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Do trasfers of assets prevent a better use of the accommodation offer?

Mrs. Anne CHESEAUX - CFB network SA, Switzerland

 

CFB network SA presentation

• Founded in 2004
• 4 Managing Partners
• Working in Switzerland and abroad
• Specialists in financial and strategic advice for tourist firms
  • Appraisals
  • Feasibility studies
  • Project accompaniment
  • M&A
  • Fiduciary activity
• Project accompaniment from the planning stage to the management stage, through a network of partners

Objective

• Changes to the framework conditions influencing the accommodation offer
• Answers
• Prospects

Changes to the framework conditions

• Historical factors of success in the hotel industry of Switzerland
• scenery
• innovation, quality of the infrastructure
• development of winter sports
• USP – little competition
• image
• economical situation
• preferential cost structure
• clear position

What has changed

• access to other destinations and other activities
• obsolescence of the infrastructure (lack of strategy, profit-taking, profit-margin erosion)
• loss in quality of services provided
• socio-demographic changes
• polarisation of demand (luxury – low cost)
• unresolved successor situations

Progression of overnight stays

• Occupancy +/- 40%
• Stagnation of prices

Source: Federal Office of Statistics

Answers

Reactions to these changes

• reorganisation of the offer
• quality onslaught
• modernisation of the offer
• cooperation
• reallocations
• access to other types of financing
• Transformations of hotels into pure real estate projects => disappearance of the hotel offer, consequences on the whole tourist offer
• Allocation of available land for real estate purposes only
• Current evolution towards mixed models
• Holiday flats and serviced apartments have been around for several years in Switzerland; time-shares have never really taken off.
• The novelty lies in the integration of services, as demand is tending towards more flexible types of accommodation (more space, customised services), with an aim to maximise the financial return per sqm

Modularity of the spaces and services

Examples: Royalp Hotel in Villars

• destination with quite a strong reputation
• 63 bedrooms (suites / 55sqm), 5*
• Spa, Restaurant
• 30 luxury apartments with possibility of hotel rental

Source: www.royalp.ch

Examples: Andermatt

• tourist destination with average reputation
• presence of the army over several years
• Intervention of a foreign investor

Situation after development

Source: www.andermattresort.com

Examples: Walensee

Situation after development

Source: www.resortwalensee.com

Examples: Mont-Blanc Hotel at Crans-Montana

• buying back an existing hotel
• adding a wing
• keeping 12 luxury bedrooms

Source: www.bruellan.com

Example: Mirador Kempinski Hotel at Vevey/Montreux

• Necessary transformation of the hotel
• Better use of the existing capacities
• Rental of the apartments

Source : www.mirador.ch

Advantages highlighted

• no tied-up capital
• no worries about domestic staff
• situation
• Safety and security
• access to the hotel infrastructure
• warden
• business Centre
• doctor
• room service

Source: www.mirador.ch

Example: Castell Hotel at Zuoz

Source: www.hotelcastell.ch

Future prospects

• In well-positioned traditional tourist destinations, the inclusion of apartments in hotel complexes can guarantee the survival of a sufficient hotel offer.
• This kind of hybrid accommodation is also appearing in towns.
• In less well-known destinations, with land reserves, developing resorts enables to boost tourism.
• These developments are absolutely essential for maintaining an attractive long-term offer.
• In this type of project, the investors are not Swiss.
• The prior liaison with the environmental organisations and authorities ensures a harmonious development of the projects.

Thank you for listening; please do not hesitate to ask me any questions

Anne Cheseaux
CFB network SA
+41 79 209 11 84
anne.cheseaux@cfbnetwork.ch