Very Special News
Grand Opening of one of Europe's most expensive hotels
The Dolder Grand in Zurich will open its legendary doors in April 2008. The house has managed to maintain its former flair and tradition while at the same time getting rid of the dust of the past years. The hotel’s owner – one of the richest people in Switzerland – closed the hotel for four years and put down a total sum of 2,5 million francs (1,5 million Euro) for the renovation of each of the 173 rooms. The house has numerous highlights: The Michelin-Star restaurant under the lead of 35-year old chef Heiko Nieder is a true gastronomic meeting point. The 4.000 sqm spa is the city’s largest wellness area and successfully combines European and Japanese elements, offering not only unique “Tsunaburos“ but also a 21-meter swimming pool and Medical Wellness in cooperation with the Zurich Klinik. Furthermore, the hotel offers unique Tower Suites and a new convention centre (to open in a few months) that will cost about 37 million Euro.
www.thedoldergrand.com
Schloss Ellmau nominated
On March 13, 2008, the winners of the "Mipim Award" in five different categories will be announced in the course of the real estate fair in Cannes. The Schloss Elmau Cultural Hideaway & Spa has been named one of the Top 3 amongst the best hotels and leisure facilities. Castle owner Dietmar Müller-Elmau, who renovated the castle after a fire a couple of years ago and who thus turned it into a luxury hideaway, is more than delighted.
www.schloss-elmau.de
A new Leading Small Hotel in Königstein
Hotel director Cyrus Heydarian has proudly announced that the Villa Rothshild Hotel & Restaurant will be a member of the “Leading Small Hotels of the World” as of February 2008. The house offers 22 beautiful suites, gourmet cooking and exclusive ambiance and pampers guests in a truly private atmosphere.
www.villa-rothschild.com
InterCity new in Dresden
On March 1, 2008, the InterCity Hotel Dresden will open its doors across from the renovated central train station, putting its main focus on the needs and desires of business travellers. The house will offer four meeting rooms holding up to 100 people as well as attractive convention packages. Additionally, the room rate includes a ticket for the city’s public transport.
www.intercityhotel.de
Park Inn in Mainz
Rezidor has opened the first member hotel of the Park Inn brand in Mainz. The house’s transformation from the former Dormotel at the Gutenberg Center into the Park Inn was realized in the course of extensive renovation work. The Park Inn Mainz features 121 rooms, convention facilities, a restaurant and a bar as well as a sun terrace and a garden. The hotel is run by the Kölner Event Holding.
www.rezidor.com
Opening Specials @ Weg.de
In cooperation with D.A. Ferntouristik, German travel portal weg.de is the first on the German market to offer the Hotel Atlantis at The Palm, Jumeirah for rates starting at 1.062 Euro per person for a week, flight included. As a promotional offer, weg.de, D.A. Fernreisen and the Hotel Atlantis have started a mutual advertising campaign focusing mainly on billboards, online advertising (banners) and a Google campaign.
www.weg.de
A fresh breeze for La Claustra
As of May 2008, a new tenant will bring a new breeze to La Claustra. The underground four-star hotel in Airolo am Gotthard is said to expose a completely new overall concept featuring more events and active hotel business all year round.
www.claustra.ch
Want a VillaHotel?
Nowadays, all is possible: luxury homes for short-term stays. Limousine transfer, butler, cook, internet connection – all inclusive on demand. The German Christian Jagodzinski rents our 26 villas in the United States and Europe: in Miami (8 villas), Aspen (3), Courchevel (2), St Tropez (6), Paris (2) and Marbella (5). Future destinations include Ibiza, Capri and Dubai. Jagodzinskis ambitious goal calls for ten luxury homes per destination. Depending on the city, guests stay an average of three days; some stay up to three months. Guests always rent a complete VillaHotel, irrespective of the number of family members or friends who come along. Rates per night and per person vary from the Elysees in Paris with 1.700 Euro/6 guests (280 Euro per person) to the Villa Katarina in Saint Tropez with 14.000 Euro/12 guests (1.170 Euro per person).
www.villazzo.com
Stanglwirt Nr. 2
Richard Hauser, the junior of the prominent Hotel Stanglwirt in Going next to Kitzbühel, Austria, is now creating his very own five-star hotel. The management consultant now promotes himself by means of his own Richard Hauser GmbH. Amongst other things, the company acts as a consultant for large-scale projects such as the adventure park Aquadome in Austria. The firm now plans a five-star hotel featuring 140 beds in Reith next to Kitzbühel, on a spot of land Hauser inherited from his grandmother. The plan calls for a construction start in 2008. The main focus of the project will be an “innovative wellness area“. Hauser rules out the possibility of creating competition for his paternal Stanglwirt as the new hotel will be geared towards a different target group.
www.stanglwirt.com
"Green Hotels"
"Green Hotels", eco-friendly hotels, have special environmental programs but fail to communicate them to their guests. Almost half of all European guests do not know about their hotel’s activities. This was recently stated in the “European Hotel guest Satisfaction Index Study 2007” carried out by the American research company J.D. Power and Associates. The survey also states that 77 percent of those hotel guests who know about their hotel’s eco-friendly programs would be willing to take part in them. As a comparison: 63 percent of US-guests claim to know about their hotel’s green programs. There seems to be a large action scope for European hotel groups to increase the awareness for their eco-friendly politics among their guests.
Motel One
Motel One and the Austrian tourism company Verkehrsbüro Group have entered a joint venture that is beginning to prove its worth. Until 2009, two houses located in central spots in the city of Vienna will extend Motel One’s portfolio. A stay in a single room will be available for a fair rate of 59 Euro. On the Rossauer Lände in the Alsergrund district, an already existing building is being renovated and will reopen featuring 320 modern rooms and 92 parking spaces. The second project, a newly constructed building with 197 rooms, is located in the Mollardgasse in Vienna’s Mariahilf district. The Conwert Immobilien Invest AG acts as both buildings’ building owner. Over the next five years, Motel One plans the opening of about 20 houses in Austria and its neighbouring Central and Eastern European countries.
www.motel-one.de
New owners and new openings
A new Altthoff:
Germany's gourmet luxury hotel group Althoff from Cologne will take over the former Sofitel Seehotel Überfahrt on the Tegernsee lake. The house, located directly on the water and dominated by marble offers 188 guest rooms and was at the time said to feature Germany's most expensive rooms. Nevertheless, it will be re-done again in 2008, as the restaurant, the lobby and the bar do not go with the luxury hotel chain's highest standards. Althoff further plans include an award-winning chef de cuisine for the Tegernsee as well as the professionalisation of the hotel spa area. The Überfahrt is one of the hotel legends to the south of Munich: Back in 1873, the house was founded as a restaurant.
www.althoffhotels.com
Another star for Capella:
After their premiere on the Wörthersee lake in Austria, the American Capelle Hotels & Resorts have opened up their second house: in Castlemartyr in the Irish Cork County. Guests stay in style in a legendary castle from the 17th century featuring not only a 1000 year old ruin but also 90 hectares of land. The hotel will offer 109 suites measuring from 47 to 279 square metres. In early 2008, an 18-hole golf course will be completed by Ron Kirby. The third Capella hotel to open its doors in Europe will be the Breidenbacher Hof in Dusseldorf.
www.capellahotels.com
Austria in expansion mood:
The Arcotel AG is currently constructing a further hotel on one of the last free spaces in the city of Berlin, in the area around the ministry of foreign affairs. The new "Arcotel John F" will be designed in the non-colours black and white in order to blend into its business surroundings. In early 2009, it will be opened, presenting its 193 rooms in four-star comfort. The hotel will be the group's forth house in the country and the second Arcotel in the German capital.
www.arcotel.at
Expansions to Austria:
A couple of architects from the Caribbean invested in a Boutique Hotel in the Austrian Salzkammergut region. The bankrupt traditional hotel Schenner in the Emperor's town Bad Ischl was transformed into the "DaySha", a small hotel with 22 rooms and true designer style. Peter Quintanilla and his wife Natasha Alfonso spent 26 years in the United States before moving to Austria in September 2006. The new hotel also features an impressive pool on the roof terrace, offering a magnificent view of Bad Ischl and the alpine panorama. True wellness fans start their day with Yoga.
www.dayshahotel.com
Medical Wellness in Bad Driburg
A pretty half-timbered building in the small Westphalian town of Bad Driburg is on its way of copying the famous Grand Hotels of Bad Ragaz. The newly Graeflicher Park Hotel & Spa can be reached within two hours by car and is easily accessible from Cologne and Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Frankfurt and is located only 30 kilometres from the Paderborn Airport (with Air Berlin as main airline). As a new destination resort, it offers all the components wellness, Medical Wellness, golf and sports. For 225 years, the house has been owned by the Oeynhausen-Sierstorpff family.
They transformed the old and dusty hotel into a 137 rooms domicile in elegant manor style. Countess Annabelle von Oeynhausen, the project’s creative force, worked together with interior designer Helen Princess of Oettingen-Wallerstein in order to reach a renaissance of good taste, a pleasant combination of old and new. Roomhigh black-and-white copies of photographs from the “good old times” of Bad Driburg welcome guests in the house’s lounge. A modern steel and glass façade artistically links the old timbered parts that thus represent a new ensemble with a style following its historic roots. On the way to the gourmet restaurant, guests pass „Oscar’s Bar“: cosy chairs are put up around the fireplace. Visitors pass by Biedermeier furniture set in front of orange walls and enters ”Caspar’s” restaurant which also acts as the breakfast room: a winter garden ambiance with English wallpaper, white tables and chairs, separated by means of room-high four-metre walls of ancient books. A light and naturally treated wooden floor made from Canadian Douglas firs only adds to the sentiment of „living in the countryside“.
www.graefliches-parkhotel.de
Falkensteiner now in Vienna
The Falkensteiner Group feels at home in Austria: The group moved their principal office from South Tyrol to Vienna at the beginning of this year and is now announcing further hotels as well as residences in Austria. Two residence towers next to the Falkensteiner Hotel Cristallo on Carinthia’s Katschberg in Austria were designed by star architect Matteo Thun. He wrapped the two apartment towers measuring 32 and 50 metres and resembling silos in large wooden squares. At present, Falkensteiner has seven hotels in Austria, four of them in Carinthia alone. The group is planning three or four more hotels in Carinthia and a total of 25 to 30 hotels in Austria in the future.
www.falkensteiner.com
Shangri-La to Vienna in 2009
A further international chain comes to Dresden: The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) will open up a new, design oriented InterContinental Hotel right next to the prominent Kempinski Hotel Taschenbergpalais. Both buildings belong to the same owner. With the new hotel, the old town of Dresden, namely the Kleine Brudergasse, will offer 200 more five star rooms. The hotel is said to open in summer 2008, designed by British architect Lord Norman Foster, who concentrates on the house’s facade and public areas. The building’s measures are a true challenge: it is 170 metres long, 16 metres wide and has seven floors, making it impossible to use an ordinary design on the hotel. Highlight: a summer terrace on the sixth floor with a magnificent view of the Zwinger and the whole town all the way to the Elbe, the Semper-Oper and the Frauenkirche.
www.shangri-la.com
InterContinental soon also in Dresden
A further international chain comes to Dresden: The InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) will open up a new, design oriented InterContinental Hotel right next to the prominent Kempinski Hotel Taschenbergpalais. Both buildings belong to the same owner. With the new hotel, the old town of Dresden, namely the Kleine Brudergasse, will offer 200 more five star rooms. The hotel is said to open in summer 2008, designed by British architect Lord Norman Foster, who concentrates on the house’s facade and public areas. The building’s measures are a true challenge: it is 170 metres long, 16 metres wide and has seven floors, making it impossible to use an ordinary design on the hotel. Highlight: a summer terrace on the sixth floor with a magnificent view of the Zwinger and the whole town all the way to the Elbe, the Semper-Oper and the Frauenkirche.
www.ichotelsgroup.com
Spa Chakra at the Hilton
The American Hilton Hotels have announced a partnership with the luxury lifestyle brands Guerlain and Acqua di Parma by Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) as well as with Spa Chakra. The agreement will affect the hotels in Hilton’s luxury-domicile brand, the so-called "Waldorf-Astoria Collection" and the luxurious Conrad Hotels & Resorts as well as selected Hilton hotels throughout the world. Guerlain and Acqua di Parma, both daughters of LVMH, will develop spa products and treatments for the hotels. Spa Chakra will act as a consultant for hotel owners, offering advice on the spas’ design and management. Furthermore, the company will lease and run a number of spas. Altogether, Hilton and the hotel owners want to invest about 200 million US Dollars in the development of 70 new spas. Together with the 65 existing spas, there will thus be 135 spas worldwide until the end of 2009. The first project will be the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.
www.hilton.com
A paper factory becomes a hotel
400 guests were invited to the huge party of the new 132 rooms-hotel Four Points by Sheraton Sihlcity in Zurich. A lot of action for a middleclass hotel that, however, manages to stand out from the crowd by means of its design and service ideas. Swiss architect Theo Hotz and Bavarian interior architect Gaby Bachhuber-Geissinger have re-invented the former paper factory using fresh modern design.
www.fourpoints.com/zurich
First design hotel in Krakow
andel's in Krakow is Poland’s first design hotel. The 159 room-hotel opened its doors a couple of weeks ago, run by Austrian Vienna International Hotels & Resorts. The four star hotel was designed by interior architects Jestico & Whiles, the British duo who had also designed the first andel’s in Prague (opened in 2002). At present, other andel’s are in construction in Lodz, Poland and in Berlin.
www.andelscracow.com
Vital & Alpine
South Tyrol presently sees the birth of a new cooperation: Vitalpina. The holistic approach as well as a nature-oriented active program distinguishes the new trend from others. With as many as 17 members in the three and four star segment, the plan calls for a good start. The hotels’ offers are aimed at active vacationers who, after passing a sportive day, want to indulge in their holidays - the word „active“ being the stressed part of the sentence. Furthermore, the group wants to combine these activities with healthy and vital nutrition as well as feelgood-offers that respond to regional specialities and resources, such as hay, chestnuts, fruits and herbs. Furthermore, the establishments rent out walking sticks, ponchos or hiking maps for free. The member hotels have imposed certain quality criteria on themselves that are to be inspected regularly by independent institutions.
www.vitalpina.info
Exciting New Projects
In the end of May this year, the Castle Velden on the Wörthersee Lake heralded a new era: The hotel that was originally constructed as a private residence in 1607 is now a member of the American "Capelle" Hotels & Resorts.
Once already, until 1991, the house was one of Europe's most prominent hotels for more than a hundred years. The castle with its typical Wörthersee architecture and "Schönbrunn" colour tone that is reflected in the lake, features 39 guest rooms, a gourmet restaurant, a traditional bar, a wine and champagne cellar and a private lounge offering a panoramic view of the Wörthersee Lake.
A modern building structure holds a further 66 guest rooms and 45 private residences as well as the hotel's 3500 sqm spa and wellness area.
www.hotelschlossvelden.com
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts will manage the traditional Montreux Palace in Switzerland as of 6 June 2007. The 235-room hotel is a Belle Époque treasury sporting a view of Lake Geneva. It offers five restaurants, two bars, event facilities for 1.200 persons and a 2.000 sqm "Willow Stream" Spa.
www.fairmont.com
In 2010, the hip quarter Medienhafen in Düsseldorf will see the opening of a Hyatt Regency featuring 186 rooms. After a nine year standstill, Hyatt is again expanding in Germany. The five-star hotel will sport 286 rooms and suites in modern design and will consist of two 16-floor towers on the far point of the young quarter's headland. A pedestrian bridge across the harbour links the building with the rest of the city. As well as numerous restaurants and bars, the house will offer a health club, a spa and a swimming pool as well as extensive conference facilities.
www.hyatt.de
In the famous skiing town of Verbier, the first W will open up in 2009, carrying the melodic name W Verbier Retreat. It will sport 142 rooms and consist of four chalet-style buildings linked through glass passages. The hotel is located right next to the skiing region's most prominent slopes and features a magnificent view of the mountains. Apart from a restaurant, guests will be able to enjoy a bar, a fitness centre, a spa and a "W Living Room".
www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels
New Trend: Budget-Hotel Brands with Design Character
The Ellington is the name of a new hotel in the prominent Nürnberger
Strasse in Berlin, in a great city location. The hotel sporting 285
rooms is owned by the consortium of an insurance firm and the owner of
Berlin's huge conference hotel Estrel, Ekkehard Streletzki. He is
currently setting a new design course by means of affordable prices.
www.ellington-hotel.com
Austria as a steppingstone for international companies: The French chain
Louvre Hotels got together with Viennese product developer Warimpex for
a project including budget-hotels in Central and Eastern Europe. The
plan calls for 80 new hotels of the already existing Louvre brands
Campanile, Première Classe and Kyriad. The German chain Motel One, too,
has large plans in cooperation with the Austrian Verkehrsbüro Group.
Travellers are bound to encounter the name Motel One more frequently
over the next five years. The low budget brand is already very
successful with 13 houses in Germany, offering great rates starting at
39 Euro for a night in a designer-style room. Six further hotels are
planned to open before the end of this year, offering a total number of
1.200 rooms.
Until now, the American Starwood Hotels were situated in the
middle-class and luxury segment of hotel business with their brands St.
Regis, Sheraton, Four Points and others. With "aloft", they now take a
step into the world of budget and design hotels. After prototypes in the
United States, the first European house is announced to be realized in
Brussels. 150 rooms situated as little as 250 metres from the EU
Commission buildings. As of 2009, the new hotel will offer apartments
with one or two bedrooms. www.starwoodhotels.com/alofthotels
The new Holiday Inns present themselves in a bright green and cheeky
appearance -- competing heavily with their "old" sisters. The new concept
includes public spaces with posh design and natural light. The
guestrooms are equipped with an MP3 docking station as well as an LCD TV
and are composed of flexible areas for work and relaxation. The rooms
further offer ergonomically designed furniture, dimmable light and truly
cosy bathrooms. www.ichotelsgroup.com
Sight & Sleeping
Twelve hotels in Bavaria have come together under the name of Sightsleeping-Hotels. The hotels taking part in this cooperation are former castles, original palaces or buildings under monumental protection, all featuring especially noteworthy art objects and offering not only overnight stays in tourist sights but furthermore a range of cultural activities.
www.sightsleeping.de
Arcotel #2 in Berlin
Arcotel, an Austrian hotel group, will open up its second hotel in Berlin, named Arcotel John F, in early 2009. Start of construction said to be in the second quarter of 2007, the four-star hotel will feature 193 rooms and will be located between the city's two prominent points Museumsinsel and Gendarmenmarkt.
www.arcotel.at
Steigenberger feat. Wlaschek
Steigenberger Hotels & Resorts will open up a four-star hotel in the historic old town of Vienna in late 2008/early 2009. The Steigenberger Hotel Herrenhof will be situated behind a facade in classicist style in a building from 1913 and is said to feature 186 rooms, a conference area and a spa. The project is being funded by Amisola Immobilien AG in Vienna, a private foundation by Karl Wlaschek, founder of the Austrian commerce chain Billa.
www.steigenberger.at
Sacher Leading Spa
At present, The Leading Spas count 93 members worldwide, the number of participants having almost doubled since the project's launch in 2005. For the first time, the list of members also features a Day Spa (Cornelia Day Spa, New York). The number of German spas has doubled to eight, and with the Hotel Sacher in Vienna, the list now also registers an Austrian spa.
www.sacher.com
Hotel gift
Hansjürg Badrutt, the owner of the famous Palace Hotel in St. Moritz, came up with a truly great gift for director Hans Wiedemann: he "presented" him with the hotel which overlooks the St. Moritz lake like an ancient castle. The deal was named the "surprise coup of the decade in the field of Swiss hotel business" by a newspaper and seems to be a clever way of settling the 76-year old childless hotel owner's succession. The deal arranges for two thirds of the parcel of shares, valued at 300 million Francs, to be received by Hans Wiedemann in the case of the owner couple's death. Badrutt stated that he and Wiedemann shared their love for the Palace as well as the way of thinking and the same sort of humour.
www.badruttspalace.com
Insider tip
A career-changer is currently leading one of Germany's best kept secrets: Before the Fall of the Wall, Marina Runge was director of a bank in Eisenhüttenstadt. Nowadays, she owns a first-class hotel with eight rooms. The Villa Contessa in Bad Saarow to the east of Berlin is famous for its breakfast creations, its mini spa and for the numerous VIPs who meet there in an atmosphere of utmost discretion.
www.villa-contessa.de
"Green" is "hot"
The Rezidor Hotel Group and The CarbonNeutral Company offer hotel guests the possibility of compensating greenhouse gas emissions by means of a stay in a Rezidor hotel including the trip. This way, the whole vacation should become emission-free. All that is required for the compensation is a membership in Rezidor's free loyalty program "Goldpoints plus?. One night in a Radisson SAS earns approximately 3.000 gold points. All it takes to compensate 270 kg of carbon dioxide is 2.000 gold points ? that relates to one or two nights in the hotel as well as the trip by car. A couple of months ago, the Swiss town of Arosa had already launched a similar campaign.
www.rezidor.com
"Bundes hotel"
The old Bundeshaus in Bonn will be integrated into a new conference centre with 4.000 places and a hotel featuring 350 rooms. The German Althoff Group will act as the operator for the 300-million-Euro-project which is funded by Coreans. The Althoff Hotels & Residences are famous for their castle hotels as well as Germany's best gourmet restaurants; apart from this luxury collection, though, the small trade chain also runs business and conference hotels.
www.althoffhotels.de
Listening to hip house and electronic sounds below the sea level
In the bar "15 Below" in the newly opened W Retreat & Spa on the Maldives, it's possible.
15 steps under the surface, international DJs take care of hip sounds, while guests enjoy exotic cocktails and a menu with 70 kinds of wodka. In the "Sip" bar above the surface, lounge music creates the right surrounding for the sunset.
www.whotels.com/maldives
New project
Dietmar Hopp, founder of SAP, billionaire, prominent hotelier (Four Seasons Terre de Blanche on the Côte d'Azur and Schlosshotel Bühlerhöhe Baden-Baden) and furthermore a passionate golfer, is planning a new "Golf-Art-Resort" in the Rhein-Neckar area. Investment: more than 60 million euros for the third golf course and a four-star-superior hotel with 150 rooms, convention rooms and a spa.
The patina has to go
The Swiss Tschuggen Group glosses off all its five-star hotels. In December, the 22 million euro spa temple "Bergoase" with his 3.500 sqm designed by star architect Mario Botta opened his doors in the Tschuggen Grand Hotel Arosa.
In December 2007, just in time for Christmas, the prominent Carlton Hotel will follow as the first suites-only hotel in St. Moritz - with 60 spacious suites instead of the 130 rooms and the kind of "royal service" that was just the Russian czar Nikolai II's taste: the house was his old summer residence, built in the year 1912. Tschuggen-clou number 3: The Eden Roc in Arcona, in the Tessin region. Until 2009, the hotel which is located in a unique spot directly on the Lago Maggiore, will be extended by means of a 2.500 sqm "sea oasis" analogue to the "mountain-oasis" in Arosa.
www.tschuggen.ch
The highlight of the luxury hype
 The Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts offer a gift card with a value of about 100.000 US-Dollars. It is valid for a lifetime. If you're about to spend that much money you can, for example, charter the Four Seasons Explorer on the Maldives and explore the atolls on the posh yacht with your friends - starting at 15.000 US-Dollars a day. Or you could enjoy the spectacular view of Manhattan in the Penthouse Suite in the Four Seasons Hotel New York - starting at 30.000 US-Dollars a day.
Further options: You could indulge in one of the Four Seasons Jimbaran Private Estate in Bali on a total area of about 2.000 sqm. That would cost about 3.500 US-Dollars a day. A cheaper possibility is a trip to the Four Seasons Tented Camp in the north of Thailand, where you can experience pure adventures holidays with elephants. Starting at 1.557 US-Dollars a day. The possibilities are endless and the purpose of use is optional. The Four Seasons "Gift Card" has no expiry date.
www.fourseasons.com/giftcard
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