With last week’s announcement that Steigenberger Hotels AG was changing its name to Deutsche Hospitality, CEO Puneet Chhatwal said the new umbrella brand combined the company’s German roots and international vision. The company’s three brands comprise 116 hotels in 12 countries and three continents. HOTELS spoke with Chhatwal about how the rebranding will support expansion.
HOTELS: Why is the rebranding important to the future of your company’s brands?
PUNEET CHHATWAL: Deutsche Hospitality forms a strong umbrella structure for the three established brands. It takes a linguistically neutral stance among the three brands that it unites, and it can be extended to embrace possible additional brands. Therefore, the new umbrella brand ends the confusion between the prior umbrella brand Steigenberger Hotel Group (SHG) and the hotel brand Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts (SHR).
H: How will this move make it easier to grow globally?
PC: The new umbrella brand Deutsche Hospitality confidently unites, in two words, the German roots of our company and an international orientation. We believe that German quality has an excellent reputation all over the world and that a name like Deutsche Hospitality stands for German precision and global vision.
H: How long of a process was this and how did you earn buy-in from the board?
PC: From the decision for a rebranding until the introduction of our new umbrella brand took one year. The board supported this direction, as it underlines our strategy of exporting hospitality “made in Germany” beyond our national frontiers and supports our growth objectives.
H: The goal here is also to open the brands to further expansion. Can you elaborate on pipeline and potential growth for the three brands, as well as timeframes and goals for growth?
PC: We are targeting the number of 150 hotels (in operation or planning stage) until the year 2020, comprising 75 Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts, 65 IntercityHotels and 10 Jaz in the City hotels.
H: What global markets will you be targeting first?
PC: We are striving for growth in our core market, Germany and central Europe, as well as for expansion in the Middle and Far East.
H: Which of your three brands has the most potential for additional growth, and why?
PC: The good news is that all our three brands have the potential for growth: Currently, we export the brand IntercityHotel to the first cities outside of Europe, namely to Dubai; Salalah, Oman, and Qingdao, China – and the growth inside Germany is strong with the next openings in Brunswick and Duisburg. For Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts, we regularly sign new contracts (Istanbul Airport Hotel and Cologne just opened, Munich and Baden-Baden are getting ready for opening) and Jaz in the City is just at the beginning, with a first hotel in Amsterdam and a second to come in Stuttgart in six months’ time. The plan is to have 10 Jaz hotels by 2020.
H: What will be the biggest challenge generated by making this branding change?
PC: The biggest challenge is preserving the core values and stimulating growth and internationalization at the same time. Not only do we need all stakeholders to embrace this change, but like any other organization, we need globally stable markets for driving this change.
H: Do you expect to add a brand as a result of creating the umbrella brand?
PC: At least, under the new umbrella brand, there is space for potential additional brands. If there is a good opportunity, like we had with Jaz in the City, we shall surely consider it.
H: You have 20 deals in various stages of the pipeline. How will this change aid in getting more of these deals completed?
PC: Deals that are already in the pipeline will not be affected – but we are confident to have easier access to future deals, especially in the context of our international growth plans.