The SO!APART 2020
Strong together into the future with the segment's USPs and flex strategies
"92 per cent see the current basic mood in the serviced apartment segment as positive or rather positive, while only 44 per cent say the same for the economy as a whole," reports Anett Gregorius, initiator and organiser of the SO!APART. "As surprising as the result of a participant survey was right at the beginning of our conference, it shows: The players in the segment are clearly looking into the future and are noticeably less hit than the hotel industry." This was a clear tenor of the 8th SO!APART on 9th and 10th December 2020, which was held due to corona digitally in a Munich studio for the first time. The segment is currently in its greatest growth phase, continuing to grow by around 43 per cent to approximately 50,000 units by the end of 2022 alone, and investors continue to show confidence in the segment. So where do we really stand? At what consolidation and what new competition with what new strategies? In line with the 2020 motto "Mixed thinking is the new mixed-use", these questions were discussed by top-class experts from the entire temporary housing, the financial and legal world, the transportation and business travel industry, the hotel industry and, of course, the serviced apartment segment on paths and scenarios in the segment, the consequences of "traveling differently" and numerous legal and real estate topics. The next SO!APART will take place on 10th and 11th November 2021 as an in-person event in Leipzig.
Read here the press release of the SO!APART 2020:
You can download the current programme here:
Mixed thinking is the new mixed-use. | Discussion among leading personalities from various areas that determine the segment: Christoph Carnier, President of the Business Travel Association VDR, Marc P. Werner, Head of Global Hospitality Group and Managing Partner of the Frankfurt offices of Hogan Lovells, Henrik von Bothmer, Senior Investment Manager at Union Investment Real Estate, Matteo Ghedini, Founder and CEO of Brera Serviced Apartments, Maria Puetz-Willems, Founder and Editor-in-chief of www.hospitalityInside.com, Karl-Heinz Pawlizki, CEO and Managing Director of Dorint Hospitality & Innovation GmbH, Markus Beike, Development Director Germany & CEE, Staycity and Tim Düysen, CMO at Derag Livinghotels
Market overviews provided by: Christian Strieder, Country Manager DACH, STR and Anett Gregorius, Founder and Owner of Apartmentservice
Effects of corona on operator contracts for serviced apartments | Presentation by Marc P. Werner, LL. M. (Miami), Office Managing Partner, Hogan Lovells International LLP, Frankfurt and Sabrina Handke, Partner, Hogan Lovells International LLP, Munich
Keynote
Future after corona – How does our living change? | Oona Horx -Strathern, Trend Researcher, Speaker, Author
Travel differently - change in travel behaviour | Panel discussion with Christoph Carnier, President of the Business Travel Association VDR, Jens Schliessmann, Director Sales Germany Central at Lufthansa Group, Jan-Wolf Baake, Head of Sales Business Customers at DB Vertrieb GmbH und Oliver Meinicke, Director Global Account Management in the Global Client Team at BCD Travel Services GmbH
How are the neighbouring segments performing? | Benjamin Roeber-Rathay, Director Business Development at International Campus GmbH and Jan Hoepper, Managing Director for Germany at Quarters take a look.
Flex-strategies | Panel with Dr. Josef Vollmayr, Founder & Managing Director bei Limehome, Ralf Krause, COO, Adapt Apartments Berlin GmbH and David Renzmann, Area Manager Germany and Georgia of Citadines Betriebs GmbH.
Presentation: Sylvie Konzack, Editor-in-chief Bleisure Traveller
New Kids on the Block | Presented by Florian Faerber, Founder & Managing Director of THE BASE, Kolja Stegemann, Founder and Managing Director of Suite.030, Tobias Berghaeuser, Managing Director KPM Hotel & Residences GmbH and Stephan Plut, Director of Sales and Marketing at Locke Aparthotels.
Financing and investing | Keynote lecture by Henrik von Bothmer, Senior Investment Manager at Union Investment Real Estate.
Discussing afterwards: Daniel Hoselmann, Regional Director of Small and Medium-sized Business Customers and Network at DZ HYP AG, Alexander Lackner, Managing Director at CR Investment Management GmbH, Reiner Nittka, Spokesman of the Board of GBI Holding AG and Managing Director SMARTments business as well as Henrik von Bothmer
Presentation: Olaf Steinhage, Chairman of the Hotel Real Estate Committee of ZIA
Investment market temporary housing: How are the segments performing? | Presentation of the Study of Union Investment, Adina and Savills followed by a discussion with Matti Schenk, Associate Research at Savills Immobilien Beratungs-GmbH, Matthias Niemeyer, Managing Director at Adina Holding in Germany, Alexander Trappiel, Investment Manager at Union Investment Real Estate and Simon Behr, Director of Fund Management & Transactions at GBI Holding AG
Presentation: Maria Puetz-Willems, Founder and Editor-in-chief of www.hospitalityInside.com
Communication 3.0 in corona times: The digital customer journey as a mega boost for the serviced apartment segment | Keynote lecture by Benjamin Oeckl, Managing Director of BelForm GmbH & Co. KG. The subsequent panel will feature Jens Philipsenburg, Managing Director of DQuadrat Living GmbH, Hannibal DuMont Schuette, Founder and Managing Director of Stayery and Benjamin Oeckl of BelForm invited by Alexander Haussmann, Founder and Managing Director of CODE2ORDER GmbH and Philip von Ditfurth, Founder of apaleo GmbH.
Presentation: Philipp S. Ingenillem, Co-Founder and CSO at Online Birds GmbH
Alexander Haussmann
Alexander Haussmann and his two co-founders founded the software company CODE2ORDER in 2015. CODE2ORDER provides a digital companion for hotel guests. At CODE2ORDER, he is managing partner and responsible for the national and international expansion of the company. In addition, he gives lectures at various symposia and discussions on the topic of digitalisation in the hotel industry.
Benjamin Oeckl
Benjamin Oeckl is Managing Director of BelForm GmbH & Co. KG, a specialist in the conception, furnishing and digitalisation of temporary living forms such as micro-living, serviced apartments, co-living and other types of use. After working in London and Luxembourg, he was Deputy Managing Director at Best Interiors in Dubai, where he was able to gain initial experience in furnishing furnished high-rise buildings in 2010. Today, BelForm designs and realises high-yield apartment concepts and innovative operator brands for renowned clients such as Bauwens, Interboden, Quantum Immobilien AG, BlackF House and other industry leaders.
Daniel Hoselmann
Daniel Hoselmann studied Business Administration and Management at the University of Osnabrueck and USC in Australia until 2011. After successfully completing his bachelor's degree, he earned a Master of Science in Market-Oriented Management at the Technical University of Cologne in 2014 and then completed his trainee program at DZ BANK. Since 2017 he has been working for DZ HYP in Dusseldorf as Regional Director in commercial real estate financing with a focus on office, residential, retail, logistics and hotel real estate. As a member of the Junge Initiativkreis Ruhr, he works with young managers of member companies to promote the further development of the Ruhr region.
Jan Hoepper
Jan Hoepper, Managing Director for Germany at Quarters completed his studies at Peking University in China and at Maryville College in the USA with a Bachelor's degree with distinction (Magna Cum Laude) in International Business. Afterwards he worked for Siemens in China and managed the most successful cost-out programme of the company. After working for Engel & Voelkers, Jan Hoepper was Director Broker and Real Estate Partnerships at WeWork in Germany, Northern Europe and China. Currently Jan Hoepper lives in Berlin.
Karl-Heinz Pawlizki
Karl-Heinz Pawlizki, CEO and Managing Director of Dorint Hospitality & Innovation GmbH since 2017, looks back on many years of experience in the hotel industry. Before joining Dorint Hotels & Resorts in 2014 as Divisional Director/Vice President Operations, he worked for the British InterContinental Hotels Group, most recently as Vice President for Global Operations Planning & Performance and simultaneously as Managing Director of Intercontinental Hotels Management GmbH. At the beginning of his career, he worked at Crowne Plaza in Heidelberg and Birmingham and was General Manager at the Hamburg House of IHG's business travel brand.
Matteo Ghedini
Matteo Ghedini is the Founder and CEO of Brera Serviced Apartments. In 2013 he opened the first house in Nuremberg. Meanwhile they manage about 500 units at 7 locations. Born in Italy, he began his career as a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group. After completing his MBA at INSEAD, he successfully turned around a real estate family office in Germany. With his enthusiasm for interior design and his ability to unleash the strengths of his employees, Matteo's goal is to make Brera one of the most important companies in Europe's longstay segment.
Olaf Steinhage
Olaf Steinhage brings along as a graduate engineer | architect, graduate of the EBS Business School and passionate hotelier many years of experience in planning and project development as well as conceptual and operational consulting of contemporary hotel and department projects. After international planning and consulting experience in Germany and abroad, Olaf Steinhage founded his company hcb in Berlin in 2005. Since 01.01.2020, hcb is part of mrp Hotels and Managing Partner. Since the beginning of 2018, he has been chairman of the ZIA Committee Hotel Real Estate.
Philipp S. Ingenillem
Philipp S. Ingenillem is Co-Founder and CSO at Online Birds GmbH, one of the leading full-service online marketing companies for the hotel industry in Europe. Prior to his current position he was Sales Manager of a CRM database developer. He looks back on a long career in the luxury hotel industry, with stations at Hilton, Claridge's Hotel London, Kempinski, Sofitel, Arabella Sheraton and LeMeridien. This was followed by business studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich with a focus on hospitality management. During this time he gained further experience in sub-areas of management consulting.
Alexander Lackner
Alexander Lackner has over 18 years of experience in the commercial real estate sector and has led the asset management teams at Cushman & Wakefield and Dawnay Day. Since 2010 he is with CR Investment Management, the last 5 years as responsible managing director of the operational real estate business and co-partner of CR Urban Living, which deals with managed properties along the entire usage chain: from serviced apartments, co-living, office-as-a-service and elderly living to urban farming. He is a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS) and holds a degree in Real Estate Economics (ADI).
Benjamin Roeber-Rathay
Benjamin Roeber-Rathay has been active with the International Campus Group since 2017. He is responsible for Business Development, where he plays a key role in the areas of product development and strategy, as well as digitisation and the design of operational processes. Before entering the real estate industry, he worked for many years in television and publishing in the fields of communication, conception and marketing. Roeber-Rathay studied communication science and management in Muenster, Zurich and Hamburg.
David Renzmann
David Renzmann, Area Manager Germany & Georgia at The Ascott Limited, is responsible for a portfolio of four Citadines Apart'hotels in Germany and one Citadines in Tbilisi, Georgia. Since joining Ascott in 2007 he has held various positions within the company - most recently as Residence Manager at Citadines Michel Hamburg. Renzmann has many years of experience in the hospitality industry, having previously worked for renowned hotel and cruise brands.
Jens Schliessmann
Since October 2016, Jens Schliessmann has been Director Sales Germany Central at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, responsible for B-to-B sales of all LH Group passenger airlines in the region. The graduate in air traffic management started his career in the LH Group in 2000. Since then, he has held various positions, such as Assistant to the Divisional Board Member for Product, Marketing & Sales, Head of the Nuremberg Sales Branch and Director Partner Management Airlines & Markets at Miles & More Intl. He is also a member of the advisory board of LH City Center Reisebüropartner GmbH.
Kolja Stegemann
Kolja Stegemann's entrepreneurial activity began in 1995 rather coincidentally, but all the more successfully as a party organiser. From this grew a small agency and his great passion for communication. He worked for advertising agencies, companies and start-ups as a communications and later as a marketing and strategy consultant in the areas of luxury foods, FMCG, fashion, technology and social business. In 2013, inspired by his own experiences, the idea for SUITE.030 was born: The first platform for high-quality designer apartments with transparent star standards and an excellent concierge service. He still works as a freelance consultant and workshop moderator, supports the social entrepreneur organisation Ashoka and is a member of the board of the Entrepreneur's Organization.
Matthias Niemeyer
Matthias Niemeyer is Managing Director of Adina Holding in Germany and has been responsible for the expansion of Adina Hotels in Europe since 2012. Over the next three years, eight new hotels will open in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Numerous other projects and destinations are in the pipeline. Adina is a brand for high-quality apartment hotels of the Australian TFE Hotels. Matthias Niemeyer teaches at the International University of Applied Sciences Bad Honnef and is co-editor of the Compendium of Hotel Real Estate and the Compendium of Temporary Living.
Oliver Meinicke
After studying business administration, Oliver Meinicke worked in various companies in the consulting industry and in the area of real estate investments. Afterwards, he became head of the department of infrastructure management and travel and fleet management at Giesecke+Devrient GmbH in Munich. From there, his path led him to his current position as Director Global Account Management in the Global Client Team at BCD Travel Services GmbH. Since 2019, he has also been a member of the executive committee of the VDR, where he also completed the further training to become a Certified Travel Manager and Certified Mobility Manager.
Reiner Nittka
After his studies at the FU Berlin, Reiner Nittka worked in the Berlin State Chancellery and as personal assistant to the Governing Mayor Walter Momper. Later, he worked as a consultant at the Treuhandanstalt in the presidential department for state issues and as an authorized signatory at the Berlin State Development Corporation. Before he became managing director of GBI mbH & Co. KG and the Estate Operating Company mbH & Co. KG, he was an authorised signatory at Bavaria Objekt- und Baubetreuung GmbH. Today he is spokesman of the GBI AG board (since 2016) and since 2018 also spokesman of the GBI Holding AG board. He is also managing director of SMARTments business.
Stephan Plut
Since August 2020 Stephan Plut is Director of Sales and Marketing at Locke Aparthotels. Together with his sales team he is responsible for the opening of the two Munich hotels in spring 2021 and the Locke East Side Gallery in Berlin. Further properties in continental Europe are planned. After completing his training as a hotel manager at the Hilton Munich Park, he graduated from the Munich University of Applied Sciences with a degree in business administration and the Metropolitan University in London with a bachelor's degree. In 2008 he started as Sales Executive Corporate Accounts at Hilton Hotels Munich, in 2009 as Sales Manager Business Travel at Hilton Worldwide Hotels Germany and rose to Senior Sales Manager Business Travel in 2011. From 2013 to 2016 he was Assistant Director of Sales and then Cluster Director of Sales Germany South for the hotels in Munich and Nuremberg. In his last position as Sales Manager he was responsible for all sales activities of the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich.
Alexander Trappiel
Alexander Trappiel is investment manager at Union Investment Real Estate, where he is responsible for the acquisition of micro-living investments throughout Europe. The spectrum ranges from small apartments in urban locations to serviced apartments in Germany and European metropolitan regions. Alexander Trappiel studied real estate economics, is a trained real estate agent and has 7 years of professional experience, 5 years of which he gained at Union Investment.
Photo: Union Investment/Simone Scardovelli
Christian Strieder
Christian Strieder is Country Manager DACH for STR based in Munich. Here he is the local contact for the customers of the world's leading benchmarking provider. He also represents STR at events and presents current industry developments. Christian sees his mission in further increasing market transparency for providers and supporting them with data for management decisions. After studying economics at universities in Germany, France and Great Britain, he held leading positions in revenue management for international hotel chains.
Florian Faerber
After 5 years in consulting at KPMG and BCG, he led the business development of Tirendo. In 2014, he founded Zipjet, an on-demand textile cleaning service, together with Rocket Internet, which he successfully led to its sale. With The Base, he has been revolutionising the real estate market since 2019, creating globally unique co-living spaces that inspire, connect and redefine urban living. He lives in Berlin, is married and father of a 2 year old son.
Henrik von Bothmer
Henrik von Bothmer is Senior Investment Manager at Union Investment Real Estate, where he is responsible for the acquisition of micro-living investments throughout Europe. The spectrum ranges from small apartments in urban locations to serviced apartments in Germany and European metropolitan regions. He was largely responsible for the launch of the Urban Living No. 1 special fund for institutional investors in the micro-living segment at Union Investment. Henrik von Bothmer studied business law and real estate management and has 19 years of professional experience, 11 years of which he spent at Union Investment.
Photo: Union Investment/Simone Scardovelli
Marc P. Werner
Marc P. Werner, LL.M. (Miami), is Head of Global Hospitality Group and Managing Partner of Hogan Lovells' Frankfurt office. He has more than 25 years of extensive experience in real estate transactions and real estate financing. Especially in his special niche "Hotels and Serviced Apartments" he is considered one of the "Best Lawyers in Germany". Marc P. Werner is the "Go to" lawyer as far as management contracts, lease and rental agreements, franchise agreements or the purchase and sale of single properties or portfolios in the field of "hospitality" are concerned. Competitors, investors, banks, operators and hotel brokers describe him as "one of the best lawyers for hotels". He is known for his pragmatic and solution-oriented approach and "his opinion counts; when he talks about market standards, everyone believes him." (Chambers Europe).
Matti Schenk
Matti Schenk has been supporting the research department of Savills Germany since the beginning of 2014. Since April 2020 he has been working there as an associate for analyses, studies and market reports on the German real estate market. Prior to this, the studied economic geographer gained his first industry experience at CBRE, among others. One of his work focuses on temporary and student housing, which Schenk has been working on since his master's thesis.
Oona Horx-Strathern
Oona Horx-Strathern is from London. For over 25 years she has been a trend researcher, consultant, speaker and author. She has written books on the history of futurology, the architecture of the future, and collaborated on numerous studies of the Zukunftsinstitut. As a trend consultant she has worked for international companies such as Unilever, Beiersdorf and Deutsche Bank. The spectrum of her lectures ranges from architectural conferences and universities to the construction industry and the design sector. She currently lives in the Future Evolution House on the outskirts of Vienna, which she helped design and build.
Photo: © www.strathern.eu / Klaus Vyhnale www.vyhnalek.com
Sabrina Handke
Sabrina Handke is a partner in the Munich office of Hogan Lovells and manages the firm's established German hotel team together with Frankfurt partner Marc P. Werner. She has been successfully advising for several years in the field of real estate and hotel law. She has focused on the special real estate "hotel" and offers economically oriented, pragmatic solutions for all legal issues related to it. Her advice covers all contracts to be concluded in connection with hotel real estate and hotel operations as well as the purchase and sale of individual properties, portfolios and hotel operating companies. Her clients in the field of hotel law include owners, operators, franchisors, investors and financing providers. Sabrina Handke was awarded the title of "Rising Star" in the field of real estate law by Expert Guides in both 2019 and 2020.
Sylvie Konzack
Sylvie Konzack is editor-in-chief of the new online travel magazine Bleisure Traveller, which presents major cities and nearby destinations worldwide for business travelers who want to extend their business trip by two or three days privately. She also works as a freelance journalist for various magazines. Until the end of 2017, she worked for twelve years in the editorial office of the hotel trade magazine first class, and since 2012 as editor-in-chief. The development of the serviced apartments segment has been the subject of numerous articles for many years, including the "Serviced Apartments Market Report 2018" Since 2013 she has been supporting SO!APART as author and jury member.
Markus Beike
Markus Beike has been responsible for the development of the Staycity Aparthotels brand in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe since 2017. Prior to this, he was Managing Director at CBRE, responsible for hotel transaction consulting in Northern and Eastern Europe. As Managing Director at Christie + Co he was previously responsible for the development of the brand in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe. His professional career includes responsible positions at Arthur Andersen, Deutsche Bank, Kempinski and Steigenberger Hotels. He holds a degree in business administration (FH), real estate economics (ebs), hotel management (IHK) and is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS). He is a speaker at trade events, co-author of the standard work "Kompendium der Hotelimmobilie", author of articles in the trade press and guest lecturer at universities.
Anett Gregorius
Anett Gregorius is the owner of the Berlin consulting and agency company Apartmentservice. She founded it in 1999 shortly after her studies of business administration (BA) and a directorship at the German market leader in the apartment hotel industry. Two years later, she expanded it by the first booking platform in the German-speaking countries, which is specialised in this segment. Whether the development of term charters, certifications, benchmark cooperations or as a specialist speaker and specialist book publisher - for 20 years she has been shaping the market with various industry initiatives and has made a significant contribution to increasing awareness and professionalisation of the segment.
Christoph Carnier
After completing his training as a travel agent in Darmstadt, Christoph Carnier joined the Travel Management department of the science and technology company Merck in 1992. He has been Head of Global Travel Management there since 2008 and currently holds the title "Senior Director Travel, Fleet & Events". Since 2014, Carnier has been a member of the executive committee of the German Travel Management Association (VDR), to whose president he was elected in 2019.
Photo: VDR
Jan-Wolf Baake
Jan-Wolf Baake, who studied business administration with a focus on tourism management, has been Head of Sales Business Customers at DB Vertrieb GmbH since October 2020. Together with his team, he is responsible for the business customer program bahn.business and supports about 37,000 customers with customised concepts and business offers for mobility issues. Prior to this, he was Head of Revenue Management and Product Innovation at DB Regio AG in the North Rhine-Westphalia region and worked for almost 10 years as Head of Price Strategy at DB Fernverkehr AG. His main focus was the development of a local transport app (mobil.nrw) and project management activities in the areas of sales and marketing.
Kai Boecking
Since Kai Boecking has been working in television, he has been involved with travel. The formats he first presented and then later produced took place abroad. He has become a travel professional with the aim of making the best out of every trip. Every year he travels the world for TV productions, for Business Traveller and his own Bleisure Traveller magazine, which he founded in 2018. About 200 days a year. That is many days, many airlines, many hotels, many discoveries, but also many disappointments and wrong (booking) decisions. He travels on business, but still wants to get to know the country, people and cultures.
Maria Puetz-Willems
Maria Puetz-Willems is Founder and Editor-in-chief of www.hospitalityInside.com, a German-English online magazine for international hotel management with readers in over 20 countries today. The medium acts ad-free and concentrates on continental Europe, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The content is based on own research and background articles. Readers are the top executives in the hotel industry as well as in hotel real estate and financing. In 2008, it also took over the content organisation of the "Hospitality Industry Dialogue" at the Expo Real Munich. Before HospitalityInside, the classically trained editor worked as a freelance journalist for 16 years, always with a focus on hotels, and travelled to 40 countries.
Tim Düysen
Tim Düysen was born 1972 on Sylt. He completed an international school education in Switzerland and England, as well as an apprenticeship at Hotel Stadt Hamburg in Westerland on Sylt. First positions in the hotel business followed, among others at the Schloßhotel Vierjahreszeiten and the Crowne Plaza in Berlin. Since 2004 he has been employed by Derag Livinghotels AG + Co.KG. As Managing Director and CMO, he is responsible for marketing, communication and sales at Living Hotels.
Philip von Ditfurth
For more than 20 years Philip von Ditfurth is a software entrepreneur specialised in internet platforms and has been working in the hospitality sector for many years. At the beginning of 2017, he and a broad team founded apaleo, the first truly open platform for the hospitality industry that enables hosts of all kinds - aparthotels, serviced apartment buildings, hotels as well as completely new concepts - to seamlessly connect to innovative applications and operate their houses and chains more efficiently.
Simon Behr
Simon Behr is Director of Fund Management & Transactions at GBI Holding AG. After his dual training at Hypo Vereinsbank AG in Leipzig, he first worked in private banking and completed a part-time degree at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. This was followed by a move as a specialist for capital investments to the Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank in Berlin. Today Simon Behr is responsible for all transactions of GBI Holding AG as well as the fund mandates managed by GBI.
Photo: Lea Staedler
Tobias Berghaeuser
The learned restaurant specialist and studied hotel management economics works for approximately 15 years in the hotel trade and in different other ranges of the catering trade. Prior to his time as Managing Director of KPM Hotel & Residences, he worked as a hotel consultant and interim Managing Director in various management positions. In 2017 he published as main author the reference book "Zahlen bitte", a business analysis on the topic of benchmarks and success formulas in the German hotel and gastronomy industry. Since 2015 he has been working in a consulting capacity for Jörg Woltmann's hotel group. Since autumn 2018, he has been responsible as Managing Director for the conception, realisation and management of the new KPM Hotel & Residences.