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#TBT: All systems go for euro

In 1998, the end of the millennium was looming, and along with concerns about what would happen when the virtual calendar flipped on everyone’s computers – remember Y2K? – but there was also another big change on Europe’s horizon.

The euro would start to circulate among EU countries starting in January 1999, with the full transition taking effect three years later. “Conversion to the euro will affect virtually every aspect of hotel operations,” one consultant said.

Reynermedia via Flickr
Reynermedia via Flickr

While the conversion would be bumpy as hotel companies used dual pricing and invoicing in euros and local currency, it affected everything from printed sales brochures to pricing displays and all sorts of other collateral.

But that single currency would provide transparency, too, and other market opportunities. The unfettering of restrictions due to exchange rates also would put pressure on suppliers to reduce prices.

One hotel, the Metropole in the European capital of Brussels, wasted no time in converting. By the time the International Hotel & Restaurant Association had written its report for the October 1998 issue of HOTELS, the Metropole was already operating jointly in Belgian francs and in the new currency. “Management will be fully trained to ‘think euro,’ and our main investment on the technology side will be in training staff to handle the transition,” said GM Serge Schultz.

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