Two former GP Associates’ team members have joined forces with established sales and PR company for the German speaking market, Flospitality, to launch a UK office this October. 

Laura Viaccoz-Michaelsen and Kelly Featherstone will head up Flospitality UK in London as co-director and director of sales respectively. The office will operate as a separate entity to its parent company, working with key hotels in the UK luxury leisure market.

Flospitality UK’s first property is Hotel Castello di Reschio in Italy. A statement said the company would announce more hotels in the coming weeks.

Viaccoz-Michaelsen and Featherstone have more than 10 years of collective experience working at leading UK hotels sales representation GP Associates, which closed in July after 27 years due to the effects of the pandemic.

Viaccoz-Michaelsen said: “As European holiday destinations come to the end of a thriving summer season, and the UK government appears to be making a welcome shift away from the traffic light system following the roll out of a successful UK vaccine programme, the light at the end of the tunnel is most definitely visible. 

“As travellers become more adept at holidaying under these ‘new normal’ conditions, the team at Flospitality UK is feeling very hopeful for travel in 2022. In our view, Europe is most definitely going to be the hot-ticket for next year as we are seeing so many UK travellers already secure their holiday plans.” 

Flospitality was founded in Austria in 2014 by hotelier Florian Schaible.

The company opened an office in Switzerland in 2019, headed up by managing director Ferdinand von den Benken, and later expanded into the German market in 2020. 

The company covers a range of markets, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. The collection has grown to include an Alpine chalet in the mountains, a medical spa resort in Greece, boutique city hotels and a farm in Portugal.