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[BigBlueFox]

This is the discussion thread for the most recent announcement. I've tried my best to translate things.

PLEASE don't start drama yet. We don't know if we will be affected in any way. As soon as we find out more news, we'll make sure to publish them ASAP.


The Ringberg group wants to shrink its chain of hotels, which is in
deficit. They sell one third of their hotels to the REWE Group.

Cologne - The Munich Ringberg Group sells one third of their 443 hotels. Those
137 houses, some of which have popular names such as the Hotel Kaiserin Augusta
in Weimar, the Ringberg Hotel in Sohl and the Ringhotel Chateau Garni in Berlin,
have generated a turnover of 550m. Euro, and "a loss of less than 50m Euro",
according to a spokesperson.

Germany's second largest groceries dealer, REWE of Cologne, takes over 119 of the
hotels in Eastern and Southern Germany. 18 hotels will be sold or closed. A
price has not been published.

The entire Ringhotel Chain with its 10800 employees had to suffer from the
competition of the cheaper automated hotels, and began slipping into the red
back in 2003.

[...]

REWE is rather optimistic to make the hotels more profitable soon, catching up
with the market leader, EDEKA. "We take over the hotels and the employees, but
not the concepts", so a speaker of REWE. 80 Hotels will be restructored into
overnight discount malls which are supposed to attract folks from the Eastern
states and from the BeNeLux States. "Bed And Breakfast was yesterday. The new
Motto is: Shop Till You Drop. Shop and sleep."

[Mooie]

*just smiles, then wags and moos a bit*

[Avalanche]

*lounges on his bed reading a book*

This book is interesting Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers. Much better than the film.

[Alexfox]

I know I am not going to Eurofurence this year thanks to the rush on registration but I'll ask the obvious question, what's the worst case (s**t really hits the fan) scenario?

I am assuming that the best case is its little more than a change of faceless management and company logo's?

[Onkel Kage]

I am not worried.  There is no indication of when this sale will take place, or when the actual transfer of ownership will become effective.  

Of the 119 hotels, they claim that only 18 will be sold or closed.  That means there is a better than 80% chance that we will not be affected.  And considering that the Ringberg in Suhl seems to be quite popular (and it is hardly in a convenient location for shopping!), I will remain optimistic that they will not be on the list.

Of course, I know the sort of stress this must be causing to the staff, having been through something similar.  Whatever happens, I have complete faith that they will make the best of the situation!

[Shivon]

I'm not so worried really ^^. We will see what time will tell. Got a feeling that tomorrow something new on this case will light up

[Hyper]

On April First at that... curious!

[Mrianti]

rewe ?    the Quickymart like chain of stores ?

[Cookie]

April's fool, yeah, blablabla...

I wish people would cut these stupid jokes which made me loose good concert tickets today....(cause i really believed it was not true they were for sale)

[Twing Twang]

I wish people would cut these stupid jokes which made me loose good concert tickets today....(cause i really believed it was not true they were for sale)

The ones for the ABBA reunion concert? If they didn't exist in the first place, you didn't loose them

[Wawik]

Well, at least REWE is a reputable chain that cares for quality and customer satisfaction. I guess it would've been much worse if they had sold to Lidl instead. Can you imagine spy cameras in every bedroom and private investigators noting down intimate details like "YiffyFox is repeatedly opening the adult website 'FChan' on the complimentary wireless network"? I certainly couldn't!

[lynard]

Well, it's Rewe, not Lidl.

Nice idea, really nice, nearly spilled my drink here 

[Cheetah]

Okay Okay, I guess everyone has by now realized that this was just a silly april fools joke Still, I'm pretty impressed with how many people fell for it. Most interestingly, the majority of people who believed this were germans ... it seems that Spiegel Online is blindly trusted by almost everyone here

So, everyone, no need to worry, everything is fine, we now continue with out scheduled programming

[Avalanche]

I got half way through my book. Did i miss anything?

[Barney]

Phew, they really got me fooled... that's the second one today...