relies too much on references to primary sources . please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources . april 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message founded 1939 founder martien van der valk headquarters netherlands key people gerrit van der valk former ceo website valk.com 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 . its logo is based on the toucan . the van der valk hotels are 68 in the european netherlands 26 elsewhere in europe 13 in germany 9 in belgium 3 in france 1 in spain 4 in north america 1 in aruba 1 in bonaire 1 in cura ao 1 in the united states history edit theaterhotel de oranjerie in roermond netherlands 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 . 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 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 enterprise but with the stipulation that every franchise holder must be a descendant of martien van der valk . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to van der valk . official website official website in belgium retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title van der valk company & oldid 743121464 categories hotel chains in the netherlandsrestaurant chains in the netherlandshidden categories articles lacking reliable references from april 2011all articles lacking reliable referencescommons category with local link same as on wikidataofficial website different in wikidata and wikipedia navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages eestinederlands edit links this page was last modified on 7 october 2016 at 23 55 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view