that, with interchangeable images and words, should particularly melt in the mouths of hotels. And perhaps 2015 will indeed also provide one hotel marketing manager or two with room for "new perspectives". / Maria Puetz-Willems Extract of hospitalityInside.com, December 19, 2014. March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 THE PANELISTS (selection) From left: Marcus Bernhardt, Emile Bootsma, Gesine Haag, Luis del Olmo, Stefan Hoelzner, Marco Nussbaum. Marcus Bernhardt, Chief Commercial Officer and Member of the Executive Board at Europcar Group. He held the position of COO in Radisson SAS Hotels & Resorts as well as the position of COO and CCO in Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts. In 2010, he was appointed Executive Vice President and Chief Services Officer (CSO), member of the Executive Board, at Gulf Air in Bahrain. Emile Bootsma already managed several prestigious Kempinski Hotels such as Vier Jahreszeiten Munich, Beijing Lufthansa Center and Corvinus Budapest. Previously, he has been responsible for Food & Beverage operations at ArabellaStarwoood Hotels in Cape Town and Munich. He has led the Kempinski flagship in Berlin since September 2014. Gesine Haag has long experience in developing brands in the internet. Besides working for various companies such as amazon.com, match.com, etc. she has great insights into the travel business such as Thomas Cook, Neckermann Travel etc. Her newly founded company Barefoot Living offers barefoot luxury – everything for a relaxed time and feeling good. Luis del Olmo has recently been appointed to Executive Chairman of Idiso S. A., a Melia Joint Venture in Hotel Technology and Distribution Marketing. Before joining Meliá Hotels International, Luis was involved in the areas of Operations, Sales and Marketing of Holiday Inn (IHG) in Europe, Middle East and Africa and part of the opening team of Disneyland Paris. Stefan Hoelzner leads the German KPMG Security Testing team. He is an expert for the technical hardening of IT systems and processes against unauthorized data access and the defense against IT espionage. He focuses on securing IT infrastructure, systems and applications from internet attacks and the protection of internal systems against abusive and unauthorized access to critical corporate data. Marco Nussbaum, Chief Enabling Officer of prizeotel, a young and unconventional budget design Claudia Roth, Peter Verhoeven, Hubert Viriot. group in Germany. He was working for Astron Hotels, in his final position as a member of the board in charge for Sales & Marketing. After NH Hoteles took over Astron, he was also responsible for the rebranding process. His last stop was with Ramada Hotels. Claudia Roth today is Managing Partner at Totally Indispensable, a service provider creating cultures of service excellence for global luxury brands. Previously, she worked for global brands of excellence, including IHG, Hilton, Shangri-La, Kempinski – and lately for The Leading Hotels of the World as Vice President Europe, Middle East & Africa. Peter Verhoeven, since July 2014 Managing Director Europe, Middle East and Africa of Booking.com. He began his career in operational positions at Golden Tulip and Gran Dorado. After ten years at Disneyland Paris in senior leadership roles, he joined Avis UK as Group Director of Sales for EMEA. In 2007, he began with Accor Hospitality as Managing Director in the Netherlands. In 2009, he took over the position of COO of Accor Hospitality Germany. In 2014, he moved to Paris to become the new CEO Hotel- Services Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. Hubert Viriot, Chief Executive of YOTEL. He joined the lifestyle hotel group in May 2014 to roll out an aggressive growth strategy. Prior to this, he was Chief Executive Officer of Raimon Land, a leading real estate developer in Thailand. Previously, Hubert spent 5 years with the global consulting firm HVS.

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Travelling seamlessly in future also means to travel with one ticket only and to get customized travel information pro-actively... FUTURE OF MOBILITY: THE MARKET LAGS FAR BEHIND THE EXPECTATIONS Travellers want more mobility Berlin. Nowadays, many people are afraid of total interconnectedness; however, the ideas of digitalisation that could simplify our life are just as far-reaching. It would be nice to ride on buses and trains with only one ticket or to obtain the next directional information by mobile phone without requesting it... Behind such promises of comfort for mobile customers is the multi-billion euro business with customer data. Travellers only want two things: fast service and more service offers. They would even be willing to pay for it, but the market lags behind in this respect. At a workshop in Berlin, politicians, consultants and transportation experts showed the great balancing act between customers' expectations and reality. Thomas Jarzombek, member of Deutscher Bundestag (Federal Parliament) for five years now, became chairman of the newly founded working group "Digitale Agenda" (digital agenda) of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in February; therefore, he is a clear advocate of the free trade agreement with the USA, a topic being discussed in Germany everywhere at the moment. "The sharing economy cannot be stopped," insisted Will Amazon sell railway tickets in future? the Member of Parliament: he thinks that Germany's strict data security contradicts user behaviour and that Germany will go down as an "island of the clueless". Because nobody is willing to grant a concession to the taxi provider Uber, for example. Therefore, Jarzombek sees himself assigning transportation licenses in the near future and creating a legal framework for "controlled selfregulation" this way. "We are in a phase of creative destruction," he summarised: a new provider comes, an old one has to go. The American word is "disruption" and the Americans like this. In Europe, people think differently. An example: Europeans are still sceptical concerning selfdriven cars. A high-tech enthusiast, the CDU politician therefore poses the following question: how is it possible that every seventh job in Germany depends on high-tech? Anxiety about the future plays a role on both sides – on the part of the advocates of technology as well as the adversaries. On the one hand, millions of people are glued to their screen displays; on the other hand, many people switch off their screens deliberately. And many people have contrary opinions about this, whether the protection of businesses or the rights and the protection of people are more important... The annual "Media Workshop" of the Travel Industry Club in Berlin also showed how strongly the hyper-dynamic development of the internet and digital interconnectedness already intervene in our lives and will continue to do so in the future. Lack of transparency Nicole Goebel, partner at the business consultancy Accenture raised her voice for the travellers/customers. Annually, the consultancy surveys 4,000 rail travellers in eight western European countries and is sure that their wishes could be transferred to the airline and hotel industry too: "Today, customers demand that their trip be booked from door to door consistently – they are only more patient when carrying out these bookings on their mobile devices," is one of the conclusions. The general lack of transparency concerning rates in the individual industries, in combination with non-transparent conditions, is still a great access hurdle for the motivation of travellers to undertake more online activities. "One third of all travellers are confused," says Goebel, "therefore, comparison portals will continue to boom." The frustration of the travellers about the lack of transparency will lead to different communication in concrete terms: to "push & pull". This means, travellers no longer have to request information when getting off the city train, but will obtain directions from the city train to their destination on their smartphones "unrequested" in future. Open-minded Southern Europeans Without question, customers want fast service and additional service offers – e.g. entertainment on long train rides. According to Accenture, customers are even willing to pay for that. In return, customers agree to divulge data about themselves (but this does not mean that they permit personal data to be passed on to third parties). Today, 65 percent of the Germans would provide "customized data" – in Italy and Spain, 84 percent are already willing. According to Accenture, the actual market development lags far behind the expectations of the customers. German customers would like to use their mobile phones more often for ticket purchases. Why can train tickets (nearly) only be purchased at Deutsche Bahn? Customers could also imagine purchasing their tickets via Amazon, Google, Facebook or iTunes, following the motto: providers who are able to deliver Christmas presents at home on time are also able to sell tickets. This is transferable to the hotel industry: why are customers only able to purchase their travels via travel agencies or OTAs? The last announcement of Amazon, which is planning to sell hotel rooms soon, shows that the role allocation in the market might change completely and massively. Seamless travelling? The juggernaut Bahn is a mobility giant and therefore, just as much a sought-after database. Every step in the direction of digital interconnectedness taken by DB was a step into the future. Nobody can imagine this better than Oliver Wolff, Managing Director of Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (VDV, Association of German Transport Companies). The VDV is the industry association of local public transport, which transports 20 million passengers in its regional trains, buses or city trains every day, for example. What would happen if DB and VDV merged their offers digitally as they are players with large volume – enabling non-cash and seamless travelling with all means of transportation? Wolff got these ideas from abroad, from Japan, amongst others, where all travellers are able to travel seamless with the "SUICA Card" ("Super Urban Intelligent Card") in the entire train network. In addition, the chip card works contact-free and is a money card at the same time. In the meantime, people are able to pay with this card in many shops, which led to Wolff's heretical comment: "In Japan, they build new shopping malls over new train stations and transportation hubs, in Germany they build fountains." / map Extract of hospitalityInside.com, december 19, 2014. hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 + Ongoing hospitalityInside surveys +++ Media partnerships +++ Ongoing hospitalityInside surveys +++ Media partnersh 4TH “HOSPITALITYINSIDE INVESTMENT BAROMETER” SUPPORTED BY UNION INVESTMENT In search of sentiment – live and online Augsburg/Hamburg. Your opinion is important! hospitalityInside and Union Investment are inviting hotel experts to participate in their spring survey: it will only take two minutes and a few clicks to tell us your opinion on how the hotel real estate market can develop further... The hotel market is booming. Therefore, the 4th “Investment Baromter” is asking about yields, amongst other things. All those who participate live at stand 109 in hall 9 at the ITB 2015 or online at www.hospitalityInside.com will receive all results. Tourism is booming: according to UNWTO, the number of overnight stays was 1.138 billion last year! And the outlook is still bright... This also leads to an increasing demand for (new) hotels. Therefore, hotel investors are looking for profitable hotel markets and expansionkeen hotel groups. hospitalityInside.com and Union Investment are jointly tracing this sentiment. The hotel trade magazine and Germany’s leading investment company with a focus on hotels want to catch this sentiment in concrete terms... The last and 3rd “Investment BAROMETER” at the turn of the year 2014/15 showed clearly: investors, owners, and project developers, amongst others, saw the current offer as a positive effect for their own businesses and are even expecting stimulation in their pipelines in the next six months – which implies even more offers for new hotels. Therefore, the new survey for the first half of 2015 poses specific follow-up questions: 1. In which direction are European hotel investment markets tending in the next 6-12 months or in the next 24-48 months respectively? 2. The demand on the hotel investment markets remains high. Which are your business investment strategies in response to this pricing pressure? Log in! At the ITB stand or online – 5 questions with only a few clicks in multiplechoice mode... The survey at ITB 2015 Berlin takes place at the joint stand “World of Hospitality” in Hall 9/Stand 109. There, you will find a specific survey terminal. In order to participate in the online survey, please follow the link at www.hospitalityInside.com. We are looking forward to your opinion! All survey participants will obtain all details and analyses as a PDF document in a personal eMail later on. Parts of the survey results will be published in hospitalityInside’s magazine. People interested in the survey will be able to find a summarizing graph under “Market Check” on the website. The 2nd “Investment BAROMETER” confirmed the hotel real estate market’s overall good sentiment in the first quarter of 2014. The respondents expressed the following: Currently, yield reflections are driving the investments in hotels, followed by diversification and security aspects. In the first survey, which was related to the fourth quarter of 2013, the survey’s participants professed that core properties are in very high demand. And, in specific terms, Aparthotels and Serviced Apartments were attested to have the largest potential to become an investment product. / map WHAT DOES TOURISM HAVE TO DO WITH HOTEL PROPERTIES? People who travel also need a place to sleep! The hotel industry is a large pillar in the tourist business; its services have a great influence on the travellers’ satisfaction with their holidays. Therefore, hotel operators are always competing with new concepts to win over more demanding customers. Currently, new, slim, and smart lifestyle hotels are flooding the market – all over the globe. However, the chains are only “leaseholders”, the hotel properties belong to third parties. Today, these might be affluent private individuals as well as funds or insurances, for example. A growing number of these investor types have become enthused with hotels in the meantime. They are able to conclude long-term agreements with one hotel operator, for example; this means, they communicate with only one “leaseholder” for 15 to 20 years – which makes life much easier compared to residential or commercial properties, where leaseholders change far more frequently. Now, investors, just like hotel operators, are intent upon being represented in growth markets or at promising locations. The property has to fit the hotel concept and vice versa. The better these two harmonise, the more successful the hotel. In order to achieve this, both parties have to make many small adjustments to the parameters as competition is great and the customers are demanding. Therefore, hotel investors are posing the same questions as other investors do: how much will my yield be, in which hotel segment should I invest, which locations are stable, which countries and tourist regions will have enough potential for the next 20 years? The answers to these questions are very exciting. / map

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 März 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 HOW PURCHASING COMPANIES VIEW TRENDS – YOUNG HOTELIERS CALCULATE DIFFERENTLY The standard off-the-shelf is taboo Wiesbaden. The new hotelier generation is not only a host, but also a business person. They spend much more energy on calculating their interior design purchases than their parents – and make a financially-driven distinction under the rules of a short-lived or long-lasting investment. There, the long-lasting carpet wrestles with the ten euro chair. In the meantime, sustainability has also become an undeniable purchasing criterion. And individuality. Even the hoteliers who purchase their equipment from central sources, ask, in part for exclusive pieces of furniture. However, every trend also has its countertrend again. Susanne Stauss has carefully listened to what the professionals from the large purchasing companies Progros, Atlas and Hogast have to say about the spending and trend behaviour of the hoteliers. When hoteliers think about investments in their properties, one thing should then be clear to them: "Basically, the guest demands quality on all levels. Well-running properties can satisfy this demand for quality with ongoing investments. If a property has not invested for a couple of years, the guest sees this immediately and accordingly reviews the holiday offer negatively on the review platforms," says Dietmar Winkler, Area Manager Marketing, Communication and Personnel Services with the Hogast Purchasing Cooperative from Anif in Austria. The latter is particularly aware of the young people. "The succeeding generation of hotel operators are not only hosts, but also business people," knows Wolfgang Hertrich, Managing Director of Atlas Zentraleinkauf (Atlas Central Purchasing) from Bad Kissingen. His company has specialised in the purchasing of capital goods and consumer durables for hotels since 1978 and counts around 520 private hotels as his customers. Tommi Huuhtanen, Chief Buyer for the Progros purchasing company founded in 1986 in Eschborn with 664 hotel customers in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Spain has determined likewise. "The customers are thinking more about sustainability," he says. Ecological and social aspects play a big role in the product choice. "A chair that is produced for ten Euro and only has a short life span burdens the environment with its production just the same as the more expensive, qualitatively superior one that lasts longer, however," says Huuhtanen. The industry now understands this. At the moment, the modern hard floors are sought after as floor coverings, which he can nevertheless only partially recommend. "Even if the design flooring manufacturer delivers 10,000 rather than 5,000 square metres, we sometimes advise our customers against it and suggest more noise dampening materials for certain areas," he says. Scandic Hamburg, chic and sustainable at the same time. Environmental-friendliness becomes more and more important. An absolute "No-Go" is also the frequently desired parquet flooring in the buffet area. Exclusively instead of paper maché Every trend has a countertrend: Not all hoteliers, says Progros Managing Director Jochen Oehler, focus on the highest quality in the furnishings area. "The rooms must be stylish, modern and functional. However, some implement the strategy of completely renovating every five to six years instead and as a result, are not vigilant with regard to high durability," he says and is presumably thinking about the budget properties in particular. Hertrich has also become familiar with the other side of this coin: "We are property partners with 25hours hotel, they think absolutely differently. There, the items that do not prove satisfactory themselves are simply exchanged after three months." However, thanks to their great popularity and well full books, this group can also afford such experiments. Atlas exclusively produces the unusual design elements of 25hours with craft companies, as for example, the individually designed bathroom stools at the Hotel Hamburg Hafen City. "This indicates an additional important trend," he says, "that of the individuality." In terms of the furnishings in the hotels, it is becoming increasingly more important to produce a relationship to the location, to the operator and perhaps even to the target group. Many of his customers have interfused an individual corporate design that orientates itself, e.g., around a regional theme. "The deer, forest or hunting motifs at the country hotels spring to mind," he says. "This red thread must be implemented authentically, gently and modernly throughout the property; without this, it becomes a Mickey Mouse Hotel." Traditional lighting would then look like this: The deer antlers could perhaps receive a bit of colour and before an appropriate background will become a modern eye-catcher; the history of the property is denied without this. "It is an enormous pleasure to individually furnish the hotels with the owner and move away from the room for 1,998 Euro and paper maché pieces of furniture." Flatscreens vs. refined accessories Unlike a few years ago, Atlas customers are now intensively investing in the new outfitting of their bathrooms. "The private hotel industry has long allowed this area to slide because it is very expensive," says Hertrich. "Instead, newly carpeted floors were implemented or curtains were ordered. But today, the guest can no longer be offered a small bathroom with beige tiles." Large surface areas and mirrors, possibly also daylight are sought after. "We are now working together in this area with building contractors because walls must often be removed or a window must be installed." Atlas and Progros submitted a further big trend in unison: "The industry has discovered the light," says Oehler. On the one hand, rooms can be wonderfully designed with light and on the other hand, high energy savings can be achieved with new lights. "In earlier times, we achieved a good deal of success with LED lighting," says Hertrich. "The same is true for flat screen televisions. I always preach to the hoteliers: You can invest 10,000 Euro in a room, but if you nevertheless allow an old tube television in there, it will be read in the review portals that the property is not up-to-date. If instead, you install a new television and spruce up the room a tiny bit, you Tommi Huuhtanen, Progros: Purchase only what makes sense! will immediately receive better reviews." Progros also deals intensively with innovative technologies including flatscreens. "The latest blockbuster is the so-called Suite Pads – Tablet PCs that are available in the rooms welcoming the guest and with which they can then order room service, for example." says Oehler. Conference and restaurant secondary As a counter-action, Huuhtanen has had his buyers select refined accessories with great haptics. "We registered, e.g., a direct increase in orders for high-quality menus", he says and estimates that for the well-to-do guests over 50, the haptics will be more decisive in the future than the technology. Hertrich can attest to a current restraint in investments in the conference area. "The tables and chairs that were purchased for these areas some years ago are very robust. And hoteliers are refraining from investments in the conference technology because it is too quickly outdated. The trend is clearly moving toward leasing here." According to Oehler, an openness within the restaurant area is clearly asserting itself. The reception, lounge, bar, restaurant and kitchen are fluidly melding into each other without barriers. "Culinary concepts that recover the heat and can take advantage of this energy are particularly sought after here." All of the purchasing companies are also increasingly seeing themselves as advisors to their customers. "We want to be even more proactively on the move within the market for our customers in the future than in the past and discover things for them that they were otherwise not aware of," explains Oehler. For this purpose, his team visits international trade shows and as well specialised supplier trade shows (wellness trade shows, e.g.). "The hotel industry is the largest customer segment for less than ten percent of our suppliers. This presents us with a valuable look outside the box." / Susanne Stauss Extract of hospitalityInside.com, July 18, 2014. Creative and colourful: Fireplace in the lobby of Adina Berlin Checkpoint Charly. March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 ips +++ Ongoing hospitalityInside surveys +++ Media partnerships +++ Ongoing hospitalityInside surveys +++ Media pa B2B FAIR LOOP A COMPLETE SUCCESS: MIRROR FOR LUXURY TRENDS Small, sophisticated, personal Frankfurt/M. The ILTM in Cannes is considered a hot spot for B2B in the international luxury business; last year though ‘loop’ (“luxury on our planet”) set a new emphasis as the first B2B luxury trade fair in Frankfurt for the important Germany, Austria and Switzerland source market. In conversations with hoteliers from 31 countries as well as with hosted buyers from 12 countries, hospitalityInside.com also got a feel for what well-heeled guests are looking for and how hotels are looking to benefit. The second loop this year will start again right after ITB from 9-11 March 2015 – a second time at Kempinski Hotel Gravenbruch in Frankfurt. hospitalityInside.com will also accompany the event again as a media partner. Last year, 70 hotel representatives met 70 pent-up purchasers. In 15-minute intervals, they switched business partners. The result was as challenging as it was efficient, as both parties admitted. The sales professionals generally found this quarter of an hour enough to find out whether the offer was attractive or whether the wishes of their interlocutor were capable of being fulfilled. Motives for taking part at the Loop premier differed greatly: Joseph Dajana, Sales Manager from Dolder Grand in Zurich, expected new contacts “in this very difficult German market”, for Xavier Echeverria from the tour operator Latin Trails from Ecuador, Loop was an appealing follow-on to the ITB in Berlin, for Daria Nykyforova and Galina Martynyuk from the design hotel 11Mirrors in Kiev, it was a glimmer of hope in these politically turbulent days around the annexation of Crimea, and for Séverine Montoni from the luxury hotel Les Suites in the French Courchevel, Loop provided a forum for detailed explanations for personal USPs... The participating hotels ranged from small Kick-off for the big loop closing party 2014, at Kameha Suites Frankfurt. boutique hotels under private ownership, consortium hotels (e.g. Design Hotels, Relais & Châteaux and Leading Hotels) all the way to renowned brand hotels (e.g. Kerzner, Sofitel, Six Senses, Virgin Limited Edition). The range of tour operators/travel agents and individual buyers was also broad – from Thomas Cook to Lufthansa City Center travel agents as well as niche operators and individual purchasers. Trust decides – on all sides “For our clients, the destination is of primary interest, then the hotel” Steven Becher reported, Junior Product Manager of Thomas Cook Selection, which brings together the travel agent’s luxury hotels. “The decision per booking is ultimately taken by the person in the hotel,” he said on the fringe of the event. For this reason, he was looking for trustworthy hotel sales managers. After all, no travel agent tests every hotel for its wealthy clients. Stefan Laubner, owner of the travel agency Mannheimer Hof, a Lufthansa City Center partner, has just as many business as leisure clients. Its leisure clients include many demanding individual travellers. “Our guests ask for everything, in particular travellers from the US demand a lot,” he said. For this reason, he invested two days in the Loop circle in order to make contacts to destination agencies. The atmosphere at the conference hotel, the Kempinski Gravenbruch near Frankfurt, was relaxed and personal from the very beginning. It was also the first large event in the newly refurbished and elegant banquet hall of the luxury hotel. Lobster Experience, the organiser of the new B2B trade fair, underlined the personal nature of the event by sending its team members dressed casually in jeans and Loop shirts; their job also included ensuring that each person complied with the rotation principle. This got conversations going right from the very start and these continued without further prompting into the breaks and over lunch among the 140 persons taking part. Loop to take place annually Astrid Oberhummer and Andreas Mueller, Managing Directors of Lobster Group, are pleased with the success of their loop premier: “There is, meanwhile, a strong sales market for luxury travel, but no corresponding platform on the German-speaking market on which providers and sellers can meet and exchange ideas on developments, trends or business relationships. For this reason, we have developed this concept to fill perfectly the gap.” (www.lobsterexperience.com and www.little-lobster. com). / Maria Puetz-Willems Extract of hospitalityInside, March 21, 2014. SAVE THE DATE! loop 2015, March 9-11, 2015 Kempinski Gravenbruch Frankfurt

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 FAIRTRADE PRODUCTS GROWING IN POPULARITY – NEW USP FOR HOTEL INDUSTRY Fair is Eco & Social Vienna. "Mmmmm, the orange juice in the minibar, the refreshing shower gel... Fair tastes and smells better" or "the soft cotton bedding, the coffee in the morning... I love it when hotels offer Fairtrade products." Is such ebullient praise by a small number of people on Expedia, TripAdvisor, Facebook and Twitter to be taken seriously? Those who calm the social and ecological conscience of their guests are in trend – and remain in conversation. Ethical trade and sustainability are also to be found within the hotel industry. If one believes the hoteliers and suppliers, then such Social Media promotions are to be taken seriously. The dedication to quality and sustainability apparently pays off. Courage must be taken – and communicated appropriately, as industry representatives confirm. The hotel industry is now breaking new ground and forming consortia regarding Fairtrade. An increasing number of Fairtrade products tailored to the external market are coming onto the market, such as miniatured products and textiles. Hotel guests can soon relax in "Fairtrade hotel rooms". The Green Hotel Summit by the Trans-Fair consortium with the BTME Hotel Certifiers (www.certified.de) will be held in Berlin at the end of April. Fair products will be included in the catalogue of criteria. Pioneers in fair trading Founded in Germany in 1991, the Verein AG, Kleinbauernkaffee e.V., renamed itself in 1992 as Trans-Fair Inc. (www.fairtradedeutschland.de/bot/fairtrade-in-english). The foundation organisations come from the areas of development cooperations, churches and consumer protection. The Trans-Fair Seal was also introduced in the same year. The Fairtrade International label organisation (www.fairtrade.net) was then brought to life in 1997. Fairtrade is a social seal that stands for fair prices, better terms of employment and environment protection. The revenues are rising annually. In 2012, German consumers bought Fairtrade certified products with a value of around half a billion Euro – an increase of 33 percent in comparison to 2011. Fairtrade began in Austria 20 years ago and today, turns over 107 million Euro through licence partners. Approximately 70 percent of more than 800 Fairtrade products in Austria also carry a bio seal. Proof of the fact that sustainability in the industrial countries has, at minimum, become a lifestyle in the meantime. The products with the green-blue seal have established themselves within the catering trade and hotel industry over the years. For Hartwig Kierner, Managing Director of Fairtrade Austria, the out-of-house area belongs as the engine of Fairtrade. "Nearly onethird of the Fairtrade coffee revenues are achieved in the hotel industry and catering trade. For example, more than 1,500 cafés, bakeries, hotels, restaurants and canteens pour fairly traded hot drinks." More than 20,000 gastronomic operations in Germany carry fairly traded products. Today, the organisation with its headquarters in Bonn is virtually seen as a pioneer of the sustainable seal of approval. For Kierner, this development is proof that the quality of the Fairtrade products meets the high demands of the out-of-house area. "Worldwide, the more than 1.3 million Fairtrade producers who find better sales prospects through the rising demand for fair raw materials benefit from this positive trend." Social & Bio – the next big trend? The hotel industry has been ruled by two subjects in recent years: Design and budget. The success of young and rapidly expanding brands like Motel One led to the fact that the established players were put under pressure and had to become creative themselves. Today, the guest checks into nicer and more functional hotel rooms for less money. Will Social and Bio now lead to the next big trend swing within the hotel industry? A great deal is going on within the industry: Daniel Orasche from the Austrian Kohl & Partner hotel and tourism consulting firm from Vienna/Villach is constantly confronted with the subject of sustainability at the ecological and social levels, particularly with the development of strategies with hoteliers: "Some already specialised hotel operations work on concepts at the offer level that dive deeper and deeper into the subject and as a result, additionally distinguish themselves with their even more specialised offers." Orasche turns to Austria for a great number of Best Practice examples: The Chesa Valisa of Klaus Kessler in the Kleinwalsertal, the bio hotel of Daberer in Dellach in the Carinthian Drautal, or the bio children's hotel, Benjamin in Hohen Tauern. Nevertheless, one thing is indisputable: Only when the hotelier also actually lives the "green life philosophy" with their sustainability concepts will they be successfully established in this offer niche since the guest is also prepared to pay more for the authentic concepts with the "green life philosophy". Quality convincing Family-controlled hotels, wellness les, the city hotel industry: No seg- tempment in the hostel business can live without them. Small hoteliers primarily decide on them out of personal conviction. More seldom does the standard come from the headquarters of a large hotel chain. Although: The big players in the industry are also happily scribing their ecologically sustainable behaviour on a banner and are holding it fast in their statues. The good thing about the development: Quality and sustainability cannot be simulated. "To me, as a private hotelier, the sustainability lies very much in the heart", according to Peter Buozc with the Viennese Schick Hotels. Ten percent of the add-on costs that are thereby incurred in the F&B area are "costs from conviction" for the hotelier. Marion Schumacher, until recently Vice President PR & Communications with Moevenpick Hotels & Resorts, believes that hotels today must decide whether they would like to use affordable ecological products of the highest standards and, if necessary, make light compromises in favour of Fairtrade. Moevenpick pours its own guests a biological coffee brand developed in cooperation with Fairtrade. But not in all countries because it is not possible due to various import conditions. In the meantime, however, Moevenpick pours six millions cups of the coffee brand annually (www. moevenpick-hotels.com). Michaela Reitterer, President of the Austrian Hotelier Consor- tium (OEHV) and owner of the first zero-energy Living Fairtrade also means paying for it. Hoteliers will have to make up their mind. Pursuing Fairtrade only for image reasons will not work with guests. hotel, the Boutique Hotel Stadthalle Vienna, does not think highly of superficial image care. Sustainability is a "matter of faith" for them. The OEHV President continues further: "I also appeal to the right staff members for my operation with this. The same holds true for my guests. They would not feel comfortable at a hotel that only operates with Fairtrade for purposes of image." The traditional hotel industry is increasingly approaching the subject. In Austria and Germany, many hoteliers are choosing local consortia that are a Bio and Fairtrade. Proper communications is key for Fairtrade In the Danish capital of Copenhagen, the Brøchner family is operating the first CO2 neutral chain in the world (Brøchner Hotels). Energy savings, organic food and the awareness of local products also count alongside Fairtrade in the already frequently awardwinning hotel concepts. So, for example, the interior arrangements donated by furniture designers from the surrounding Nørreport quarter were coordinated. A hotelier can receive a great deal of inspiration in Copenhagen – the city also carries the 2014 title "European Environmental Capital". Andreas Karsten, leader of Vienna International Hotels & Resorts, also sees the industry as holding responsibility: "We as hoteliers can influence the subject of Fairtrade commerce in the future." VI has been offering Fairtrade products at the Loipersdorf Spa & Conference Hotel since the takeover there. The spa area offers three chocolate treatments together with the chocolate pioneer, Zotter. "If the origin of the product is properly communicated, the guest is absolutely prepared to pay more," Sabine Hackl, communications leader at VI Hotels, confirms the experiences of the company. Since 2013, Austria Trend Hotels has also been placing focus on health together with regional partners and has converted the breakfast to regional and biological food. As the only hotel group in Austria to date, the 29 properties have been obtaining their biologically and sustainably grown coffee and tea as well as the muesli from the domestic bio pioneer, Sonnentor. An additional cooperation with the Genussregion Austria consortium makes Austria Trend Hotels one of the largest buyers of regional products. "We are Austrian, bio and healthy along the way", says Andreas Berger, Managing Director of the group (www. austria-trend.at). hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 THE NEXT PLAGUE: EXCHANGEABLE LIFESTYLE BRANDS FLOOD THE MARKET Copy & Paste Aloft – the sister brand of W benefits of W's success. As she got "the DNA of W". The lifestyle brand in the IHG portfolio. Wiesbaden. Everybody is longing for lifestyle. It sounds like a fun, comfortable, and fashionable life – and the hotel is the perfect stage for it. Moreover, the term is wonderfully vague and can be adapted to any lifestyle mood in any country. This is probably the reason why the chains are now flooding the market with new labels in increasingly shorter intervals. In reality, they do not provide much individualism but empty, interchangeable catchwords instead. Our comparison shows: The creativity of the inventors of lifestyle brands can be reduced in brief to "copy & paste". And everything started so honestly once. Lifestyle hotels are in – and have been for quite a time now. But in the meantime, it has changed, as always: The creative kick comes from the private ones, the chains simply create a multipliable product off the rack. Will the mass labels be able to take up the successes of the originals or do they only have one goal in the end – to become fashionably leaner in order to save costs in the background? To some insiders, the lifestyle wave seems like déjà-vu. Was it not the same with the design hotels? 25 years ago, Ian Schrager was able win over Philippe Starck for the new design of the Paramount in New York; 22 years ago, the German Claus Sendlinger developed the idea of design hotels and thus created the brand Design Hotels. He recognised the marketing power of this segment very quickly and the chains immediately pounced on it – with fashion desig-

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Good products and a professional communication about Fairtrade made the Moevenpick Hotel Amsterdam being awarded. Fairtrade best-sellers. Hotel groups like Moevenpick have long been trying to demonstrate a sustainable services balance. "We have striven a long way with our environmental programme", explains Ola Ivarsson, Chief Operating Officer of the hotel group for Europe, "and there are many ways to ecologically and responsibly behave.” But hoteliers are also thinking outside of Fairtrade. Thus, the Travel Charme Hotels offers the high-quality Mama Mina Estate Coffee from Nicaragua that is enhanced with a special roasting by the "Berliner Kaffeeroesterei". Alongside its special quality, the hand-picked coffee from Nicaragua also distinguishes itself through the social responsibility that is pursued during the production. For over 100 years, the owners of the family-controlled plantation have been involved in a fair commercial structure of the popular awakener: Because the Mam Mina Coffee goes directly from the producer to the end customer, extra revenue originates that immediately flows into the social and ecological system of the plantation. As a result, for example, the children of the coffee farmers are able to attend kindergarten and school up to the sixth grade. Fair sells more While the consumption of conventional coffee has been decreasing in the EU as well as in the USA, the consumption of Fairtrade coffee is rising. The rate in the overall turnover is low, as Hartwig Kierner, Managing Director of Fairtrade Austria, explains with the example of coffee: "Worldwide, only 30 percent of the coffee made under Fairtrade terms are also sold at fair prices." Too many offers on the market decrease the prices from the demand side, as with last year when the overproduction in Brazil drove the coffee prices down worldwide. Farmers are mostly unprotected from the dramatic drop in prices. Fairtrade counters this. Cooperatives provide for the fact that the coffee is sold at minimum prices. "Make our coffee known, bring it to Europe", asks Tuy Banluthay. The resolute, headstrong woman manages a coffee plantation on the Bolaven Plateau. The centre of the coffee growing is there in the south of the Asian interior. Most farmers – nearly 1,800 families – are a member of the Association des Groupements de Producteurs de Café, briefly called AGPC. "With the cooperative, we no longer depend on the intermediaries," narrates Kham Pong Sopaksai, Village Director and Coffee Farmer. Coffee made in Laos Before the first families in the village joined the cooperative with the name "Kilometre 43" in 2005, the intermediaries had the say. Many families lived hand to mouth and could not allow a school education for their children. The buildings on stilts of wood rather resembled barracks. Today, 52 AGPC farmers manage 250 hectares of area under cultivation. The profits financed the expansion of the sanitation facilities in the village, schools are built and new machines are purchased for the coffee processing. The cooperative has also been Fairtrade-certified since 2009. / Romana Kanzian Extract of hospitalityInside.com, April 11, 2014. Klaus Kloebel, a consultant for the catering trade and hotel industry from Vienna observes a continually growing demand, particularly in the MICE segment. "One no longer comes across the subject of environment in all sorts of segments. Thus, the 'Green Events' certification by the Austrian Ministry of Environment is playing an increasingly larger role in the assignment," Kloebel believes. "The products and food must, of course, fit with it." However, it is not only Kloebel who sees the reinforced development in the direction of "Green". Christa Thomasser, Travel Manager with Infineon, confirms that many companies also consider the subject of sustainability in their advertising criteria. Booking hotels that bring the necessary attention to the subject is preferred. However, expert Kloebel also clarifies: "No one wears rose-tinted bio-glasses; economic efficiency still comes before the common good." Money can be saved if sustainability is properly implemented; as is the case with the Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers, the largest ecological hotel in Scandinavia with 366 rooms. The property was opened in 2009 with the European Climate Summit and saves 140,000 Euro annually in comparison to other properties. Happily paying for Fairtrade bedding A small class of guests, who also otherwise sustainably use, is quite prepared to choose a hotel according to ecological criteria. The guest, explains consultant Orasche, wants first and foremost to replenish their life energy in a very short period of time. From a certain quality category and price range, the fulfilment of their expectations is important to the guest with the environment playing a minor role alongside. Furthermore, they often think egoistically and barely "sustainably" because the sustainability of their own body is more essential to the stressed guest. The closer the product itself is to the guest, the greater is their readiness to lay more Euro on the table for the Bio and Social. Robert Rogner Junior of Rogner Hotels (www.rogner.com) has gained similar experience. "We started six years ago. The subjects of Bedding and Cleaning were important to us. With the Salesianer Miettex supplier, we gained a congenial partner who understood our endeavours. There is a great deal of clever thinking behind it", Rogner praises. Today, the entire hotel in Rogner Bad Blumau is re-fitted with Fairtrade bedding. "We have been surprised ourselves at the massive, positive resonance", says Rogner. "But apparently, the guest is ready to pay more for the materials or products that come from near to them." The Dutch are the front-runners in Fairtradecertified hotel bedding; the country management of Fairtrade there is very innovative and active in the implementation. "Additionally at our Dutch hotels, the entire stock of hotel bedding is made of Fairtradecertified cotton", confirms Moevenpick Spokesperson, Schumacher. There is a "Green F Floor" at the Steigenberger Airport Hotel in Amsterdam. Guests there pay a surcharge of 10 Euro per night and are pleased with the handmade Lavita beds with blankets and pillowcases from 100 percent Fairtrade products. Although the rooms have no minibar, there is a fridge that switches itself on and off itself with the checking in and out. Fairtrade products to fill the minibar are available at reception. Best-seller coffee – sponsor of the locals The coffee definitively belongs among the Advertisement March 2015 Dear Readers, In this magazine, we focus on the content of the „ITB ners and designers including Bvlgari, Armani and Missoni. Today, it is not always easy to recognise a real Design Hotel among all the other design hotels at first glance: not because the copies are so good, but because there are too many copies. Today, Design Hotels is a subsidiary brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts. There are tangible economical reasons for this as well as a spiritual kinship between these two: In 1998, Starwood invented the W brand – in order to strike out new paths through the combination of design, fashion, music and entertainment, similar to Claus Sendlinger's progressive way of thinking in 1993. Starwood's ambition is to create a "balance between style and substance" everywhere... an appropriate description in the brand's portrait of W. Nobody wants to do without lifestyle Since W, the lifestyle wave has been rolling around the globe in nearly every country. Starting in Amsterdam, citizenM triggered the first accents of a new generation, nearly at the same time as Yotel; Starwood created the cheaper W sister Aloft (perfectly marketed with the slogan "with the DNA of W"); in Germany, Motel One followed as low budget design chain, 25hours hotels as atypical theme hotels as well as pentahotels, revived by star-designer Matteo Thun, amongst others, who breathed a new lifestyle touch into them. citzenM – budget or lean luxury? For sure, it's lifestyle. At first, many hotels belittled the new competitors, but then they started thinking about fashionable brands of their own (Bvlgari by Ritz-Carlton, Missoni by Rezidor (no more alive), ME by Mélia, Indigo by IHG, etc.), or they started clearing out their existing ones and spiced them up (Holiday Inn, ibis, H2, H4 or H+ Hotels by Hospitality Alliance). Others (Marriott, Hilton, Jumeirah) announced new lifestyle brands over many years, but their development took a long time coming. In the meantime, Marriott has developed a Moxy, Hilton a Canopy, Rezidor a Radisson Red, Jumeirah a Venu, Hyatt a Centric and even Steigenberger is talking about a new brand… but are these "new" concepts really able to keep what they promise in their fullbodied and sometimes rather mysterious messages? And does the creation of constantly new brands make sense at all? USP lags behind The value of a brand is defined by its clear profile. Business students learn this principle in their very first semester at university. And successful hoteliers, regardless if they are from private hotels or a chain, take this approach to heart. Those who create brands mostly fill in a market gap. But brands become endangered when they become commodity. And this is exactly what has happened to many hotel groups with their existing brands lately, says Simon Allison of the association of hotel property investors Hoftel: Newer concepts are "new creations of older brands, which are in Hospitality Day“ and other hotel-related events taking place at ITB. Furthermore, you will find excerpts from the hospitalityInside.com online magazine. danger of becoming old-fashioned," he explained in December 2014 during an interview with hospitalityInside.com. There is a question mark behind the high expectations of the chains and their franchisees. One reason: From a historical viewpoint, lifestyle concepts are (almost) outdated and are therefore at risk becoming exchangeable again. Lobby lounges for chilling, eating and working, grab&go food, rooms without cupboards, bathrooms with rainforest showers, free Wi-Fi – where are they not available yet? While some of the large chains are still tinkering on their first "lifestyle concept", other pioneers are developing further and are honing their profiles. Examples: In January, the Motel One Group separated from nine older hotels in less optimal locations and handed them over to Louvre's Premiere Classe. This way, the group only concentrates on top new hotels at top city locations. Or another example: 25hours hotels have sharpened their corporate philosophy. After the opening of hitherto seven hotels in the most important German-speaking metropolises, the makers of 25hours analysed their most important products and re-defined the brand's core values. The first 25hours Hotel was opened as a clear commitment to "affordable style" in Hamburg in 2003. "We wanted to create something cool, fresh, dynamic. Back then, good design hotels were only available in the upper price segment, always with the ballast of top services. Fun and sexiness were missing. The gap in the market was found," remembers Kai Hollmann, shareholder at 25hours. 25hours defines new essentials With every new 25hours Hotel, new product and service facets were developed. In the "25hours essentials", which were defined in 2008, innovative services as well as responsibility towards society and staff members

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 played an important role in addition to dynamics and design. Prior to the now upcoming expansion into foreign-language countries, the concept had to be re-defined again. "The further the geographical and cultural distance, the more important it is that everyone has the same pictures in their minds," explains brand manager Bruno Marti. With the help of the psychological measuring of effects, the existing 25hours hotels were set in the human motivation system of security, thrill and autonomy. At the same time, a survey was carried out among the shareholders and the hotel management. "A real eye-opener," says CEO Christoph Hoffmann enthusiastically, "we never surveyed our guests in the eleven business years. We already have enough opinions of our own. However, the measuring of effects gives us a neutral evaluation of the products, independent of tastes." After several workshops and heated discussions about the future "look & feel" of a 25hours Hotel, the "25hours essentials" were re-phrased. Remarkable: Design only plays a marginal role now. Christoph Hoffmann: "The focal point of our brand is experience and adventure. Multi-faceted rooms also play an important role here, of course." The chains' desperate race to catch up Many chains will never be able to achieve the USP of 25hours due to their stringent standardisation. Every hotel is an arbitrary grab bag with appropriate, timely services. In the hotel there is always something going Moxy – lifestyle standardized. on: International travellers and local guests form a community, they talk to each other and are entertained. The team does not take itself all too seriously and the guests should have fun as well. In contrast to rather lifelessly presented salads or sandwiches to go of other "lifestyle" brands, the individual hotels are developing customised gastronomic offers with live-fresh character on their own or in cooperation with partners, depending on the location. Contrary to design-like budget hotels, 25hours works with relatively many staff members – not least because of its F&B offers – who underline the personality of the individual hotels. Standardised lifestyle newcomers have relatively little to set against such pioneers. The first Moxy by Marriott and by the Ikea subsidiary Vastint Hospitality (former Inter Hospitality) – also located in the lifestyle sector of course – did not win high praise from everyone after its debut in Milan. The serious German daily newspaper "FAZ" wrote on December 7, 2014, in its travel section: "Marriott claims to have developed the concept over more than two years. However, it seems that the group only took a closer look at the competition for two weeks." Tina Edmundson, Global Brand Officer for the luxury and lifestyle brands at Marriott International, emphasises: "At Moxy, every feature is based on careful research in order to react specifically to the continuously changing demands of this rapidly growing customer segment." Now, Venu by Jumeirah (announced for the second time in September 2014) or Vib by Best Western, Canopy by Hilton, Centric by Hyatt or Jen by Shangri-La are to open soon. While Venu and Vib have been/are being newly created, Jen is a further development of Shangri-La's second brand Traders, which was introduced in 1989. "Concerning services, Traders was too similar to the Shangri-La Hotels," says President & CEO Greg Dogan, justifying the strategic change to hospitalityInside.com. The new brand, oriented to Millennials, will have a completely new management team, its own culture and its own brand standards – and differentiate itself from the local 5-star hotels by fewer F&B outlets. Self-service kiosks, grab-to-go boxes at the breakfast buffet and check-in via tablets are exemplary for the new style. A key instrument will be technology. However, this does not sound very new either. Full-bodied messages for exchangeable ideas However, it is highly remarkable that the wording reaches new heights with every new lifestyle brand appearing in the market. The marketing experts of the individual chains create dramatic and theatrical messages to emphasise the "power and energy" of the hotel. Here a few examples of the linguistic pirouettes: • Kristine Rose, Vice President of Brands at Hyatt: "We believe Hyatt Centric hotels will deliver on our guests' desire for experiential travel while inspiring them to go out and explore. From the eclectic and fun hotel design to colleagues who are explorers themselves, the Hyatt Centric brand will be the perfect launching pad for our guests to start their experience within the destination." • Nicholas Clayton, CEO Group Operations at Jumeirah Group, about Venu: "Its provenance and energy comes from Dubai. The brand is ultimately a powerful way of taking the core essence of Dubai out into the international market, reflecting the city's energy, dynamism and cosmopolitan nature." • John T. A. Vanderslice, Global Head, Luxury & Lifestyle Brands, Hilton Worldwide: "Canopy by Hilton is the streetlamp of the neighborhood… " And: "With a 'positively yours' service culture, hotel 'Enthusiasts' will deliver a one-stop approach to front-of-house service." • And a press release by Best Western states: "Vib is a stylish and technology-centric hotel concept created to meet the needs of today's connected traveller."

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March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Not only fashionable but also profitable And what do experts think of the new flood of brands under the cover of the lifestyle promise? Max C. Luscher, Senior Manager at KPMG and specialised in the hotel industry, adds the following for consideration: "First of all, you have to ask yourself, how sustainable they are. Concerning recent developments, lifestyle aspects of new brands often stand for reduced services: e.g. a get-together in the lobby for a beer often means there is no room service or there are no longer mini-bars available. Therefore, guests should enquire in detail about which services each brand does and does not promise. Consequently, the customers decide on the final success of the brand. In general, limited services do not necessarily have to be bad because some of them – such as mini-bars or room service – are unpopular among guests as they are very expensive." However, Luscher is convinced: "For hotel chains, this indirect new definition of services under a new brand makes sense: In most cases, limited-service hotels are more profitable than full-service hotels. Other examples how hotel chains can become more profitable and flexible through lifestyle brands are: smaller but completely styled rooms; no traditional spa areas but wellness showers in the rooms instead; selfcheck-in and -out via touch-screen instead of the reception; F&B offers reduced to the minimum with signature meals instead of extensive menus with maximum variety." Martina Fidlschuster, CEO at Hotour, a consultancy specialised in hotel industry from Frankfurt, points out another reason for the flood of brands: "Some chains already have too many hotels of a single brand at one location," she says. Then, these new brands are accounted for by the expansion. Basically, the lifestyle concepts are meeting today's mega trend as the travellers want to feel at home and have therefore changed their behaviour drastically. "The young generation likes to sprawl in public on sofas designed by Philippe Starck," she says. And she knows another reason why some groups prefer to invent new brands rather than adapt their old ones: "As soon as you have finished the upgrading, another new trend has already emerged." And this new trend stems – you can always bet on it – from a private entrepreneur. / Susanne Stauss Extract of hospitalityInside, February 6, 2015. 4TH "FREITAGSHAPPEN" FOCUSED ON LIFESTYLE & LUXURY HOTELS OF THE FUTURE Managers searching for truffles Wiesbaden. The prospects opened up by Google Glass, the "Internet of Things" and fully networked worlds were unable to get participants of the 4th "Freitagshappen" (Friday's titbit) in Nassauer Hof in a fluster: Obviously they know what "lifestyle and luxury hotels of the future" will be like and where "the truffles grow". Under this motto, Karl Nueser, Managing Director of the luxury hotel in Wiesbaden, and Hospitality Inside invited guests to their annual discussion with an exclusive circle of senior managers from the hospitality and other industries. In small groups, the conversation was informal, the focus was on human capital while Social Media and technological developments were considered to have only limited effect as drivers on the luxury hotel industry. What statistics and studies show and announced, wasn't always greeted by hoteliers. The luxury battle is decided by the product, this much was clear after the first hour. Employees – human capital – are, however, the key to high-end clientele and top room rates. The term "luxury" no longer exists today. Problem-free access to the internet and 24/7 high-speed internet everywhere in the hotel is accepted by hoteliers as a given. "That can be bought," they explained soberly and warned of overestimating technology. The menu provided on an iPad for room service has resulted in revenues falling in various hotels. After all, it's the over 50s who dictate revenues, and those from this generation too shy to reveal himself a non-IT freak simply doesn't order the club sandwich. Luxury sold only through personality It's always the small things that define luxury today. And the human factor. "It's about the human touch and people facing each other again", host Karl Nueser summarised. "People want a break from IT," Dr Udo Stein from Deutsche Bank confirmed. Rolf Broennimann from Swiss Hospitality Group from Zurich and Head of Operations for the luxury hotel Budersand on the German island of Sylt challenged luxury hoteliers: "We have to become hoteliers, hosts, again! We can't just be managers!" His call was accepted. Luxury hotels today again need personality, character – in management as well as on the guest front, every day, every hour. Somebody to take care of is required, or, in the lingo a 'touch point' for the guest, a storyteller. The guest should later remember: Who greeted me? What's the name of the maitre d'hotel? Not technology, but experiences, emotions, stories are the key to happiness. Hoteliers with a core of top-qualified, committed and guest-oriented staff, hoteliers who can motivate them and keep them in the hotel for the long term, they have the qualities necessary for success in the luxury hotel industry of the future. "In this sense," Inge Struckmeier from Romantik Hotels & Restaurants concluded, "the privately-owned 4-star Romantik Hotels are today's luxury hotels." The investment in Human Capital is not reflected on any balance sheet, much to the chagrin of the hotel operator. The problem is the same for them all: how to make it clear to investors and owners that human capital costs money and is necessary for provide unique guest experiences... After all, guests only come back when their – emotional – expectations have been satisfied. The buzzword on the lips of the future luxury guest is Now & Wow. / Maria Puetz-Willems Extract of hospitalityInside.com, July 11, 2014.

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 MOTEL ONE VIENNA STAATSOPER & RUBY VIENNA STAND FOR A NEW COMPETITION Budget in a royal dress Vienna. Does this photo above look like a budget hotel room? One can only say no on the basis of the photos of the new Motel One Vienna Staatsoper. The hotel chain from Munich opened their third hotel in Vienna on Tuesday and with this, has also established new standards in interior design – that most certainly reduces the hotel group's own description as a "low budget design" to absurdity. The term of "Lean Luxury" lies closer here but this term has been taken by Ruby Hotels – delivering a room product with their new Ruby Sofie Hotel in Vienna that likewise has nothing to do with the feeling of "cheap sleep". These two hotel openings have placed new accents – and both also symbolically stand for the next level in budget competition… Motel One playing with the royal charm: Turquoise-coloured velvet curtains and velvet cushions, noble wallpaper and upholstered bed headboards in the rooms. The 54th hotel the Motel One Group is in a historic building from the turn of the century (19th/20th) that was entirely redeveloped without losing its original charm. It stands in an unbeatable, central location in the 1st District of Vienna (Elisabethstrasse 5, at the Opera). With 400 rooms, the property will siphon off large overnight volumes – but then, who would still complain about the overnight price of 69 or 79 Euro with this ambience in this location? Even the Viennese luxury hoteliers are supposedly "trembling" at this price-performance ratio, a developer recently said to hospitalityInside.com. However, Motel One is learning: For the first time, there are several room categories with different prices at this hotel. The single room begins at 69 Euro, the larger rooms cost 79 Euro to book; the 2nd person pays a 15 Euro surcharge. Bridging over to Ruby Hotels: There are already three room categories – "cosy" as the smallest unit with 15-17 square metres, "wow" with 18-25 square metres and "loft" with 20-30 square metres. The prices are accordingly scaled from 79 Euro through to 89 and up to 99 Euro for the three categories (single room); the 2nd person pays a 15 Euro surcharge. More or less "organic": the upgrade with breakfast Contrary to some media reports in Austria, Motel One will not be offering an organic breakfast at the Vienna Staatsoper, but rather an extended and modified breakfast can be expected amongst all the properties from 2015 onward. Some organic products will also be included in this, confirmed Motel One spokesperson, Julia Naebrich, from the headquarters in Munich. The new breakfast concept will be first introduced in Germany and Austria and then will be implemented everywhere else step by step. Up to now, the breakfast cost 7.50 Euro; from 2015 the price will be 9.50 Euro per person. Bridging over to Ruby Hotels: The breakfast there costs 9.50 Euro and presents itself as "100% organic". Examples: The guests will find a great deal of whole food at the buffet with bread, cakes and pastries alongside the muesli. The fruit salad is hand-cut fresh

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March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 KNOW TODAY WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TOMORROW. daily; as a cheese, the guests will find specialities such as the Zillertal Mountain cheese. There is fresh, hand-pressed orange juice or 100% direct-press juices in bottles for the hasty guests … This all sounds like an upgrading of the budget breakfast. The competition within the budget brands has – vividly spoken – reached the next level. Which area will subsequently follow? The Internet, Multimedia? This would be desirable from the point of view of the business traveller: Since there is much left to be desired in the internet speed here – as with the Motel One experiences in different properties in recent times. The bandwidth is brought to its knees when a property is full. Bridging over to Ruby Hotels: The young group has installed a 200 Megabit bandwidth at their 77 room-pioneer project in Vienna; two parallel-switched servers ensure the capacity and the high-quality routers with a high signal strength provide for the fact that every guest can activate up to five devices in their room. Whether this is also sufficient in practise during a full occupancy is yet to be demonstrated. Moreover, Ruby has created the Internet-based "Ruby Radio" and installed a sound system in the rooms that can dock with Smartphones and E guitars. New with Motel One Vienna Staatsoper: Now guests find power sockets and USB interfaces integrated in the upholstered bed headboards – small enhancements to be implemented in all new hotels in future. Entertainment is strengthening customer loyalty – is it also the next standard accelerating the budget/lean luxury competition? And so, the budget segment continues to be exciting. The debate over the question of how much quality can be crammed into in a low price has not yet been answered. At least, the design is only the benchmark at a first glance. Other benchmarks will follow. / map Extract of hospitalityInside.com, November 14, 2014. 4 – 7 March 2015 · itb-convention.com Top-class lectures about global tourism trends: ITB Future Day · ITB Hospitality Day · ITB Marketing and Distribution Day · ITB CSR Day · ITB Destination Days · ITB Business Travel Days · ITB Young Professionals Day · ITB Workshops · eTravel World · PhoCusWright@ITB · ITB Experts Forum Wellness Ruby Hotels were the first to focus on a "100% organic" breakfast as part of their lean luxury concept. Official Partner Country ITB Berlin 2015

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 CONCEPT BEING TRANSFERRED TO CITIES – HIGH OCCUPANCIES – ROBOTS & MORE Yotel is a Mindset Yobot in action lifting luggage automatically. London. The British low budget lifestyle brand, Yotel, announced a global expansion in December: There should additionally be more than 3,000 "cabins" by 2018. However, the new planned city centre properties in Singapore, Paris, Miami and San Francisco and in a second hotel in New York City will be transformed from the windowless sleeping boxes that are at the airport hotels into pleasant comfort rooms. Hubert Viriot, Chief Executive Officer of the hotel group since May, 2014, explained how the change of mind and strategy had come about in a conversation with hospitalityInside.com. Viriot will also be a guest on the CEO Panel on March 5 at this year's "ITB Hospitality Day", the hotel conference of ITB Berlin. In 2007, the first Yotel opened at London Gatwick Airport – with small six and nine square metre "cabins" following the model of the Japanese capsule hotels. The rooms have become larger and the locations more varied. However, the aspiration of booking the cabins several times in one day at the airports remains. Devised by Gerard Greene and Simon Woodroffe, Yotel had originally been conceived as a mirror of the deluxe cabin by British Airways. They had gained the Kuwaiti IFA Hotels & Resorts as a partner to develop the prototypes. In 2006, the Arabian developer for hotel and tourism projects in the Mixed Use segment effected the first investment in the Yotel Hotel. "These were courageous concepts, but we will now multiply this worldwide," CEO Hubert Viriot summed up. "This is the only way to grow. And we have learnt a great deal in the meantime." The group currently operates properties at the Gatwick and Heathrow airports in London, at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and since 2011, the first Yotel two blocks away from Times Square in New York. Currently, there are several hotels in the pipeline (see below). The native Frenchman, Viriot, who left his home country 37 years ago, has been active with Yotel's parent company, IFA, for ten years and is simultaneously their Chief Investment Officer. He had completed his Bachelor Degree in Hospitality and Tourism Management at the Glion Institute of Higher Education in Switzerland and had also obtained at second International Management degree in Wales. He subsequently worked for the HVS consulting company as well as for the Thai land developer, Raimon Land, among others. Experiences in the smallest space With this foreknowledge, Hubert Viriot seems to be the ideal driver and controller for the global Yotel expansion. "Now, it is not only the airports that are the key locations, but rather all hubs," he described the development of the concepts. With the successful New York premiere, additional city locations will complement the airport focus in the future. "By now, Yotel is no longer a niche product, but mainstream. Yotel is a Mindset." Therefore, one product has become a multiple product in the meantime and likewise falls under the catchwords "Convenience, Comfort, Connectivity". "The travellers are searching for experiences and they do not need a lot of space for this!" An example of this is "Yobot", the luggage robot that immediately brought the New York property into the headlines. The diligent guy is continually hoisting bags and suitcases into the luggage box day by day (see link) and from a company point of view, is considered as a significant part of the Yotel DNA: Yobot stands for CANI, the internal abbreviation for "Constant And Never-ending Innovation," reports Marketing Director Jo Berrington. "And we will introduce additional innovations with the next hotels," she announced. The cabins at the first Airport Yotel that are categorised as "Premium" and "First Class" are 8 to 11 square metres in size; they will even out to 11 square metres at the future airport hotels (for two people, including shower). In the City Yotel, the standard room will measure 13 square metres, the premium room, 21 square metres and the deluxe room will be as much as 35 square metres. On average, the developer is calculating 16 square metres per room.

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March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Top occupancies According to Viriot, the model is extremely efficient in any case. On the one hand, because the airport hotels are small due to the restricted floor space (with an average of 40 to 140 rooms). And on the other hand, because the city hotels with an average of 200 to 700 rooms do not need any more space than 350-room hotels in the 4-star segments, the CEO explained. A guest at the airport hotel stays for an average of six to seven hours and also on Hubert Viriot: We have learnt a great deal. average, a cabin is booked four times in 24 hours. In the city, the guest stays for an average of 3.5 nights. An Airport Yotel rents its standard cabins from four hours and from a price of around 32 British Pounds Sterling (currently approx. 43 Euro); a premium cabin costs around 40 pounds (approx. 54 Euro). At the city hotel in New York, the most favourable price lies at 129 USD (approx. 115 Euro) and in the annual average, 200 USD (approx. 178 Euro). The Yotel New York registers an average occupancy of 97% with a room revenue (RevPar) of 200 US dollars, the CEO reported. The occupancy at the airports (due to the multiple daily usages) lies between 140 and 250%, the RevPar at 130 USD. Premium cabin at Yotel New York, the group's first city hotel. City hotels offer more room categories. In January, the Yotel management signed off on a 600-room project for the Singapore City, Hubert Viriot continued, and a 110-cabin Yotel will follow in Williamsburg (Brooklyn, New York) whereas the Yotels in Miami and San Francisco will have 200 to 300 rooms. Another desired location is Dubai. A digital brand today The rooms may be entirely minimalistic in the design, but smart. In the new properties, they will be equipped with more robust materials because only eight minutes are conceded to Housekeeping for the cleaning of the cabin. "However, we have also learnt from the guests. They require, for example, more privacy in the bathroom." The service should on no account be "lean". Every hotel will be different, Hubert Viriot reported; these will receive F&B areas as a part of the open lobby concepts. A unique customer connection programme for corporate guests was brought to life in May, 2014 with "The Club" with which they can receive, for example, VIP tickets to events with entrepreneurs from the industry. "In the beginning, Yotel had its focus on the design and the rooms," the CEO summarised while looking back, "today, we are a digital brand." Investments in our own website and in Social Media are starting to pay off: 45% of the bookings already come through their own website www.yotel.com. And the guests do not come – surprisingly – from the circle of the young Millennials, but are just as frequently between 50 and 60 years old. "Everybody enjoys the ease that can we offer them," he said proudly. The staff members will happily provide information about what can be experienced in the immediate neighbourhood. And it is not only the leisure traveller that likes this, but also corporate clients from IT, fashion or entertainment. High yield promise The management has identified 30 to 40 airports worldwide as potential locations; the potential in the cities appears to be enormous. "But we do not need premium locations," the CEO said. The districts that are just now coming into fashion are ideal. He is also quite happy to look at very specific locations with which the "standard" developer may have their difficulties. Only one good traffic connection need exist. Yotel sees itself as a smart investment for smart guests – and smart investors. Ordinarily, as Viriot allows his thoughts to wander, investors would expect a two to three percent yield, but Yotel would deliver from eight to nine percent. "Investors are not thinking about concepts, but about real estate," he reasons. The planned Yotel in San Francisco will be the first conversion from an office building. The IFA Hotels & Resorts parent company is primarily only involved in the management company and up to now, it is merely the Yotel New York that has been financed by and still owned by them. The remaining properties have been and will be financed with external third parties. / Maria Puetz- Willems Extract of hospitalityInside.com, Jan 30, 2015 CURRENT YOTEL PROJECTS YOTEL Paris, Charles De Gaulle. Development with ADP (Aeroports de Paris). Opening 2016. YOTEL Singapore, Orchard Road. Opening 2017. Developed by Hong Fok Corporation Limited, Singapore, 600 cabins. YOTEL Williamsburg, New York (Brooklyn). Opening 2017, 110 cabins. YOTEL San Francisco. Opening 2017. Conversion by IFA Hotels & Resorts and New York-based real estate developer Synapse Development, 200 cabins. YOTEL Miami Downtown. Opening 2017. Developed by Aria Development Group in partnership with Aqarat (Kuwait real estate company) as part of a mixed-use development project, 250 cabins.

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 New desire for health NATURE, VEGAN AND DEEP-PENETRATING INGREDIENTS DRIVE WELL-BEING TRENDS Augsburg. Exactly 77 percent of wellness tourists look for "health" according to the Nuremberg-based GfK Group consumer research institute in its 2013 MobilityMonitor. Certainly, health is a far-reaching term: it starts with the simple desire of guests to be active in nature and continues with encountering an authentic ambience in the hotel as well as regional and vegan food... And it might end with ladies interested in the subject, who pay exact attention to which hotel uses what kind of cosmetics. Consultants as well as the industry agree that many wellness guests are very proficient today and are able to question wellness trends as well as prevention promises seriously. Therefore, large cosmetics companies are promoting their own in-house development – in the direction of "health".

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March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 For the first time two years ago, a guest asked me where our cosmetics come from. I could not answer them," Martin Klein, owner of the Wellness Hotel Hochschober in Carinthia, describes his key experience on the subject. He could, however, name every farmer, baker and supplier for the meat, fish and bread used at his hotel. But beauty? The private hotel, which has already been influencing trends in Austria for two generations (www.hochschober.com) decided to join the Best Wellness Austria consortium last year – as it offers an alternative application and product concept: "Balance Alpine 1000 +" defines Asian Ayurveda anew with European ingredients. Health experts have joined together in this: the head of the consortium, a naturopathy chemist, a spa consultant and a well-known cosmetics institute. The alternative use and product concept is "Made in Austria". 20 of the 24 Best Wellness Austria hoteliers have immediately joined in. Nearly all of the 24 Best Wellness Hotels Austria lie in the mountains and over 1,000m above sea level. Many offer exotic treatments such as Ayurveda. "We had been discontent with it for quite some time," reports Michaela Thaler, Managing Director of the consortium (www.bestwellnesshotels.at), since ultimately the Alps also offers natural sources of vitality: Healing water, salt grottos and herbs, for example. The taking of inventory of the alpine health treasures led to their own "Spagyrik" concept. Simplistically represented, a comprehensive method of treatment based on the use of a whole medicinal plant is hidden behind the Greek concept. The goal is to strengthen the self-healing powers at a physical, spiritual and mental level. Guests show enormous knowledge Whether such essences ultimately have a therapeutic effect – in medicinal terms – is argumentative. Spagyrik combines different medicinal systems. Therefore, Best Wellness Austria has no problem propagating its own Spagyrik definition under the name "Balance Alpine1000+" and assigning it under "Traditional European Medicine" (TEM). Initiatives like these originate from the guests' demands and try to meet expectations of preventive, natural as well as regional and authentic cosmetics. Transparency concerning production, reference of the source of ingredients and promises that can be kept increase the credibility of natural products. The knowledge of wellness guests and the common trend towards nature have made many industrial producers of cosmetics that were known for their efficiency-oriented cosmetics so far, rethink about medically and scientifically supported cosmetics with a highly preventive goal. "Medical beauty is on the rise!" Franz Dannhauser, Managing Director of Thalgo Cosmetic in Karlsruhe, is sure of that. "And not only regarding wellness hotels but also with respect to day spas." And he immediately realises the next challenge: "This requires new competence from therapists!" For many years, Thalgo has felt its way in this field, and tried its luck with a single product many years ago, failed with it, and carried on with its research. Last autumn, the business launched "Therapeia", developed in cooperation with a plastic and aesthetic surgeon. The product stimulates the skin's collagen output. In September 2015, "M-CEUTIC", the next "cosmoceutical" product will hit the market. Important for Dannhauser: Wellness hotels that want to use these cosmetics have to have their therapists intensely trained by Thalgo. According to Dannhauser, beauty products have significantly gained in demand over the last few years: while "facials" once generated 25 percent of Thalgo's revenue, they now generate 75 percent. One reason for this is that there are many more products available for body treatments than several years ago. In general, the market has become both larger and more confusing. In this respect, experts warn hoteliers to examine formulas and their effects carefully and even think about the selected brand in their spas. In addition, expert advice is an absolute must. This cannot be guaranteed by many spas, as therapists are often much too young to be able to afford expensive products. Inversely, this was reflected in the quality of treatments using high-quality products. "Spa guests no longer want random treatments," says Dannhauser. Franz Dannhauser, Thalgo: "Spa guests no longer want random treatments." Luise Koefer, Vinoble: "Natural cosmetics have to feel like luxury on the skin." Essentially, Luise Koefer, CEO of Vinoble Cosmetics in Styria, Austria, totally agrees with him. Beauty was focusing more and more on active ingredients. "Natural cosmetics have to feel like luxury on the skin", just as efficient cosmetics up to now. This is why it was only logical to make positive use of medical findings when further developing products. Vegan cosmetics are up and coming Vinoble's products are based on ingredients from grapes and other natural extracts – all produced in Vinoble's own "manufactory" (www.vinoble-cosmetics.at). The team is currently working intensely on recipes that ultimately contribute to the regeneration of stem cells. Sun protection without hormonal substances has just been on the market for a short while, and there will be further products in the future. Vinoble's future message will be that all their products are 100 percent vegan. Vegan is one of the trend terms that particularly attracts "young people and men", says Koefer. And she is currently in contact with a young hotel group in Germany that wishes to use Vinoble's vegan cosmetics. Both lifestyle and luxury hotels are grateful buyers. Moreover, there are initial consortiums of vegan hotels such as www.veggiehotels.de, www.vegotel.com, or extensive hotel and vacation portals like www. veganhotels.com and www.vegan.eu. / map

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 TREND: HOTELS CAN BENEFIT FROM THEIR GUESTS' GROWING NEED FOR SLEEP Power napping under a hood Rüschlikon/Zurich. The changing sleeping habits and demands toward the sleeping environment of the "Always-On" societies are placing new challenges before the hotel industry. It should act as swiftly as possible rather than retreat from the field of this new competition. The industry is not sleeping and in this case, could even develop into a popular partner. For one thing, because hotels are the ideal experimental zones, worldwide! Knowledge and ideas from a study on the future of a night's sleep. New sleeping culture in the office? The need for a restful sleep has increased and with their constant commitment, the "always-on" societies are consuming so much energy that the depth of their recovery phases is increasing in importance. This is the knowledge of a current study called "The Future of Sleeping – New Markets in the Always-On Societies" that the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI) in Rueschlikon has published. According to the authors, Daniela Tenger and Karin Frick, this trend is bolstered by the rising health awareness. According to the study, sleep is more important today than ten years ago for nearly half of the Swiss population. Interestingly, this increase in importance applies significantly more frequently to those among the 54-year-old employed persons who are presumably more strongly exposed to a permanent, 24 hour accessibility in their professional lives than the (soon) to be retired seniors. The fact that sleep is increasingly moving into focus is also demonstrated in the increasing need for one to measure and compare their own sleep behaviour. This service is offered, for example, by the sleepingtime.org website: It calculates the resting phases of the Twitterer. The manufacturers of the Jawbone fitness bracelet have also analysed the activities of their users worldwide and in this, have amazingly discovered that: New York – the city that never sleeps – is the first to go to bed; in Dubai, at least ten percent of the Jawbone users are always active; in China and Madrid, there is also sleeping during the day. More than 5,000 users per city were considered within this study. The sleep industry is booming: Software developers are offering Apps for the monitoring and optimisation of sleep and there are Mindfulness Trainings for relaxation in fitness centres alongside the hotels advertising healthy sleeping experiences. Another market surrounding dreaming has also emerged: Thus, a small start-up in Brooklyn has recently developed a dream mask that promises "active dreams with a clear mind". All that is natural is likewise booming – from valerian tea through to sleeping tablets and up to the biological alarm clock; from down bedding up to the high-tech blanket. The hotel industry is already utilising this trend today: Five-star hotels are advertising with exclusive sleeping experiences and

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March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 A Dutch company thinks about sleep chairs. Takes you home extremely slowly. Meanwhile in Europe, the mobility behaviour of today is providing for the fact that sleep is being increasingly taken while on the go. The sleeping capsules that originated from Japan are already on the advance in American and European airports. The sleeping chair According to the study and by analogy with the successful "food truck " concepts, "sleep trucks" that would appear in varying places and offer different sleeping surroundings for testing out would be conceivable in the future. In Canadian Toronto, sleeping tubes that are available to passers-by for a 20 minute nap were constructed in the middle of the city. In the future, couch possibilities could regularly be installed on trains, in waiting rooms or outdoors alongside chairs. The great success of cafés with loungers shows that today, the seat mode is quite in the past as a standard. Likewise today, the modern office worker is no longer working while being seated. The new working tools such as Smartphones and Tablet have provided for a differentiation of postures in the office. The industry is not sleeping and is always developing new products surrounding flexible seating and lying down in public areas. Thus, the "Hoodini" chair cover product from the Dutch design company, Bernotat & Co, provides the privacy required during relaxation: It disposes of a suspended hood that can be drawn over as a cover according to need and thus the chair is converted into a sleeping chair – including darkening and a privacy shield. According to the authors, a tool box that is helpful toward power napping as a basic facility for those who travel frequently could be equipped with sleeping masks, soothing sounds and an App that indicates suitable nap locations nearby. Today on Googlenaps.info, the overtired are already able to find tips for good sleeping nooks. As another example, the "Napper" scarf provides for security during public sleeping: It disposes of integrated earphones that are linked to the luggage via Bluetooth and an alarm sounds if someone moves the luggage. The new GDI study "The Future of Sleeping – New Markets in the Always-On Societies" can be obtained free of charge under www.gdi.ch/schlafstudie. / sst Extract of hospitalityInside.com, November 21, 2014. are standing out from the mid-range properties while they equip their rooms with tailormade bed systems. And so, it is hardly surprising that the five-star hotel is considered as the first, most desirable destination during a foreign overnight stay for nearly one third of the Swiss; another third primarily wishes for a quiet, secluded village. However, alongside the bed as the core element, factors such as noise level, the possibility to regulate the temperature, the availability of fresh air and the option to plunge the room into complete darkness at any time are also named. These points play a fluctuating, strong role according to nationality, gender and age. According to the study, the hotel industry can contribute a great deal to the rebranding of sleep. For example, while not only social zones such as bars and lounges are maintained by the hotel, recovery rooms could also be furnished and the appropriate value attached to them. In the Park Hyatt Hotel in Tokyo, guests today can already make use of the "Good Night Sleep Stretch" offer: The body and mind are harmonised with relaxation exercises for the upcoming night's rest. Alongside the "pillow menus", hotels are already offering mattresses, bed systems, sources of light, sleeping masks and sleep measurement devices. For the sleep inquisitive, hotels are the ideal experimental zones for trying out the various sleeping products that the dealers have made available. The new sleeping awareness has arose from the growing need for slowing down that is already being taken into account by the tourism and catering industries in the form of "Slow Tourism". The "Turtle Taxis" in Japan drive to the destination particularly slowly for their customers and local, sustainable and deliberate eating is celebrating the Slow Food movement worldwide. Sleep in the café The American sleep researcher, Dr. James Mass, had already established the connection between napping and efficiency in 1998. Yet, power naps are still not being used in these efficiency-oriented societies. "The consumers in Europe will only hesitantly accept power napping because – even if it is only short and efficient – sleeping in public or in the office is not socially established," said Frieder Kuhn, Founder and Managing Director of Third of Life GmbH. And Dr Stephan Rueller, Managing Director from sleepingpower regrets: "Fa tigue is a shortcoming that one does not show in public." Interestingly, 33 percent of the non-nappers believe that they would happily take a nap if they had the additional opportunity to do so. And the 15 to 54 year-old employed persons with a high level of education are represented in this group particularly strongly. In Japan, there are already sleeping cafés whose guests can take a break the just same as in traditional cafés – not at a table, but in a bed for a small fee. China is also wellknown for its napping culture. And the phenomenon likewise does not end at the Chinese IKEA: Tired customers will regularly lie down in the showrooms and nap completely in public – and completely without inhibition. Waldorf Astoria Berlin: today with pillow menus.

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 FUTURE OF HOTEL MARKETING: HOW AN OCTOCOPTER AND VIDEOS CAN ENLIVEN IT Images from a drone Essen/Cologne. The octopus with the red head stretches its legs from its body. This "octopus" does not particularly seek to swim in water – like an octopus – but rather prefers to take to the air. It is an octocopter – and is also commonly called a drone! It has nothing to do with delivering packages, but does deliver professional photos and videos from a bird's-eye view. And these are no dreams of the future, but reality. Professional Photographer Jochen Tack from Essen and his colleague have been the proud owners of such a flying robot for the past year. It flies over everything with a digital camera in its belly – landscapes and golf courses as well as hotels, pools and parks – and delivers impressions from an unusual perspective." The images contribute to the credibility terrifically," emphasises PR Professional Kaspar Mueller-Bringmann from Moenchengladbach. He has also recognised the opportunities of the "new media" and has been providing journalistic and content-focused videos for companies for many years. And this occasionally also involves a flying robot. This is the future – and likewise for hotel marketing. YouTube proves it: Moving images are playing an increasingly larger role and are fascinating the masses throughout the globe: 100 hours of video material is being uploaded on YouTube every minute. Apart from the Smartphone fun of the amateur filmmakers, absolutely new and professional dimensions have emerged in the meantime. And this could also bring fun and new customers to hotels. Imagine: As the car turns onto the gravel path and through the archway of the castle hotel entrance … as a lady with a champagne glass comes out onto the balcony and turns to the evening sun … as the golfer putts in at the 18th hole and contentedly places their clubs back in the bag … as the cooks harvest from the hotel garden and the hotel boat slowly careens across the sea. Moving images evoke emotions more strongly than frozen photos. The drone can fly alongside the car on the gravel path, it can capture motifs from the archway, stop in the air at a great distance from the lady on the balcony and fly in parallel with the boat moving through the sea. All of this provides new perspectives and new points of view for the somewhat different hotel story. "With the octocopter, we are also able to fly around in a ballroom…," Jochen Tack adds to once again demonstrate that no limits on imagination have been set for such "camera journeys". As a result, the times in which one could only produce aerial images with great expense and complexity and in which one might only expect photography with a general view at a 90 degree angle are now a thing of the past. Tack's drone flies up to 150 metres high and around the ground control with a radius of about 300 metres. Moreover, it can reach speeds up to 50 km/h. Theoretically, an octocopter can remain in the air for up to 20 minutes, but as a general rule, four, five-minute flights will produce a sufficient amount of video and image material. Ultimately, the drone is precisely controlled and also primarily follows a "screenplay": Jochen Tack moves the drone by remote control and at the same time, tracks the recordings live on the computer. As a result, he can zoom into or out from targets or change the flight angle or direction. And finally, the client can stand beside him and establish their own points of accent. With this, the photo and film professional's drone clearly stands in contrast to the amateur drones that are already to be had from 500 Euro and up. In addition, the disadvantage of the inexpensive models is that they can carry no appreciable load. Tack´s professional octocopter that had cost some ten thousand Euro weighs 5 kg and can there-

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March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Kaspar Mueller- Bringmann: Send a message in a 4-minutes clip! Jochen Tack (left) with his drone: it can fly up to 150 metres. Below: Hugenpoet Castle, a hotel in Essen, from the bird's eye, photographed by the drone. fore also carry the 2 kilo-heavy digital, singlelens reflex camera. Alongside this, the drone disposes of a complex, high-tech camera suspension that holds the photo and video equipment almost entirely free of vibration. This all sounds exciting and innovative, but Jochen Tack and his colleague Ralf Schanze nevertheless still bump into a great deal of scepticism. "Many simply do not know what they should do with it," he has experienced. The moving images from the air are absolutely affordable: Camflight, as the name of the duo's joint company from Essen states, requires a daily rate of 1,000 to 1,800 Euro according to each effort and its scope of services. The team delivers the processed photos and, including all rights of use, the video as raw material and if requested, even the additional processing. Colleagues who are professionals themselves in this sector organise the sounds and music (www.cam-flight.de). Video clips with powerful content An individual who has already utilised the Camflight drone for his own clients is Kaspar Mueller-Bringmann, owner of the media office of the same name in Moenchengladbach (www.muebri.de). The PR Professional – originally a newspaper editor and radio and TV author – has been observing the career of the moving image on the Internet for a long time. "The video is the marketing instrument of today," he says. "Messages conveyed in 3 or 4-minute video clips via Internet are more effective because they can make companies, people and subjects understandable from the very beginning." The well-known saying from the print world that "a picture is worth a 1000 words" is most certainly proving itself to be true in the age of the Internet: Videos increase in their efficiency when the images are under laid with the appropriate music and powerful content. "Nobody should recite prospectus text," the media professional knows, because the people are oversaturated with advertisements. Consequently today, only facts and authenticity are believably conveyed – in an entertaining and sophisticated manner. In a world in which the search engines are beginning to rank "stories", quality content will become increasingly more valuable. The Schaffrath home furniture store, one of Mueller-Bringmann's PR customers, ventured a step into the video message with powerful content: Thus, the department store presents, for example, home trends or asks for decorating favorites. And after ten months on the Internet, nearly 10,000 users have clicked on the Schaffrath trend messages. In turn, Kaspar Mueller-Bringmann works together with professionals – for example, with a former BBC reporter for English settings – and to begin with, he composes "screenplays" for the client and even tries to find several locations for the 4 minute videos. He allows the key people to speak – always with the addressee in mind – and explain / demonstrate their products (the costs per project range between 3,000 and 4,000 Euro). His goal: Even in a world of transient images, an impression must still stick. A movement that, with interchangeable images and words, should particularly melt in the mouths of hotels. And perhaps 2015 will indeed also provide one hotel marketing manager or two with room for "new perspectives". / Maria Puetz-Willems Extract of hospitalityInside.com, December 19, 2014.

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 Travelling seamlessly in future also means to travel with one ticket only and to get customized travel information pro-actively... FUTURE OF MOBILITY: THE MARKET LAGS FAR BEHIND THE EXPECTATIONS Travellers want more mobility Berlin. Nowadays, many people are afraid of total interconnectedness; however, the ideas of digitalisation that could simplify our life are just as far-reaching. It would be nice to ride on buses and trains with only one ticket or to obtain the next directional information by mobile phone without requesting it...

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March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Behind such promises of comfort for mobile customers is the multi-billion euro business with customer data. Travellers only want two things: fast service and more service offers. They would even be willing to pay for it, but the market lags behind in this respect. At a workshop in Berlin, politicians, consultants and transportation experts showed the great balancing act between customers' expectations and reality. Thomas Jarzombek, member of Deutscher Bundestag (Federal Parliament) for five years now, became chairman of the newly founded working group "Digitale Agenda" (digital agenda) of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in February; therefore, he is a clear advocate of the free trade agreement with the USA, a topic being discussed in Germany everywhere at the moment. "The sharing economy cannot be stopped," insisted many people switch off their screens deliberately. And many people have contrary opinions about this, whether the protection of businesses or the rights and the protection of people are more important... The annual "Media Workshop" of the Travel Industry Club in Berlin also showed how strongly the hyper-dynamic development of the internet and digital interconnectedness already intervene in our lives and will continue to do so in the future. Lack of transparency Nicole Goebel, partner at the business consultancy Accenture raised her voice for the travellers/customers. Annually, the consultancy surveys 4,000 rail travellers in eight western European countries and is sure that their wishes could be transferred to the airline and hotel industry too: "Today, customers demand that their trip be booked from door willing to pay for that. In return, customers agree to divulge data about themselves (but this does not mean that they permit personal data to be passed on to third parties). Today, 65 percent of the Germans would provide "customized data" – in Italy and Spain, 84 percent are already willing. According to Accenture, the actual market development lags far behind the expectations of the customers. German customers would like to use their mobile phones more often for ticket purchases. Why can train tickets (nearly) only be purchased at Deutsche Bahn? Customers could also imagine purchasing their tickets via Amazon, Google, Facebook or iTunes, following the motto: providers who are able to deliver Christmas presents at home on time are also able to sell tickets. This is transferable to the hotel industry: why are customers only able to purchase their travels via travel agencies or OTAs? The last announcement of Amazon, which is planning to sell hotel rooms soon, shows that the role allocation in the market might change completely and massively. Seamless travelling? The juggernaut Bahn is a mobility giant and therefore, just as much a sought-after database. Every step in the direction of digital interconnectedness taken by DB was a step into the future. Nobody can imagine this better than Oliver Wolff, Managing Director of Verband Deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (VDV, Association of German Transport Companies). The VDV is the industry association of local public transport, which transports 20 million passengers in its regional trains, buses or city trains every day, for example. What would happen if DB and VDV merged their offers digitally as they are players with large volume – enabling non-cash and seamless travelling with all means of transportation? Wolff got these ideas from abroad, from Japan, amongst others, where all travellers are able to travel seamless with the "SUICA Card" ("Super Urban Intelligent Card") in the entire train network. In addition, the chip card works contact-free and is a money card at the same time. In the meantime, people are able to pay with this card in many shops, which led to Wolff's heretical comment: "In Japan, they build new shopping malls over new train stations and transportation hubs, in Germany they build fountains." / map Extract of hospitalityInside.com, december 19, 2014. Will Amazon sell railway tickets in future? the Member of Parliament: he thinks that Germany's strict data security contradicts user behaviour and that Germany will go down as an "island of the clueless". Because nobody is willing to grant a concession to the taxi provider Uber, for example. Therefore, Jarzombek sees himself assigning transportation licenses in the near future and creating a legal framework for "controlled selfregulation" this way. "We are in a phase of creative destruction," he summarised: a new provider comes, an old one has to go. The American word is "disruption" and the Americans like this. In Europe, people think differently. An example: Europeans are still sceptical concerning selfdriven cars. A high-tech enthusiast, the CDU politician therefore poses the following question: how is it possible that every seventh job in Germany depends on high-tech? Anxiety about the future plays a role on both sides – on the part of the advocates of technology as well as the adversaries. On the one hand, millions of people are glued to their screen displays; on the other hand, to door consistently – they are only more patient when carrying out these bookings on their mobile devices," is one of the conclusions. The general lack of transparency concerning rates in the individual industries, in combination with non-transparent conditions, is still a great access hurdle for the motivation of travellers to undertake more online activities. "One third of all travellers are confused," says Goebel, "therefore, comparison portals will continue to boom." The frustration of the travellers about the lack of transparency will lead to different communication in concrete terms: to "push & pull". This means, travellers no longer have to request information when getting off the city train, but will obtain directions from the city train to their destination on their smartphones "unrequested" in future. Open-minded Southern Europeans Without question, customers want fast service and additional service offers – e.g. entertainment on long train rides. According to Accenture, customers are even

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 März 2015 HOW PURCHASING COMPANIES VIEW TRENDS – YOUNG HOTELIERS CALCULATE DIFFERENTLY The standard off-the-shelf is taboo Wiesbaden. The new hotelier generation is not only a host, but also a business person. They spend much more energy on calculating their interior design purchases than their parents – and make a financially-driven distinction under the rules of a short-lived or long-lasting investment. There, the long-lasting carpet wrestles with the ten euro chair. In the meantime, sustainability has also become an undeniable purchasing criterion. And individuality. Even the hoteliers who purchase their equipment from central sources, ask, in part for exclusive pieces of furniture. Scandic Hamburg, chic and sustainable at the same time. Environmental-friendliness becomes more and more important. However, every trend also has its countertrend again. Susanne Stauss has carefully listened to what the professionals from the large purchasing companies Progros, Atlas and Hogast have to say about the spending and trend behaviour of the hoteliers. When hoteliers think about investments in their properties, one thing should then be clear to them: "Basically, the guest demands quality on all levels. Well-running properties can satisfy this demand for quality with ongoing investments. If a property has not invested for a couple of years, the guest sees this immediately and accordingly reviews the holiday offer negatively on the review platforms," says Dietmar Winkler, Area Manager Marketing, Communication and Personnel Services with the Hogast Purchasing Cooperative from Anif in Austria. The latter is particularly aware of the young people. "The succeeding generation of hotel operators are not only hosts, but also business people," knows Wolfgang Hertrich, Managing Director of Atlas Zentraleinkauf (Atlas Central Purchasing) from Bad Kissingen. His company has specialised in the purchasing of capital goods and consumer durables for hotels since 1978 and counts around 520 private hotels as his customers. Tommi Huuhtanen, Chief Buyer for the Progros purchasing company founded in 1986 in Eschborn with 664 hotel customers in Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Spain has determined likewise. "The customers are thinking more about sustainability," he says. Ecological and social aspects play a big role in the product choice. "A chair that is produced for ten Euro and only has a short life span burdens the environment with its production just the same as the more expensive, qualitatively superior one that lasts longer, however," says Huuhtanen. The industry now understands this. At the moment, the modern hard floors are sought after as floor coverings, which he can nevertheless only partially recommend. "Even if the design flooring manufacturer delivers 10,000 rather than 5,000 square metres, we sometimes advise our customers against it and suggest more noise dampening materials for certain areas," he says. An absolute "No-Go" is also the frequently desired parquet flooring in the buffet area. Exclusively instead of paper maché Every trend has a countertrend: Not all hoteliers, says Progros Managing Director Jochen Oehler, focus on the highest quality in the furnishings area. "The rooms must be stylish, modern and functional. However, some implement the strategy of completely renovating every five to six years instead and as a result, are not vigilant with regard to high durability," he says and is presumably thinking about the budget properties in particular. Hertrich has also become familiar with the other side of this coin: "We are property partners with 25hours hotel, they think absolutely differently. There, the items that do not prove satisfactory themselves are simply exchanged after three months." However, thanks to their great popularity and well full books, this group can also afford such experiments. Atlas exclusively produces the unusual design elements of 25hours with craft companies, as for example, the individually

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March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 designed bathroom stools at the Hotel Hamburg Hafen City. "This indicates an additional important trend," he says, "that of the individuality." In terms of the furnishings in the hotels, it is becoming increasingly more important to produce a relationship to the location, to the operator and perhaps even to the target group. Many of his customers have interfused an individual corporate design that orientates itself, e.g., around a regional theme. "The deer, forest or hunting motifs at the country hotels spring to mind," he says. "This red thread must be implemented authentically, gently and modernly throughout the property; without this, it becomes a Mickey Mouse Hotel." Traditional lighting would then look like this: The deer antlers could perhaps receive a bit of colour and before an appropriate background will become a modern eye-catcher; the history of the property is denied without this. "It is an enormous pleasure to individually furnish the hotels with the owner and move away from the room for 1,998 Euro and paper maché pieces of furniture." Flatscreens vs. refined accessories Unlike a few years ago, Atlas customers are now intensively investing in the new outfitting of their bathrooms. "The private hotel industry has long allowed this area to slide because it is very expensive," says Hertrich. "Instead, newly carpeted floors were implemented or curtains were ordered. But today, the guest can no longer be offered a small bathroom with beige tiles." Large surface areas and mirrors, possibly also daylight are sought after. "We are now working together in this area with building contractors because walls must often be removed or a window must be installed." Atlas and Progros submitted a further big trend in unison: "The industry has discovered the light," says Oehler. On the one hand, rooms can be wonderfully designed with light and on the other hand, high energy savings can be achieved with new lights. "In earlier times, we achieved a good deal of success with LED lighting," says Hertrich. "The same is true for flat screen televisions. I always preach to the hoteliers: You can invest 10,000 Euro in a room, but if you nevertheless allow an old tube television in there, it will be read in the review portals that the property is not up-to-date. If instead, you install a new television and spruce up the room a tiny bit, you Tommi Huuhtanen, Progros: Purchase only what makes sense! will immediately receive better reviews." Progros also deals intensively with innovative technologies including flatscreens. "The latest blockbuster is the so-called Suite Pads – Tablet PCs that are available in the rooms welcoming the guest and with which they can then order room service, for example." says Oehler. Conference and restaurant secondary As a counter-action, Huuhtanen has had his buyers select refined accessories with great haptics. "We registered, e.g., a direct increase in orders for high-quality menus", he says and estimates that for the well-to-do guests over 50, the haptics will be more decisive in the future than the technology. Hertrich can attest to a current restraint in investments in the conference area. "The tables and chairs that were purchased for these areas some years ago are very robust. And hoteliers are refraining from investments in the conference technology because it is too quickly outdated. The trend is clearly moving toward leasing here." According to Oehler, an openness within the restaurant area is clearly asserting itself. The reception, lounge, bar, restaurant and kitchen are fluidly melding into each other without barriers. "Culinary concepts that recover the heat and can take advantage of this energy are particularly sought after here." All of the purchasing companies are also increasingly seeing themselves as advisors to their customers. "We want to be even more proactively on the move within the market for our customers in the future than in the past and discover things for them that they were otherwise not aware of," explains Oehler. For this purpose, his team visits international trade shows and as well specialised supplier trade shows (wellness trade shows, e.g.). "The hotel industry is the largest customer segment for less than ten percent of our suppliers. This presents us with a valuable look outside the box." / Susanne Stauss Extract of hospitalityInside.com, July 18, 2014. Creative and colourful: Fireplace in the lobby of Adina Berlin Checkpoint Charly.

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 FAIRTRADE PRODUCTS GROWING IN POPULARITY – NEW USP FOR HOTEL INDUSTRY Fair is Eco & Social Vienna. "Mmmmm, the orange juice in the minibar, the refreshing shower gel... Fair tastes and smells better" or "the soft cotton bedding, the coffee in the morning... I love it when hotels offer Fairtrade products." Is such ebullient praise by a small number of people on Expedia, TripAdvisor, Facebook and Twitter to be taken seriously? Those who calm the social and ecological conscience of their guests are in trend – and remain in conversation. Ethical trade and sustainability are also to be found within the hotel industry. If one believes the hoteliers and suppliers, then such Social Media promotions are to be taken seriously. The dedication to quality and sustainability apparently pays off. Courage must be taken – and communicated appropriately, as industry representatives confirm. The hotel industry is now breaking new ground and forming consortia regarding Fairtrade. An increasing number of Fairtrade products tailored to the external market are coming onto the market, such as miniatured products and textiles. Hotel guests can soon relax in "Fairtrade hotel rooms". The Green Hotel Summit by the Trans-Fair consortium with the BTME Hotel Certifiers (www.certified.de) will be held in Berlin at the end of April. Fair products will be included in the catalogue of criteria. Pioneers in fair trading Founded in Germany in 1991, the Verein AG, Kleinbauernkaffee e.V., renamed itself in 1992 as Trans-Fair Inc. (www.fairtradedeutschland.de/bot/fairtrade-in-english). The foundation organisations come from the areas of development cooperations, churches and consumer protection. The Trans-Fair Seal was also introduced in the same year. The Fairtrade International label organisation (www.fairtrade.net) was then brought to life in 1997. Fairtrade is a social seal that stands for fair prices, better terms of employment and environment protection. The revenues are rising annually. In 2012, German consumers bought Fairtrade certified products with a value of around half a billion Euro – an increase of 33 percent in comparison to 2011. Fairtrade began in Austria 20 years ago and today, turns over 107 million Euro through licence partners. Approximately 70 percent of more than 800 Fairtrade products in Austria also carry a bio seal. Proof of the fact that sustainability in the industrial countries has, at minimum, become a lifestyle in the meantime. The products with the green-blue seal have established themselves within the catering trade and hotel industry over the years. For Hartwig Kierner, Managing Director of Fairtrade Austria, the out-of-house area belongs as the engine of Fairtrade. "Nearly onethird of the Fairtrade coffee revenues are achieved in the hotel industry and catering trade. For example, more than 1,500 cafés, bakeries, hotels, restaurants and canteens pour fairly traded hot drinks." More than 20,000 gastronomic operations in Germany carry fairly traded products. Today, the organisation with its headquarters in Bonn is virtually seen as a pioneer of the sustainable seal of approval. For Kierner, this development is proof that the quality of the Fairtrade products meets the high demands of the out-of-house area. "Worldwide, the more than 1.3 million Fairtrade producers who find better sales prospects through the rising demand for fair raw materials benefit from this positive trend." Social & Bio – the next big trend? The hotel industry has been ruled by two subjects in recent years: Design and budget. The success of young and rapidly expanding brands like Motel One led to the fact that the established players were put under pressure and had to become creative themselves. Today, the guest checks

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March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 into nicer and more functional hotel rooms for less money. Will Social and Bio now lead to the next big trend swing within the hotel industry? A great deal is going on within the industry: Daniel Orasche from the Austrian Kohl & Partner hotel and tourism consulting firm from Vienna/Villach is constantly confronted with the subject of sustainability at the ecological and social levels, particularly with the development of strategies with hoteliers: "Some already specialised hotel operations work on concepts at the offer level that dive deeper and deeper into the subject and as a result, additionally distinguish themselves with their even more specialised offers." Orasche turns to Austria for a great number of Best Practice examples: The Chesa Valisa of Klaus Kessler in the Kleinwalsertal, the bio hotel of Daberer in Dellach in the Carinthian Drautal, or the bio children's hotel, Benjamin in Hohen Tauern. Nevertheless, one thing is indisputable: Only when the hotelier also actually lives the "green life philosophy" with their sustainability concepts will they be successfully established in this offer niche since the guest is also prepared to pay more for the authentic concepts with the "green life philosophy". Quality convincing Family-controlled hotels, wellness les, the city hotel industry: No seg- tempment in the hostel business can live without them. Small hoteliers primarily decide on them out of personal conviction. More seldom does the standard come from the headquarters of a large hotel chain. Although: The big players in the industry are also happily scribing their ecologically sustainable behaviour on a banner and are holding it fast in their statues. The good thing about the development: Quality and sustainability cannot be simulated. "To me, as a private hotelier, the sustainability lies very much in the heart", according to Peter Buozc with the Viennese Schick Hotels. Ten percent of the add-on costs that are thereby incurred in the F&B area are "costs from conviction" for the hotelier. Marion Schumacher, until recently Vice President PR & Communications with Moevenpick Hotels & Resorts, believes that hotels today must decide whether they would like to use affordable ecological products of the highest standards and, if necessary, make light compromises in favour of Fairtrade. Moevenpick pours its own guests a biological coffee brand developed in cooperation with Fairtrade. But not in all countries because it is not possible due to various import conditions. In the meantime, however, Moevenpick pours six millions cups of the coffee brand annually (www. moevenpick-hotels.com). Michaela Reitterer, President of the Austrian Hotelier Consor- tium (OEHV) and owner of the first zero-energy Living Fairtrade also means paying for it. Hoteliers will have to make up their mind. Pursuing Fairtrade only for image reasons will not work with guests. hotel, the Boutique Hotel Stadthalle Vienna, does not think highly of superficial image care. Sustainability is a "matter of faith" for them. The OEHV President continues further: "I also appeal to the right staff members for my operation with this. The same holds true for my guests. They would not feel comfortable at a hotel that only operates with Fairtrade for purposes of image." The traditional hotel industry is increasingly approaching the subject. In Austria and Germany, many hoteliers are choosing local consortia that are a Bio and Fairtrade. Proper communications is key for Fairtrade In the Danish capital of Copenhagen, the Brøchner family is operating the first CO2 neutral chain in the world (Brøchner Hotels). Energy savings, organic food and the awareness of local products also count alongside Fairtrade in the already frequently awardwinning hotel concepts. So, for example, the interior arrangements donated by furniture designers from the surrounding Nørreport quarter were coordinated. A hotelier can receive a great deal of inspiration in Copenhagen – the city also carries the 2014 title "European Environmental Capital". Andreas Karsten, leader of Vienna International Hotels & Resorts, also sees the industry as holding responsibility: "We as hoteliers can influence the subject of Fairtrade commerce in the future." VI has been offering Fairtrade products at the Loipersdorf Spa & Conference Hotel since the takeover there. The spa area offers three chocolate treatments together with the chocolate pioneer, Zotter. "If the origin of the product is properly communicated, the guest is absolutely prepared to pay more," Sabine Hackl, communications leader at VI Hotels, confirms the experiences of the company. Since 2013, Austria Trend Hotels has also been placing focus on health together with regional partners and has converted the breakfast to regional and biological food. As the only hotel group in Austria to date, the 29 properties have been obtaining their biologically and sustainably grown coffee and tea as well as the muesli from the domestic bio pioneer, Sonnentor. An additional cooperation with the Genussregion Austria consortium makes Austria Trend Hotels one of the largest buyers of regional products. "We are Austrian, bio and healthy along the way", says Andreas Berger, Managing Director of the group (www. austria-trend.at).

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hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 March 2015 Good products and a professional communication about Fairtrade made the Moevenpick Hotel Amsterdam being awarded. Klaus Kloebel, a consultant for the catering trade and hotel industry from Vienna observes a continually growing demand, particularly in the MICE segment. "One no longer comes across the subject of environment in all sorts of segments. Thus, the 'Green Events' certification by the Austrian Ministry of Environment is playing an increasingly larger role in the assignment," Kloebel believes. "The products and food must, of course, fit with it." However, it is not only Kloebel who sees the reinforced development in the direction of "Green". Christa Thomasser, Travel Manager with Infineon, confirms that many companies also consider the subject of sustainability in their advertising criteria. Booking hotels that bring the necessary attention to the subject is preferred. However, expert Kloebel also clarifies: "No one wears rose-tinted bio-glasses; economic efficiency still comes before the common good." Money can be saved if sustainability is properly implemented; as is the case with the Crown Plaza Copenhagen Towers, the largest ecological hotel in Scandinavia with 366 rooms. The property was opened in 2009 with the European Climate Summit and saves 140,000 Euro annually in comparison to other properties. Happily paying for Fairtrade bedding A small class of guests, who also otherwise sustainably use, is quite prepared to choose a hotel according to ecological criteria. The guest, explains consultant Orasche, wants first and foremost to replenish their life energy in a very short period of time. From a certain quality category and price range, the fulfilment of their expectations is important to the guest with the environment playing a minor role alongside. Furthermore, they often think egoistically and barely "sustainably" because the sustainability of their own body is more essential to the stressed guest. The closer the product itself is to the guest, the greater is their readiness to lay more Euro on the table for the Bio and Social. Robert Rogner Junior of Rogner Hotels (www.rogner.com) has gained similar experience. "We started six years ago. The subjects of Bedding and Cleaning were important to us. With the Salesianer Miettex supplier, we gained a congenial partner who understood our endeavours. There is a great deal of clever thinking behind it", Rogner praises. Today, the entire hotel in Rogner Bad Blumau is re-fitted with Fairtrade bedding. "We have been surprised ourselves at the massive, positive resonance", says Rogner. "But apparently, the guest is ready to pay more for the materials or products that come from near to them." The Dutch are the front-runners in Fairtradecertified hotel bedding; the country management of Fairtrade there is very innovative and active in the implementation. "Additionally at our Dutch hotels, the entire stock of hotel bedding is made of Fairtradecertified cotton", confirms Moevenpick Spokesperson, Schumacher. There is a "Green F Floor" at the Steigenberger Airport Hotel in Amsterdam. Guests there pay a surcharge of 10 Euro per night and are pleased with the handmade Lavita beds with blankets and pillowcases from 100 percent Fairtrade products. Although the rooms have no minibar, there is a fridge that switches itself on and off itself with the checking in and out. Fairtrade products to fill the minibar are available at reception. Best-seller coffee – sponsor of the locals The coffee definitively belongs among the

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March 2015 hospitalityINSIDE Special ITB 2015 Fairtrade best-sellers. Hotel groups like Moevenpick have long been trying to demonstrate a sustainable services balance. "We have striven a long way with our environmental programme", explains Ola Ivarsson, Chief Operating Officer of the hotel group for Europe, "and there are many ways to ecologically and responsibly behave.” But hoteliers are also thinking outside of Fairtrade. Thus, the Travel Charme Hotels offers the high-quality Mama Mina Estate Coffee from Nicaragua that is enhanced with a special roasting by the "Berliner Kaffeeroesterei". Alongside its special quality, the hand-picked coffee from Nicaragua also distinguishes itself through the social responsibility that is pursued during the production. For over 100 years, the owners of the family-controlled plantation have been involved in a fair commercial structure of the popular awakener: Because the Mam Mina Coffee goes directly from the producer to the end customer, extra revenue originates that immediately flows into the social and ecological system of the plantation. As a result, for example, the children of the coffee farmers are able to attend kindergarten and school up to the sixth grade. Fair sells more While the consumption of conventional coffee has been decreasing in the EU as well as in the USA, the consumption of Fairtrade coffee is rising. The rate in the overall turnover is low, as Hartwig Kierner, Managing Director of Fairtrade Austria, explains with the example of coffee: "Worldwide, only 30 percent of the coffee made under Fairtrade terms are also sold at fair prices." Too many offers on the market decrease the prices from the demand side, as with last year when the overproduction in Brazil drove the coffee prices down worldwide. Farmers are mostly unprotected from the dramatic drop in prices. Fairtrade counters this. Cooperatives provide for the fact that the coffee is sold at minimum prices. "Make our coffee known, bring it to Europe", asks Tuy Banluthay. The resolute, headstrong woman manages a coffee plantation on the Bolaven Plateau. The centre of the coffee growing is there in the south of the Asian interior. Most farmers – nearly 1,800 families – are a member of the Association des Groupements de Producteurs de Café, briefly called AGPC. "With the cooperative, we no longer depend on the intermediaries," narrates Kham Pong Sopaksai, Village Director and Coffee Farmer. Coffee made in Laos Before the first families in the village joined the cooperative with the name "Kilometre 43" in 2005, the intermediaries had the say. Many families lived hand to mouth and could not allow a school education for their children. The buildings on stilts of wood rather resembled barracks. Today, 52 AGPC farmers manage 250 hectares of area under cultivation. The profits financed the expansion of the sanitation facilities in the village, schools are built and new machines are purchased for the coffee processing. The cooperative has also been Fairtrade-certified since 2009. / Romana Kanzian Extract of hospitalityInside.com, April 11, 2014. Advertisement

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