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. Besides hotels, Van der Valk also operates the Avifauna Bird Park in

Alphen aan den Rijn Alphen aan den Rijn (; en, "Alphen upon Rhine" or "Alphen on the Rhine") is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The city is situated on the banks of the river Oude Rijn (Old Rhine), where the r ...

. Its logo is based on the

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. The Van der Valk hotels are: * 68 in the

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* 26 elsewhere in Europe ** 13 in

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** 9 in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

** 3 in

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** 1 in

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*2 in the Dutch Caribbean ** 1 in

Bonaire Bonaire (; , ; pap, Boneiru, , almost pronounced ) is a Dutch island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west ( leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC i ...

** 1 in

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

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Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

History

The chain was founded by Martien and Rie van der Valk in 1939 when they opened their first hotel (an expansion/upgrade of a former local restaurant in

Voorschoten Voorschoten () is a village and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It is a smaller town in the Randstad, enclosed by the cities of Leiden, Wassenaar and The Hague. The municipality covers an area of of whi ...

). After World War II the Van der Valks and their 11 children expanded the business with a number of hotel restaurants. This was continued by their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. In 1982 Toos van der Valk, the wife of company head Gerrit van der Valk was kidnapped by

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

criminals and held captive for 21 days. After a ransom of 13 million guilders was paid she was released. In 1994 Gerrit van der Valk was arrested for tax evasion after it was found out that some workers were paid in cash but he was not much later released. The case was eventually settled for 213 million guilders. Gerrit van der Valk died in 2009. The Van der Valk chain also received scrutiny from the authorities in the past because of bad labour conditions. Since 2000 the chain is a

franchise Franchise may refer to: Business and law * Franchising, a business method that involves licensing of trademarks and methods of doing business to franchisees * Franchise, a privilege to operate a type of business such as a cable television p ...

enterprise, but with the stipulation that every franchise holder must be a descendant of Martien van der Valk.

External links

* {{Official website, valk.com/en
Official website in Belgium
Hotel chains in the Netherlands Restaurant chains in the Netherlands Voorschoten