On the 8th of April 2017 Europe’s oldest luxury hotel group, Kempinski Hotels, celebrated its 120th Anniversary with special events in all 75 of their five-star hotels in 30 countries. Throughout the anniversary year there will be special offers and promotions for guests to celebrate 120 years of travelling in style and they will open the first modern five-star luxury hotel in Cuba.
The Kempinski Hotels’ story began in 1897 when Berthold Kempinski opened his first hotel in Berlin. Berthold Kempinski was born on 10 October 1843 into a successful family in the wine trade. In 1872, Berthold opened a wine-merchant’s business under his own name, quickly expanding this by adding a restaurant and then opening Berlin’s largest restaurant in 1889.
Kempinski enlisted the help of his son-in-law Richard Unger and he built up a property business and a manufacturing and retail business, opening the first Kempinski hotel in Berlin in 1918, taking over another ten years later.
But success was followed by disenchantment. To escape the events of World War II, Richard Unger and his family emigrated to the USA and the firm M. Kempinski & Co became part of Aschinger AG, with several of their properties being destroyed by fire and bombing raids.
Nevertheless, the name Kempinski survived. After the end of the conflict, Richard Unger’s son and Berthold Kempinski‘s grandson, Dr Friedrich Unger, returned to Germany. In 1951 building started on a hotel on the site of the first restaurant and it opened a year later under the name Hotel Kempinski. For 20 years, the modern, progressive five-star hotel enjoyed the undisputed status of the sole luxury hotel in Berlin.
Since then the group has been growing and expanding and now has 75 hotels, with the newest Kempinski opening in Cuba later this year. The goal of the group has always been to make the Kempinski name synonymous with individual luxury. Kempinski achieves this through a portfolio of internationally distinctive, historically unique and modern hotels and residences, which are either market leaders in their locality, or landmarks in their particular area. In this respect, Kempinski Hotels aims to maintain a geographically balanced portfolio – consisting of urban and leisure hotel and residence locations – with unique service at an individual level.
Kempinski Hotels currently operates in 30 countries and their range is continually extended by the addition of new hotels in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. The portfolio includes historic grand hotels, superb city hotels, outstanding resorts and superior residences, as well as famous names, such as the Hotel Adlon Kempinski in Berlin, the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, the Hotel Taschenbergpalais Kempinski in Dresden, the Siam Kempinski Hotel in Bangkok or the Çiragan Palace Kempinski in Istanbul. Kempinski is a founding member of the Global Hotel Alliance (GHA), the world’s largest alliance of independent hotel brands.
The Kempinski Hotel Bahia opened in Estepona on the Costa del Sol in 1999 and is the only Kempinski Hotel in Spain. It was designed by one of the Costa del Sol’s most renowned architects Melvin Villarroel and has won awards both for its architecture and gardens. It is surrounded by luscious subtropical gardens covering an extensive area of 40,000 sq m, has 128 spacious rooms and 17 luxury suites, a newly renovated spa and several conference rooms. The four restaurants offer guests a wide range of Spanish and Mediterranean cuisine. The hotel’s own organic vegetable garden grows a wide variety of herbs that are used for cooking in the four restaurants. The location right on the beach, within easy reach of both Marbella and Gibraltar and the charming town of Estepona makes it a popular choice for tourists from all over the world. They are celebrating the 120th Anniversary with a number of special offers on rooms, in the restaurants and in the spa for the rest of the year. Visit www.kempinski.com/estepona to see the latest offers.
More information about the Kempinski Group can be found here – www.kempinski.com/press • www.globalhotelalliance.com
