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🏨 Covivio targets a strategic shift in the first semester of 2024, strengthening its financial structure and increasing its hotel exposure to 20% of its portfolio. Christophe Kullmann, the CEO, anticipates an improved net recurring income for 2024. Covivio acquired €500 million worth of hotels through a share swap, boosting equity by €280 million and took a majority stake (52.5%) in its subsidiary Covivio Hotels. The hotel sector is expected to outperform inflation with a +5%/year increase in overnight stays by 2030.

🍳 Stéphanie Le Quellec knew she wanted to be a chef since 6 or 7 years old, influenced by her family's culture of food and conviviality. At 14, she chose hotel school without hesitation. Le Quellec values seasonality and local sourcing in cuisine, exemplified by her avoidance of off-season produce like winter tomatoes in France, 2024. She treasures a 25-year-old knife, enjoys products like langoustines, and focuses on team respect and listening skills as a manager. Le Quellec gets six to seven hours of sleep, has a soft spot for Saint-Tropez, and advocates for two rest days per week for her team. She recently released a cookbook with Solar Editions featuring recipes under 30 minutes.

🏨 Accor's lifestyle brand Tribe expands with the Tribe Clichy flagship in Hauts-de-Seine, opened late June near Paris. Sébastien Bazin acquired the brand with one hotel in Australia, aiming to develop urban, design-focused hotels with a 'social hub'. Tribe Clichy, by Galia Group, features 120 rooms, a Californian-style restaurant seating 80, a panoramic rooftop, and a 190m² garden. Accor plans to open 100 Tribe hotels in five years, with 30 projects signed for 2027 in French cities like Bordeaux, Montpellier, and Marseille, and a forthcoming Pantin location with 120 rooms and a restaurant over 4,400m².

📌 The Digital Market Act (DMA) came into effect in Europe in March to regulate the influence of portals like Google. A study by Datos, a Semrush subsidiary, found that user navigation on Google remains unchanged 4 months after DMA implementation. In the US, where DMA does not apply, and in Europe, internet users continue to use Google services similarly. Despite the DMA, only 37.4% of searches in Europe lead to non-Google sites, and Google services are still popular, with 24% usage. The study also revealed that nearly 60% of web searches end without a click in both the US and Europe, indicating Google's sustained dominance despite regulatory efforts.

🍳 The world's largest kitchen at the Paris Olympic Games athletes' village in Seine-Saint-Denis will serve 13 million meals every day for two months. Sodexo manages the kitchen with Vesto supplying 300 out of 600 machines and equipment across 13 competition sites. These reconditioned tools help adhere to France's Agec law for an anti-waste, circular economy. After the Games, Vesto will launch a crowdfunding initiative to finance the repurchase and resale of these 600 pieces of equipment at half their original price. Vesto, growing from a startup to a 37-employee company in four years, views the Games as a large-scale experimental lab.

🏆 The opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games is scheduled for July 26. Bernard Boutboul, director of Gira, advises restaurateurs to prepare for client influx despite worries of a deserted capital. Suggested strategies include continuous work hours to cater to non-French dining schedules, reasonable pricing, themed offerings based on event timings and countries, shared and liquid menu options, and overcoming recruitment challenges for needed staff.

🏨 Hospitality ON lists new international hotel openings and future inaugurations, providing a map of locations opened in the last 10 days, featuring group hotels and voluntary networks. The list includes location, photos, and key information. Hotels are color-coded: yellow for this week's openings, blue for announced future openings, green for rebranding openings this week, and orange for newly signed projects.

🏖 Hotel occupancy in June was estimated at 81%, sustained by events like Lion's in Cannes and IronMan 70.3 in Nice with 4,500 athletes. Night stays slightly increased due to new hotels opening, boosting the RevPar by +14%. Air bookings for July-September 2024 saw a 17% rise over the previous year as of June 23, adjusted to +15% by July 7, led by a 35% increase from North America. Domestic bookings (excluding low-cost) were 17% behind, possibly affecting frequentation. Coastal hotel occupancy for early July reached 85%, up 4 points from 2023.

💸 In June 2024, 5-star hotels achieved a record Global Review Index (GRI) of 90.4%, 4-star hotels 86.8%, and 3-star hotels 83.2%. Review volumes decreased by 2.9% from Q2 2023. Average response times improved, with positive reviews at 3.3 days and negative ones at 4.0 days, increasing the response rate to 66.3%, up by 3.4 points from Q2 2023. Agoda's market share rose to 4.8%, a nearly 2 point increase from 2023. Expedia's market share grew by 2.7 points, and Trip.com's comment volume by 9%, while Ctrip only saw a 1.9 point increase.