Golden Tulip quits Jarvis partnership

Golden Tulip has ended its partnership with Jarvis Hotels and confirmed that it has made its UK and Ireland director Len Louis redundant.

The Netherlands-based hotel consortium joined forces with Jarvis in 1995 but, despite having access to the latter's 72-strong hotel network, felt that its name was overshadowed by that of Jarvis.

Last year, it said that there would be "no changes" in its relationship with Jarvis (Caterer, 3 August 2000, page 6). But this week, Hans Kennedie, senior vice-president and managing director of Golden Tulip, said: "Jarvis is developing its brand strategy and Golden Tulip is pursuing its brand strategy." He said that the end of the partnership was not connected to its decision to make Louis redundant.

Four hotels have signed up to Golden Tulip since Louis joined the consortium in May 2000, and they will be the only hotels in the consortium in Britain after the Jarvis hotels leave.

Louis was one of five area directors to have their positions axed. The others were in Italy, France, Germany and Benelux.

Kennedie said that this happened because Golden Tulip decided to centralise its European marketing in two offices instead of five.

Its north western European office is based in Hilversum in the Netherlands while that for southern Europe is in Paris. It will retain its office in the UK to deal with franchise services and sales and reservations.

Kennedie denied that Golden Tulip's UK hoteliers were concerned about the changes, and said: "The advantage of having two offices is that our lines of communication are shorter."

By Louise Bozec louise.bozec@rbi.co.uk and Sara Macefield

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 11-17 January 2000