Hotel News Now each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. This week’s compilation covers Europe.
Hotel executives debate when sustainability should enter development, construction conversations
Integrating sustainability into hotel development is somewhat of a new frontier for the hospitality industry.
Panelists at the recent Annual Hospitality Conference in Manchester, England, said there is “no established starting point for sustainable hotel construction or renovations, no guidebook, no industry standard, few if any government laws or mandates,” writes Hotel News Now’s Terence Baker.
What’s driving a hotel investment renaissance in Italy
Italy’s hospitality industry is changing as lending conditions shift and hotel owner-operators evolve their business strategies, according to participants at the Italian Hotel Investment Conference, or ITHIC.
Guido Castellini, senior advisor at Coldwell Banker Commercial, said there are in Italy new destinations “developing, places where buyers can create value.”
He added that the market “is a little aggressive, and [Italian investors] compete against Asian investors, which are coming back. We have to be honest, the decrease in interest rates has also created more competition.”
Musician Pharrell Williams and partners acquire Paris’ Hôtel Saint-James & Albany
Mohari Hospitality, Omnam Investment Group and American musician Pharrell Williams have acquired the former Hôtel Saint-James & Albany for a reputed price of between €180 million and €200 million, writes HNN’s Bryan Wroten.
In a 17th Century building between Rue de Rivoli and Rue du 29 Juillet in the 1st Arrondissement, the hotel will now undergo extensive renovations. Williams is based in Paris, where among his other interests he is men’s creative director at fashion house Louis Vuitton.
Berlin hotels posted all-time high performance for September
The 2024 International Trade Fair for Transport Technology (InnoTrans) helped push Berlin’s monthly average daily rate and revenue per available room to all-time highs, according to September preliminary data from CoStar, the parent company of HNN.
In year-on-year numbers, ADR for the month increased 18.4% to €177.49 and RevPAR increased 20.1% to €151.60. Occupancy for the period increase 1.4% to 85.4%.
Whitbread’s Premier Inn portfolio in Germany nearing maturity
Whitbread has big plans for its Premier Inn budget hotel brand, which executives say is making major strides in Germany, its second largest market and one that it claims has almost reached maturity. They added they believe it will do so by the end of the year.
By 2030, Whitbread executives said they hoped to reach profit levels of £300 million a year and return more than £2 billion to shareholders.
Following H World exit, Core rebrands 14 Danish Zleep hotels as Marriotts
Denmark-based third-party hotel management company Core Hospitality struck a deal with Marriott International on Oct. 8 to convert its entire Danish portfolio of Zleep Hotels properties to Four Points Flex by Sheraton flags.
The announcement followed the recent business split from H World International, formerly Deutsche Hospitality, following the latter’s acquisition by Chinese hotel firm Huazhu Hotels & Resorts.
UK hotel investment to exceed £5 billion by year end
Transaction volumes in the U.K. hotel real estate market reached £732 million in the third quarter although investment continued at a slower pace relative to the first and second quarters of the year, writes CoStar News’ Paul Norman.
The third-quarter volume represented a 93% increase on the same period in 2023, fueled primarily by single-asset transactions in London, which accounted for 51% of the total, as well those in Edinburgh and smaller sales across Regional U.K.
Deals and developments
IHG Hotels & Resorts has announced five openings for its Garner brand across Europe, two in the U.K., the 53-room Garner Hotel Reading Centre and 80-room Garner Hotel Preston Samlesbury. The other three, which do not have definite names as yet, run to a 126-room hotel in Istanbul, a 106-room hotel in Vienna and a165-room hotel in Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Tivoli Hotels & Resorts plans to open the 150-room Tivoli Kopke Porto Gaia Hotel in early 2025. In the city of Porto on the south bank of the Douro River, the property is a partnership with Sogevinus, the parent company of Kopke, reputedly the oldest port wine house in the world, dating to 1638, 118 years before the demarcation of the Douro Wine Region.
On Oct. 1, Hyatt Hotels Corp. opened the 366-room Dreams Madeira on the Portuguese Island of Madeira, and a week later it opened the 203-room Park Hyatt London River Thames, just west of Vauxhall Bridge in the Nine Elms district of the British capital.
Stockholm-based hotel firm Scandic has opened its second Scandic Go-branded hotel in the Swedish capital with the 234-room Scandic Go Sankt Eriksgatan.
Irish hotel firm Dalata Hotel Group has debuted its fifth London hotel, the 157-room Maldron Hotel Shoreditch. The company now has 23 hotels in the U.K. with a total of 5,080 rooms.
Italian hotel firm Starhotels Group has reopened the historic Hotel d’Inghilterra Roma-Starhotels Collezione following an extensive renovation. Built to house private guests of the Palazzo Nuñez-Torlonia, which sits opposite the hotel and two streets from the Spanish Steps, the property has been a hotel since the mid-19th Century but now has a slightly reduced room count from 84 to 80.
Whitbread has acquired the freehold of a 42,000-square-foot office building in Leeds, close to the Yorkshire city’s main rail station, that it will convert into a Premier Inn hotel with approximately 120 rooms.
Hilton will debut its Spark by Hilton brand in Austria with two hotels that are part of a wider development agreement with owner Verkehrsbuero Hospitality. The properties are the 198-room Spark by Hilton Vienna Donaustadt and 243-room Spark by Hilton Vienna Messe Prater, both of which will open before the end of the year.
Vastint Group via its division Hotel Co 51 — the largest Marriott International franchisee in Europe — has announced it will open the 115-room Element by Westin Wroclaw, Poland, which is only the second for the brand in Europe.
Accor division Ennismore has announced the debut of the Mama Shelter brand in The Netherlands with the 150-room Mama Shelter Amsterdam. Chagall B.V. and White House Development B.V. own the property, which is due to open in the first quarter of 2027.
Owners Tite Street Capital and Crestline Investors have appointed Cycas Hospitality to manage the 161-room Yotel London Shoreditch, which is the joint venture’s ninth hotel in London.
Travelodge has signed three leasehold deals in Spain, all of which being construction in 2025. Astigarraga Eurohostel is the owner of a 78-room property in San Sebastian; Verbian Street Iberica is the owner of a 103-room hotel in Cádiz, and Aguilera Orozco is the owner of an 82-room hotel in Alicante.
British hotel firm Rocco Forte Hotels will open its third hotel in Sicily in 2026. The 31-room Palazzo Castelluccio in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed town of Noto originally was built in 1782 for the Marquis di Lorenzo del Castelluccio and until quite recently was the home of the religious order, the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St. John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta.
IHG has signed a management agreement with owner Gruppo Statuto to open the 68-room Six Senses Milan in 2025 and 102-room Six Senses Lake Como in 2028.
Viceroy Hotels & Resorts and Finnish family office Pontos Group have opened the Viceroy at Ombria Algarve, Portugal. The hotel has 141-rooms, a spa, eight restaurants and an 18-hole golf course, among other offerings.
In early 2027, EasyHotel will open a 141-room hotel in Ferney-Voltaire, France, which sits on the north side of Geneva International Airport. EasyHotel secured for the deal its third consecutive loan, in this case for €8.6 million from bank BRED Banque Populaire.
Owner ProsperCap Corp. has reopened the 259-room Crowne Plaza Stratford-Upon-Avon, which is operated by IHG in the hometown of William Shakespeare. The hotel closed in April following a fire.