Under the global responsibility of Vanguelis Panayotis, MKG Hospitality’s database is restructuring in order to adapt to an expansion into new zones. Four Market Directors working in teams of two are the prime contacts for clients and groups wishing participate in the database: Orianne Kieny and Nicolas Gayot will cover France, Southern Europe, while Pierre Autret and Michael Durand will be in charge of Germany, Benelux, Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, and Vanguelis Panayotis will serve Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.

Present in Europe since 1986, MKG Hospitality has developed a highly extensive monthly and daily competitor tracking programme, the “Hotelcompset®”. Based on a history of over 20 years of close observation of the market and active cooperation of the largest national and international hotel chains as well as a growing number of independent hotels, the programme is now the most exhaustive competitor tracking programme in Europe and in the rest of the world, excluding the US market.

The newest “Version II” of Hotelcompset which will soon be online will enable each client to choose his or her own personalised “competitive set” with the help of a specialised sample selection tool. The programme took several months and a major investment in order to be developed. It is completely secure and in full compliance with European norms regarding respect of competitor information and privacy.

A “Version III” is currently in the final stages of development and will be available in January 2008. This version takes into account the users’ request to have a more flexible, ergonomic and easy to use programme. Like all tools implemented by MKG, this version is in full and strict compliance with all national or European authorities’ regulations regarding confidentiality.

As opposed to some competitors, MKG Hospitality has always avoided exercising activities such as chartered accounting, public and private financial auditing, or real estate transaction, which could create a conflict of interest, and maintains total independence from other actors in the hotel industry. Therefore, MKG Hospitality’s ability to perform its activities does not depend on the need of justification in the form of an official authorisation from European authorities. MKG is fully and legally capable, with respect to the law and European regulations, to produce daily statistics of the hotel industry’s activity via the proprietary tool Hotelcompset Daily. Furthermore, the majority of MKG Hospitality’s competitors are also clients of MKG’s statistical department.

The current concentration of anglo-saxon actors in this domain could, in the long-term, could create the fear of a monopoly, which could have a negative impact on the diversity of service providers that the hotel industry enjoys.