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Eurofurence Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: BigBlueFox on 01.04.2008, 16:25:36

Title: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: BigBlueFox on 01.04.2008, 16:25:36


This is the discussion thread for the most recent announcement. I've tried my best to translate things.  (http://forum.eurofurence.org/index.php/topic,894.0.html)

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."

Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Mooie on 01.04.2008, 16:51:12
*just smiles, then wags and moos a bit*
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Avalanche on 01.04.2008, 17:10:12
*lounges on his bed reading a book*

This book is interesting :) Lord of the Rings : The Two Towers. Much better than the film.
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Alexfox on 01.04.2008, 17:15:58
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?
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Onkel Kage on 01.04.2008, 17:20:20
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!
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Shivon on 01.04.2008, 19:22:07
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 :)
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Hyper on 01.04.2008, 20:31:30
On April First at that... curious!
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Mrianti on 01.04.2008, 20:54:01
rewe ?    the Quickymart like chain of stores ?
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Cookie on 01.04.2008, 21:04:40
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)
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Twing Twang on 01.04.2008, 22:04:57
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 :)
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Wawik on 01.04.2008, 22:05:47
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!
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: lynard on 01.04.2008, 23:24:47
Well, it's Rewe, not Lidl.

Nice idea, really nice, nearly spilled my drink here  ;D
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Cheetah on 02.04.2008, 00:30:56
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 :)
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Avalanche on 02.04.2008, 01:06:50
I got half way through my book. Did i miss anything? ;D
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Barney on 02.04.2008, 01:11:51
Phew, they really got me fooled... that's the second one today...
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Cheetah on 02.04.2008, 01:18:54
I got half way through my book. Did i miss anything? ;D

You're a fast reader. The Two Towers is a pretty heavy tome.
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Furvan on 02.04.2008, 08:02:38
*bing!!!*

Joke comes close to reality...
Because today business issa joke...
Like funny as a Joke from Joker...
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: lynard on 02.04.2008, 10:23:42
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 :)

Well, it was a good idea, though doing a little search in Spiegel and Google showed me, that there is no such news - but it could have been. The Rewe Group has a Touristic branch with hotels and stuff, but even there i wasn't able to find any news about that (also checked Manager Magazine *G*). After all, if it would happen, i wouldn't mind - we have a contract and reorganizing a structure with 119 Hotels takes a little bit more than just a few months *G*

Though i read Spiegel online i don't trust it anymore without verificating other news sources.
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Spikester on 02.04.2008, 14:12:58
Jeez...that was the second April Fools joke I fell for.

When I first read it in the forum, I thought it was a joke, but then when it was cross posted to the LiveJournal community, I took it more seriously.

Now that the worry is over, I can look forward to EF again :D

I really must remember not to be so darned gullible on April 1st :/
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Tseatah on 02.04.2008, 15:22:47
I'm surprised that no-one else seemed to draw the parallel between Target buying the Adam's Mark (AnthroCon) and Rewe buying the Ringberg.

I'd assume that's what inspired this particular jape, which made it so obvious it wasn't true :)
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Cookie on 02.04.2008, 15:33:17
The ones for the ABBA reunion concert? If they didn't exist in the first place, you didn't loose them :)

No, tickets for a french singer that does a concert every 4 or 6 years only...

Oh, and don't tell me to go on e-bay, they are already at 500 euros a piece (and they were for sale at 60€ to 130€ for the first category ones)....

I HATE APRIL'S FOOL NONSENSE
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Zefiro on 02.04.2008, 16:33:05
I HATE APRIL'S FOOL NONSENSE
So in summary you got a correct information and decided by yourself not to believe it and now you blame this on other persons doing those jokes? And next year when, as you requested, everyone stopps making those jokes, you would still not believe it, wouldn't you?

*purrrr*
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Cookie on 02.04.2008, 17:07:01
Not really, the infos i got online were contradictory:
Some websites said "will be sold online only", some others "will be sold physically only".. and all the website mentioning the sales were doing obvious copy/paste from the same webpage -up to the typos... and what's worse, nothing was written at all on the ticket-selling office webpage (until they all got sold)....
(and she was supposed to begin the tour on her birthday, the 12/09, as a big kick-off, so the new tickets suddently appearing for the 11th looked also suspicious, why begin the tour one day early all of a sudden?)
So that's why it all sounded sooo phony...

All the jokes i had so far this year were not funny the least... from people claiming suddently to be drug addicts, to others pretending to have one of their legs cut off, nothing was funny this time... i just despise this day. That's it.
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Thalian on 02.04.2008, 19:14:38
... it seems that Spiegel Online is blindly trusted by almost everyone here :)
Indeed: I DO trust Spiegel Online to a certain degree. But to be honest: I didn't trust the screenshot, and surprise, surprise...I couldn't find the captured article in the archive on spiegel.de

Guess the FIA had it removed :D :D

See you later - Thalian
Title: Re: Ringberg Hotel under new ownership, the discussion
Post by: Avalanche on 02.04.2008, 19:31:43
You're a fast reader. The Two Towers is a pretty heavy tome.

I didn't say i'd read that half :P

I was too busy giggling. Anyway. im only 50 pages from the end of the Fellowship of the Ring.