A number of new hotels were opened or joined the Steigenberger family in Germany under the brand name Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts (in Bremen and Braunschweig); internationally, new hotels were opened in Brussels (Belgium) and Madinat Makadi (Egypt). At Steigenberger Frankfurter Hof in Frankfurt/Main the guest rooms were refurbished and a large SPA was added, and Steigenberger Parkhotel in D?sseldorf was improved with new terraces, restaurants and guest rooms, following extensive modernisation work to provide contemporary comfort of the highest quality. Steigenberger Inselhotel in Constance re-opened in renewed splendour, in Switzerland, Steigenberger Grandhotel Belv?d?re re-opened in Davos, and Steigenberger Alpenhotel and Spa in Gstaad-Saanen. Steigenberger Hotel and Spa in Krems re-opened in Austria. In 2013 the Steigenberger Hotel Group also opened new, highly attractive InterCityHotels in Leipzig and Berlin, and refurbished five more in various German cities.
The Steigenberger Hotel Group is to maintain its expansion course in 2014. It has exciting new openings coming up for the Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts brand. The first of these will be in Beijing with “Hotel Maximilian” managed by Steigenberger, within the “Audi World” complex with Training Center and Showroom. That will be followed by another Steigenberger in Berlin, that is Steigenberger Hotel Am Kanzleramt (next to the Chancellery), and in Hurghada (Egypt). The InterCityHotel brand is also growing, with new hotels opening in 2014 in Hamburg, Ingolstadt and Duisburg, and in Enschede (Netherlands).
There will be plenty more new openings in the coming years, most of them abroad. Many of the contracts have already been signed.
The Supervisory Board also decided in its meeting to enlarge the Management Board, appointing Michel Novatin as Management Board member with responsibility for Operations, Sales and Marketing, from 1 January 2014. He comes from France/Alsace and was trained at the Hotel and Management School in Strasbourg and INSEAD Paris; he then gained practical experience in numerous international hotel companies, including positions at InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, Le M?ridien Hotels, SBM Monte Carlo and Kempinski Hotels.
The enlargement of the Management Board will enable Chief Executive Officer Puneet Chhatwal to concentrate more on international expansion of this heritage hotel company, alongside his responsibility for Communications and Strategy. Matthias Heck will continue to be responsible for Human Resources, Finance, Accounting and Construction. “I am delighted that we can now enlarge the Board of the Steigenberger Hotels AG to include Mr Novatin. He will be a great enrichment, particularly in this phase of expansion, thanks to his many years of experience ? he has a strong track record which is both international and exceptional,” said Dr Ralf Corsten, Chairman of the Supervisory Board.