Van Der Valk (Dutch International Hospitality Chain)

Van der Valk is a Dutch international hospitality chain run by the Van der Valk family. It is the largest Dutch hospitality chain, with more than 65 locations in the Netherlands and more than 15 in other countries. The logo of the Van der Valk companies is the image of a toucan. When the Avifauna bird park in Alphen aan den Rijn was bought by the family, the painter Jan van Haastrecht had painted a large toucan on a wall. Then the hotels and restaurants of the group decided to use the toucan as their logo.

Van der Valk (Dutch International Hospitality Chain)

Van der Valk (Cadena Hotelera Internacional Holandesa)

The start of the Van der Valk family business goes back to 1939, when Martien van der Valk Sr. converted the De Gouden Leeuw drink bar in Voorschoten into a hotel. De Gouden Leeuw was started by the father of Martien van der Valk sr., Nicolaas van der Valk in 1862. When it was converted it was his aim to give each of his eleven children their own hotel. Gerrit van der Valk, who later became the group leader, was given the sixth hotel. He wanted to make the group much bigger and founded motels in addition to hotels.

Van der Valk (Holländische Internationale Hotelkette)

Van der Valk（荷兰国际酒店连锁）

In 1982 the Van der Valk family was hit by the kidnapping of Gerrit’s wife, Toos van der Valk. She was kidnapped by three Italian criminals, held for 21 days and released after paying a ransom of 13 million guilders. Another member of the family, Corrie van der Valk, had disappeared without a trace since January 2001. At the beginning of May 2008 she was pronounced dead, although no body had been found and she herself had stated at the time that she ‘wanted to organize her life differently’. In November 2018, after DNA testing, it became clear that she was buried in a cemetery in Belgium, where she was buried as ‘unknown’. She was found to have died in a train accident in 2001.

فان دير فالك (سلسلة الضيافة الدولية الهولندية)

Van der Valk (Chaîne Hôtelière Internationale Néerlandaise)

Float of Van der Valk during the Flower Parade 2022 in the Netherlands

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The Dutch Tax Authorities and Labor Inspectorate could count on little appreciation from the first generation of “Valken”, especially Gerrit van der Valk and his brother Arie. It was an open secret that black payments were made in a number of Van der Valk branches. In February 1994 Gerrit van der Valk was arrested on Curaçao and detained in the Koraal Specht prison. It was the start of a lengthy tug-of-war between the Fiscal Intelligence and Investigation Service (FIOD) and Van der Valk. In the end, the matter was bought off by Van der Valk for an amount of 213 million guilders (more than 96.6 million euros). A number of family members were convicted.

Van der Valk (Nederlandse Internationale Horecaketen)

Van der Valk (Голландская международная сеть отелей)

Van der Valk (Hollanda Uluslararası Ağırlama Zinciri)

The tax affair hastened the reorganization of the group. The management of the group was handed over to the younger generation. During the reorganization, the group was split into nine independent holding companies, which are referred to as ‘stakes’ within the family. Van der Valk has been a franchise organization since 2000, with the stipulation that every franchisee must be a descendant of Martien van der Valk. During the corona crisis, the government measures taken against the virus left a trail through the group. In 2020, a number of hotels were used as reception locations for corona patients.