Meininger Hotel Group
| Meininger Hotel Group
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form |
GmbH (Meininger Shared Services, Berlin) Limited (Meininger Finance Company, Douglas ) |
| founding | 1999 |
| Seat |
Berlin , Germany Douglas , Isle of Man |
| management | Ajit Menon, CEO |
| Number of employees | 750 (as of 2019) |
| sales | 111 million euros |
| Branch | Budget hotels |
| Website | www.meininger-hotels.com |
| Status: 2017 | |
The Meininger Hotel Group is a British hotel company originally founded in Germany. The group operates 29 low-budget hotels in 17 European cities (as of 2020). Ajit Menon has been CEO of the operating company Meininger Shared Services GmbH since May 2020 . The company has over 750 employees (as of 2019).
history
In 1999, after completing his studies, Nizar Rokbani opened the first "Meininger Hotel" and then the budget hotel chain together with a business partner on Meininger Strasse in Berlin-Schöneberg .
In November 2010 the British tourism group for educational and active holidays, Holidaybreak plc, acquired a 50 percent stake in Meininger, with the option to buy the remaining shares as well. The British bought the second tranche of 24% in April 2012. In February 2013, the owners of the Meininger Group announced that they had now also sold the remaining 26% of their shares in the company to the British.
Holidaybreak is part of Cox & Kings , the oldest travel company in the world. Nothing was disclosed about the purchase price
The industry website Hotelier.de assumed in 2014 that the Meininger Group could almost double its turnover at least every two years.
Meininger opened the youngest hotel in Lyon in November 2019. It is the second hotel in France.
concept
Meininger is a hotel product that combines the service and comfort of an international budget hotel with the features of a hostel, such as guest kitchen and game zone. The rooms range from conventional double rooms to private multi-bed rooms to beds in dormitories. The hotels are specially tailored and adapted to the respective location and local market. The flexible design of each hotel makes it possible to address different target groups, such as school classes, families, individual and business travelers, equally.
The interior of each Meininger Hotel is based on an individual theme, inspired by the city and the local surroundings of the hotel.
Awards
The Meininger Hotel in Leipzig received the German Design Award 2019 in the "Special" category. The statement of the jury stated: "The concept of the habitable installation was implemented creatively and at a high level in terms of design. A great job that meets the requirements for quality and originality."
In October 2017 the Meininger Hotel Group was awarded the “Global Youth Travel” award in the “Best Youth Travel Accommodation 2017” category. The Global Youth Travel Awards (GYTAs) annually honor outstanding market performers in the youth, student and educational travel industries. The consumers themselves decide on the winner.
Business figures
In the 2018/19 financial year, an average room occupancy of 90 percent was achieved. The hotel group's turnover in the 2018/19 financial year was 111 million euros.
Hotel overview
| place | Hotel name | opening | room |
|---|---|---|---|
| Munich | Munich City Center | 2004-09 | 94 |
| London | London Hyde Park | 2006-10 | 48 |
| Vienna | Vienna Central Station | 2007-09 | 68 |
| Berlin | Berlin Alexanderplatz | 2008-04 | 90 |
| Hamburg | Hamburg City Center | 2009-04 | 116 |
| Berlin | Berlin main station | 2009-10 | 296 |
| Frankfurt / Main | Frankfurt / Main Fair | 2010-04 | 164 |
| Salzburg | Salzburg City Center | 2011-05 | 101 |
| Berlin | Berlin Mitte "Humboldthaus" | 2011-08 | 118 |
| Vienna | Vienna Downtown "Franz" | 2011-10 | 131 |
| Vienna | Vienna Downtown "Sissi" | 2011-11 | 102 |
| Frankfurt / Main | Frankfurt / Main Airport | 2012-01 | 168 |
| Berlin | Berlin Airport | 2012-04 | 156 |
| Amsterdam | Amsterdam City West | 2012-06 | 321 |
| Brussels | Brussels City Center | 2013-05 | 150 |
| Copenhagen | Urban House Copenhagen by MEININGER |
2017-01 | 218 |
| Leipzig | Leipzig Central Station | 2017-04 | 126 |
| Berlin | Berlin East Side Gallery | 2017-12 | 245 |
| Milan | Milano Garibaldi | 2017-12 | 80 |
| Amsterdam | Amsterdam Amstel | 2018-03 | 185 |
| Rome | Roma Termini | 2018-05 | 118 |
| Milan | Milano Lambrate | 2018-07 | 131 |
| Berlin | Berlin Tiergarten | 2018-09 | 238 |
| Budapest | Budapest Great Market Hall | 2019-03 | 184 |
| Munich | Munich Olympic Park | 2019-03 | 172 |
| Heidelberg | Heidelberg main station | 2019-07 | 100 |
| Brussels | Bruxelles Gare du Midi | 2019-08 | 150 |
| Paris | Porte de Vincennes | 2019-10 | 249 |
| Lyon | Center Berthelot | 2019-11 | 169 |
Information according to company website, as of May 2020.
Tax avoidance
On November 5, 2017, the Paradise Papers were published worldwide at the same time , which among other things made clear how the operating company Meininger avoids taxes after buying up Holidaybreak 2013 by means of a company network created for this purpose .
The expertise for this restructuring came from Deloitte , one of the world's leading financial structure consultancy firms (and part of the Big Four ). The lawyers of the Appleby law firm were engaged for the implementation . In a comprehensive document, Deloitte set out how the conversion should be carried out effectively. The formal aim was to separate Meininger organizationally from the Holidaybreak travel division. In fact, a construction was created that makes it possible to transfer profits from Germany to Great Britain with as little tax as possible.
Deloitte hired Appleby to set up a company on the Isle of Man . The lawyers registered the new company Meininger Finance Company Limited in 2014 . Because this also needs a real place of business on the island in order to make the tax authorities credible later that decisions of a company are actually made there, Appleby provides rooms. For the equivalent of around 7,000 euros per year, Appleby's lawyers attached a Meininger Finance company sign to a basement room. The firm also provides two of the three directors of the Meininger Finance Company . Tagesschau.de wrote: "According to the documents, Appleby earns around 57,000 euros a year with the Meininger company in the basement."
Meininger Finance Company on the Isle of Man loaned the German Meininger Group € 134.6 million (£ 110.8 million). Meininger had to pay debts to his own company and so transferred their profits to Holidaybreak via the Island of Man. As an indebted company, the tax burden in Germany has been reduced considerably.
According to research by the BBC based on the Paradise Papers, Holidaybreak paid UK sales tax for Meininger Hotels in 2015 . This is only 5.25%. In Germany, company sales are taxed at around 30%. By outsourcing its tax liability , Holidaybreak saved € 1 million (£ 900,000) a year.
Fabio De Masi (former MEP and now MdB) said: “The Holidaybreak tax structure is exactly the structure that the EU Commission should take into account . The investigation could lead to the company being asked to pay avoided taxes after all ”.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.tophotel.de/meininger-hotelsneuer-ceo-und-cfo-ernannt-58263/
- ↑ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-02/cox-kings-said-to-weigh-sale-of-european-hotel-chain-meininger
- ^ A b Daniel Bax: Meininger founder Nizar Rokbani: Boxing through like Muhammad Ali . In: The daily newspaper: taz . July 6, 2014, ISSN 0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed November 6, 2017]).
- ↑ Management. In: meininger-hotels.com. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .
- ↑ MEININGER Hotels: “Girls' Day” at MEININGER Hotels. In: - MEININGER Hotels. March 28, 2019, Retrieved March 28, 2019 (American English).
- ↑ Company. In: meininger-hotels.com. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .
- ↑ Holidaybreak. In: meininger-hotels.com. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .
- ↑ The British swallow the Meininger hotel group in Berlin. In: morgenpost.de
- ↑ MEININGER Hotels continue to expand successfully across Europe! In: Hotelier.de. Retrieved November 6, 2017 .
- ↑ MEININGER Hotel Lyon Center Berthelot opens its doors. Retrieved May 11, 2020 .
- ↑ MEININGER Hotels continue to expand successfully across Europe! In: Hotelier.de: Hotel News - Gastro News - Price comparison search engine . ( hotelier.de [accessed on July 31, 2018]).
- ↑ Hostel segment - the fastest growing area of the hotel market with huge market potential . In: HSMA . ( hsma.de [accessed on July 31, 2018]).
- ^ Matthaes Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany: Meininger starts in Leipzig . In: AHGZ.de . ( ahgz.de [accessed on August 16, 2018]).
- ^ Meininger Hotel - Special Mention - Architecture - German Design Award. Accessed January 31, 2019 .
- ↑ Best Youth Travel Accommodation 2017 - WYSE Travel Confederation . In: WYSE Travel Confederation . ( wysetc.org [accessed July 18, 2018]).
- ↑ Meininger wants to double the number of beds to 35,000 by 2024. Retrieved June 22, 2020 (German).
- ↑ Vinicy Chan: Cox & Kings is considering selling the Meininger hotel chain: Kreise . September 3, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed September 10, 2019]).
- ↑ The company - Discover the MEININGER hotel group. Retrieved May 12, 2020 .
- ↑ a b Hotel chain Meininger - to save taxes in the basement. In: tagesschau.de. Retrieved November 7, 2017 .
- ↑ a b c Paradise Papers reporting team: PGL firm cut tax bill after rule change . In: BBC News . November 6, 2017 ( bbc.com [accessed November 6, 2017]).