Read the latest hotel industry news from around Europe.

In a video interview with Hotel News Now during the International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin, Maud Bailly, CEO, Accor’s Sofitel, Sofitel Legend, MGallery and Emblems brands, said legacy brand Sofitel is enjoying a new lease of life with multiple renovations and a planned expansion in the Americas that will bring with them equable portions of style, Frenchness and humility.

“Today we have 120 Sofitels all around the world, out of which we know that 20 were in deep need for renovation. … This brand has a story to tell. It is a French zest. It is a little piece of France everywhere in the world. Not lecturing, not being arrogant, but combining the French art of what we know with local culture,” she said.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Spanish hotel firm Room Mate Hotels into insolvency, but thanks to renewed travel demand and new investors, the firm is back to its winning ways with 23 hotels across three brands in five European countries and 14 aparthotels in its brand Be Mate.

CEO Kike Sarasola said travel has benefited from the wholesale change in how people view life on the planet.

“People are focusing more on the present, living for today, rather than thinking too much about the future. They still prioritize travel, tourism, dining out at restaurants,” he said.

According to a May 9 filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, Beverly Hills-based Kennedy Wilson Holdings made a profit of $99.1 million on its March sale to London-based Archer Hotel Capital of Dublin’s 265-room Shelbourne Hotel.

The California firm sold the hotel, which first opened in 1824, to London- and Amsterdam-based Archer Hotel Capital in January for $285 million, or approximately $1 million per room, according to CoStar data. Kennedy Wilson bought the hotel in August 2014 for $149 million, or $563,000 per room, also according to CoStar.

London-based merchant bank CBE Capital has signed a deal for a €95 million ($102 million) senior-bond loan facility from Greek financial institution Piraeus Bank for what it describes as a “club-deal investment.”

The investment will partly fund a new Six Senses-branded hotel that will have 60 suites and be in the Port Heli area of the Argolis region of the Greek mainland. It is due to open in 2026 and will also have 12 branded residences.

Greek family office Golden Land Goutos, London-based Cedar Capital Partners and New York City-based Taconic Capital Advisors will supply additional equity in a joint venture.

British firm IHG Hotels & Resorts has made changes to its fee structure for owners from its loyalty program following ongoing conversations with those owners and a 2.6% increase in revenue per available room in the first quarter 2024.

CEO Elie Maalouf said the company’s global scale has permitted it to make tweaks and changes to the benefit of owners and guests. “The system fund grows every year. … It is not a zero-sum game. It is not an accountancy change but actual fee streams. It is high-quality and high-margin, and it will grow beyond that.”

• Radisson Hotel Group and developer Redevco are partnering on a hotel in Paris to be operated under the Radisson Collection brand in the heart of Paris. Set to open in early 2027 adjacent to the Louvre Museum, the 57-room property will be on floors five to eight of the nationally listed Haussman-style building, which is undergoing a renovation.
• Tribe, a brand of Accor, has announced its debut in Riga, the capital of Latvia, with the opening of the 81-room Tribe Riga City Center. The brand, first founded in Australia, has a European pipeline that includes two hotels in Paris and individual hotels in Manchester and Düsseldorf to open before the end of 2024 and, in the years following, in Budapest, Krakow and Mainz.
• Owner Starboard Hotels has announced the opening of the 182-room Ibis Styles Gatwick. The hotel, 25 miles south of London at Gatwick Airport, opens following a £14-millon refurbishment and redevelopment.
• Travelodge (United Kingdom), via its Travelodge OpCo Group, has acquired six hotels and 773 rooms in Spain from Louvre Hotels Group, which is currently operating them under the brand umbrella Hotel Campanile. All but one of the hotels have been acquired on a freehold basis, with the final one acquired on a long leasehold. The hotels are in the cities of Alicante, Barcelona, Madrid, Málaga and Murcia.
• The Radisson Hotel Group-branded Art’otel London Hoxton opened on April 24 in the East End of the British capital. It has 357 rooms and is a sibling to the brand’s other London hotel, the Art’otel London Battersea Power Station, which opened in February 2023.
• Fattal Hotels, via its Leonardo hotel brand, has acquired the Hotel Cicerone Rome, which will reopen following a renovation as the NYX Hotel Rome by Leonardo Hotels, which will have approximately 300 rooms. In the Prati district of the Italian capital, the hotel is adjacent to the Castel Sant’Angelo to the west of the River Tiber.
• Owner Reef Group and operator EQ Group have opened The Store, Oxford, a 101-room hotel in the former Boswells department store in the heart of the university city. The seven-floor hotel dates to 1738 when the department store first started selling wares.

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