Teutonic Trends

REVIEWS

25 Hours tailored by Levi’s - Frankfurt

Andels - Berlin

Gerbermühle - Frankfurt

Superbude - Hamburg

The George - Hamburg

The German hotel market has long been nervy. When abroad Germans are loyal followers of nationally based hotel brands (think of Dorint, Lindner, Maritim, Mövenpick, Steigenberger, etc) but at home they are habitually searching for the best deals. If this rate sensitivity were not enough, occupancy in Germany has been falling for consecutive months since June 2008. Worryingly this is well before the banking collapse last autumn and has begun to accelerate in 2009 with falls of -8.9% and -8.4% in January and February, respectively. Coupled with falling rates, revPAR started to decline in the fourth quarter of 2008 and has also taken a beating this year (-12.8% and -10.6% for the first two months of 2009).

Looking more precisely at the Frankfurt market, figures show that it has suffered more than Germany as a whole with a year-on-year decrease for 2008 versus 2007 in revPAR of -1.4% compared with +2.2% for the country. Again occupancy is the real culprit leading to dramatic falls in revPAR for the first two months of 2009 of -27.9% and -12.9%. And this in a mature and well-branded market, the sort that tend to be more resilient. Activity in Frankfurt has been limited with plans by Hyatt and Mandarin Oriental not yet breaking ground. The impressive new AirRail Terminal at the airport does however see a new Hilton and a Hilton Garden Inn opening in November 2009, whilst a Courtyard by Marriott will add to the existing hotel stock in the Neiderrad business district.
In this destination feature we review two of the latest openings – the 25hours Hotel Frankfurt tailored by Levi’s®, which cleverly exploits a link with the jeans brand, and Gerbermühle, a small operation just outside the city centre that is run by Frankfurt hoteliers Mickey Rosen and Alex Urseanu as more of a restaurant-with-rooms concept. With only 19 guestrooms, this riverside bolthole has not had an impact on the city’s supply. Their next venture, Roomers, opening in Spring 2009 (to be reviewed in a later issue of Sleeper) will up the ante with 117 deluxe rooms with a central location.

The Hamburg market is suffering too but not as badly as others. Positive revPAR year-on-year change for December 2008 of +4.9%, due to rate increases, and revPAR falls of ‘only’ -5.2% and -4.9% for January and February 2009 do not however allow for complacency. With over 1,200 new and refurbished guestrooms entering the market in 2008 alone and a further 1,380 due in 2009 it will not get any easier. Of the 2009 openings, half the hotels (Meininger City Hostel & Hotel, Motel One Hamburg Airport, Holiday Inn Express City Centre, Holiday Inn Express St Pauli) and 45% of the room stock will be in the three-star category and lower.1

Our reviewed Hamburg hotels are operated by the owner of Gastwerk and 25Hours, Kai Hollman, who has two new properties in the St Georg area of town that occupy disparate corners of the market. The George attempts to recreate something of the Firmdale Hotels’ “modern British classic” approach to its interiors whilst Superbude is unashamedly a hostel but one with some stylish touches and a real sense of the locale.

Berlin has also suffered problems of oversupply in recent years yet HVS International believe “there is clear evidence of investor belief in the growth potential of the city” in the shape of another 49 hotel projects in the pipeline adding 11,669 rooms to Berlin’s inventory over the next three years. Among the confirmed projects are the Arcotel Hilton Waldorf-Astoria at Berlin Zoo (242 rooms); the Adina Hauptbahnhof (139 rooms); the 575-room Scandic hotel at Potsdamer Platz; a five-star Eurostars design hotel (180 rooms); the 385-room, four-star NH Medienhafen; and a 175-room, luxury five-star H10.2 None of that has stopped Vienna International, Warimpex and UBM continuing expansion of their Andels hotel brand, pressing ahead with the opening of a 600+ bedroom conference hotel on the outskirts of the Prenzlauer Berg district of the city.

Germany’s major cities may be suffering to differing degrees but this has not stifled creativity. As the 25hours Hotel Frankfurt tailored by Levi’s® and Superbude show, credible, imaginative, witty and operationally efficient design can be achieved whatever the destination and budget.

(All statistics, except where separately quoted, are sourced from STR Global Ltd)*
1 Source: Hamburg Tourismus GmbH)
2 Source: Treugast