Each week, Hotel News Now features a news roundup from a different region of the world. This week’s compilation covers Europe.
Studio Moren joins The Upgrade: An EMEA hospitality podcast
Many stakeholders have ideas and opinions when it comes to hotel design, from owners to operators and designers themselves. Conflict can arise when the groups can't align on preferences, brand standards or current travel trends.
London-based hotel designers Sharon Grob and David Harte from Studio Moren said that from an investment perspective, luxury is taking the lion’s-share of attention, but even within that echelon, design evolution is clearly happening.
Minor International proposes to delist Minor Hotels Europe & Americas, formerly NH Hotel Group
Minor International, the parent firm of Thai hotel company Minor Hotels, has proposed to delist another of its fully owned hotel operating companies, Minor Hotels Europe & Americas. The division has 357 hotels in 38 countries and until April was known as NH Hotel Group.
Minor Hotels Europe & Americas shareholders are set to vote on the proposal on or around Jan. 20, and a Minor International news release said that “MHG’s delisting offer proposal is priced at €6.37 per share, which is supported by an independent valuation.”
Dublin once again takes center stage for hotel investors
Ireland’s capital city Dublin is back in the spotlight for hotel investors and industry analysts as transactions have started to heat up in the city. Two major hospitality transactions in Dublin from earlier this year indicate how buyers and sellers are evaluating the market.
In March, Archer Hotel Capital acquired the 265-room Shelbourne Hotel for $281 million, or just over $1 million per room, from Kennedy Wilson Holdings, while in November, Dublin-based Dalata Hotel Group acquired the 229-room Radisson Hotel Dublin Airport for €83 million.
Founder of Meliá Hotels International Gabriel Escarrer Juliá dead at 89
Gabriel Escarrer Juliá, who founded international hotel firm Meliá Hotels International, died at age 89 in his native Mallorca, Spain, on Nov. 26. At the time of his death, he was the company’s honorary chairman, with the firm remaining in his family’s hands.
Escarrer Juliá acquired his first hotel in Mallorca at the age of 21 and acquired the Hotasa hotel brand in 1984. Three years later, he merged with Sol Meliá, a company he took public as Meliá — the first European hotel firm to go public — in 1993.
Owners of Portuguese resort Quinta do Lago acquire Conrad Algarve
The owners of Quinta do Lago — the multi-property leisure, residential and golf course resort complex in Faro, Portugal — completed their acquisition of the resort’s 144-room Conrad Algarve, a Hilton-branded hotel that includes 80 residences, two villas, a spa and several restaurants.
LVMH takes minority stake in French boutique hotel firm Les Domaines de Fontenille
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton announced a minority investment in French boutique hotel owner and brand Les Domaines de Fontenille via a partnership with Geneva-based investment firm Anaïs Ventures.
Les Domaines de Fontenille has a portfolio of 11 hotels, including eight in France, mostly in the country’s southern region. Its portfolio also has two hotels in Minorca and one in Tuscany. The hotels have smaller room counts, totaling just 228 rooms across its entire portfolio, according to CoStar data.
Hoteliers likely to increase rates, streamline operations in aftermath of latest UK budget
Since the election of a new Labour Party government in July, hoteliers in the United Kingdom have had to quickly come to terms with the policies of the new administration.
In October, the Labour government outlined its first budget in almost 15 years, one that places additional weight on hotel operating costs, and hoteliers fear operating cost increases and how long guests are willing to pick up the increased tab.
Deals and developments
Hotel group Miiro has opened the 29-room The Mansard, Gstaad, Switzerland. It is the firm’s third hotel, and there are a further two in the pipeline, in London and Vienna.
In 2025, independent hotel Château de la Commaraine will open in Pommard, France, in the Côte d’Or subregion of the Burgundy wine region. The hotel’s building has undergone a four-year renovation. The ownership vehicle is Champagne Hospitality, itself owned by hotelier and entrepreneur Denise Dupré.
French hotel firm B&B Hotels has opened its first United Kingdom hotel in cooperation with owner Arora Group. A repositioning of the Arora Park Hotel, the B&B Hotel London Heathrow has 119-rooms, and it will be joined by sibling U.K. hotels in Birmingham, Derby, Inverness, Ipswich and Warrington. B&B plans to have 100 hotels in the U.K. by 2035.
Accor and owner Jadran Hoteli Rijeka will convert the 135-year-old Continental Hotel in Rijeka, Croatia, into a property with the French group’s soft brand Handwritten Collection hotel. Due to open in mid-2026, the hotel currently has 75 rooms.
Marriott International is to debut the 160-room JW Marriott Crete Resort & Spa next summer. Stretching along 100 acres of coastline near Chania, it is the flag’s first hotel in Greece.
Radisson Hotel Group and owner Rhatigan Group have debuted the Radisson Red brand in Ireland with the 177-room Radisson Red Galway.
Luxembourg-based Vivion Investments has acquired an 89.9% stake in Berlin’s Femina Palace, with the intent of transforming the property into a luxury hotel. The seller is Signa Holding, the Austrian real estate owner that became insolvent at the end of 2023, and the price is €65 million ($68.26 million). Previously, the Femina was known as the Ellington Hotel.
On Dec. 9, Corinthia Hotels opened the 126-room Corinthia Brussels in the former Grand Hotel Astoria, a 1910 building on the city’s Rue Royale. The owner is the hotel firm’s parent company Corinthia Hotels International.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and owner Locka Holding BV have announced they are to open two hotels in Europe in 2025, the Mandarin Oriental Lutetia in Paris, in the former, 115-year-old Hôtel Lutetia, which has 184 rooms, and the Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam, which has 129 rooms.
London & Regional Hotels has acquired the 100-room Holiday Inn Express Channel Tunnel Folkestone, in Kent, England, from Stellar Asset Management for £8.5 million. IHG operates the English Channel hotel.
IHG plans to open the 60-room Six Senses Quexigal Palace in a 16th-century palace in Ávila, Spain. Due to open at the end of 2026, the hotel. The co-owners are El Enebro, a holding company of the Álvarez Mezquiriz family, which own the Tempos Vega Sicilia winery group, and Grupo Sidercom, also a family office.
Choice Hotels EMEA has signed an agreement with owner CPI Hotels to operate the 201-room Clarion Hotel Vienna South, which is now open. The two partners, who started collaborating in the 1990s, now have a partnership in 14 hotels in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Immersive Hospitality Management, formerly Corus Hotels, has opened its debut hotel under its flag Imerso Hotels. The 80-room Burnham Beeches Hotel Imerso Hotels occupies a Georgian mansion in the English county of Buckinghamshire, just outside of London. Imerso said another upcoming project is a partnership with Marriott and owner TROO Hospitality to open a refurbished hotel in central London under Marriott’s soft brand Tribute Portfolio.