THE 101 BEST HOTELS IN GERMANY

Stuttgart, 23 July 2020 - There are more than 11,000 hotels nationwide, around 8000 are classified with stars. But which hotels are at the top of the quality scale? The new ranking "The 101 Best Hotels in Germany" will provide answers. For this purpose, four renowned partners have joined forces to carry out an evaluation with comprehensible criteria: CKR Hospitality Consulting as initiator with hotel expert Carsten K. Rath and the Institute for Service Excellence as rights holder, the IUBH International University, the Handelsblatt as well as the ahgz Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomie-Zeitung (dfv Mediengruppe). The result is a hotel ranking that has not existed before.

The basis is the statistical evaluation of public ratings from booking portals such as Booking.com and expert assessments such as the Gold List from Condé Nast Traveller. This part is taken over by the experts of the IUBH. Afterwards, further criteria are created for fine-tuning and the best hotels are finally tested. The benchmarks include service, communication, keeping the promise of a stay as well as experiences before and after the visit. This is how the list of the 101 best hotels in Germany is created, which will be published at the end of November.

Prof. Dr. Annegret Wittmann-Wurzer from the IUBH in Munich, who methodically accompanies the project, explains the method: "As a starting point, we used both an open and an access-restricted evaluation portal. Here, the focus is on the perception of quality from the point of view of individual hotel guests. In addition to these quality assessments based on subjective measurement, existing rankings were included in a second step. In this way, we have combined the quality assessment of guests and experts - i.e. subjective as well as quasi-objective views."

The partners explain:

Carsten K. Rath, partner of CKR Hospitality Consulting: "Everything that is measured is improved. And only what is measured is improved. The classification will now focus even more on quality through benchmarks."

Prof. Dr. Peter Thuy, Rector, IUBH International University of Applied Sciences - IUBH University of Applied Sciences: "With the ranking of the '101 best hotels in Germany', the partners involved are closing an information gap that provides an overview of the overall high-quality hotel landscape in Germany from the point of view of guests and hotel experts with regard to the topic of service quality. IUBH was happy to be involved as a partner for the methodology and data processing."

Christian Rickens, Head of Agenda at Handelsblatt: "Handelsblatt readers know: The social market economy thrives on market transparency and competition. Both are part of the journalistic DNA of the Handelsblatt, and we want to contribute to both with the 101 best hotels in Germany."

Rolf Westermann, Editor-in-Chief of ahgz Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomie-Zeitung: "Rankings have always inspired people and ensured healthy competition. Even though we know that there is no absolute objectivity, we are convinced that we have created a valuable overview and orientation. Congratulations to the 101 winners!"

Read more in ahgz 30 of 25 July 2020 and online at ahgz.co.uk.

Contact:

Manuela Töpfer

Senior Officer dfv Corporate Communications

Phone +49 69 7595-2052

presse@dfv.de

www.dfv.de

The AHGZ- Allgemeine Hotel- und Gastronomie-Zeitung is the only weekly newspaper for the hotel and restaurant industry in the German-speaking countries. In addition to the print edition, readers have access to the daily newsletter ahgz am Morgen, the IVW-tested and high-reach online portal ahgz.de and the weekly e-paper as sources of information. Numerous special publications and high-ranking industry events sharpen the profile of ahgz in the target group. Also part of the media family are the job market ahgz Jobsterne and the real estate market ahgz Immo with the associated online portals Jobsterne.de and ahgzimmo.de. ahgz is published by the Stuttgart-based dfv Matthaes Verlag, a subsidiary of the dfv Mediengruppe.

The dfv Mediengruppe, based in Frankfurt am Main, is one of the largest independent specialist media companies in Europe. With its subsidiaries and holdings, it publishes around 90 trade publications for eleven business sectors as well as around 400 practical trade book titles. Many of the titles are market leaders in their respective sectors. The portfolio is supplemented by over 90 digital offerings. The more than 160 dfv events offer not only exclusive information but also the opportunity for intensive networking. The dfv Mediengruppe employs around 940 people in Germany and abroad and achieved a turnover of 139.6 million euros in 2019.