Europe, Middle East and Africa deals and developments: IHG Hotels & Resorts announces Regent-branded hotel for the Saudi Arabian Holy City of Makkah

This roundup features the latest hotel deals and developments in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region.

IHG Hotels & Resorts and owner AIMS Holding have signed a deal to open a Regent-branded hotel in the Saudi Arabian Holy City of Makkah. The 330-room hotel will view the Holy Mosque, or Masjid al-Haram, and the holiest site in the Islamic world, the Al Kaaba.

Marriott International has opened the 37-suite Turaco Ngorongoro Valley, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel in Karatu, Tanzania, a district that borders the famous UNESCO site of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, a more than 800,000-hectare expanse established in 1959 to protect the area’s wildlife.

Owner Dubai General Properties and Corinthia Hotels have announced a partnership to bring a luxury hotel to Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The hotel has no room count as yet but has been given an opening year of 2030. It will feature, so it is claimed, a “sky lobby” approximately 200 meters up in the air and, at 500 meters high, the world’s highest outdoor pool.

Ghanian owner DevtracoPlus Ltd. and management firm Aleph Hospitality have announced they will open the 121-room The Address Accra in 2026. It will be Aleph’s second hotel in Ghana’s capital, following the signing of the Pelican Hotel with the same owner, which will open later this year. Aleph also announced that along with owner Mohammed Abdullah Al Muhanna Hotels it opened in early March the 112-room Four Points by Sheraton Jeddah King Fadh Road.

Aimbridge Hospitality EMEA has been appointed to manage the new-build, 120-room Hampton by Hilton St. Helens in St. Helens, Lancashire, England. The developers are St Helens Borough Council and ECF, a partnership between Homes England, Legal & General and Muse, and the hotel is due to open in 2027.

In early 2028, Minor Hotels will open the 156-room NH Collection Ras Al Khaimah Al Marjan Island Hotels & Apartments, under the ownership of RRS International Development FZ-LLC.

Madrid-based investor Tenigla Real Estate has acquired the 30-room Karma Sanctum Soho London from London-based peer Aprirose for £22 million, or for £733,333 per room.

Social Hub has opened the 271-room Social Hub Porto, its 20th hotel. The asset also has co-working space and 39 residences.

Deka Immobilien GmbH, via its open-ended real estate fund Deka-Immobilien, has acquired the 273-room Ruby Molly Dublin for approximately €86 million. The property opened last May. The seller was Creekvale Ltd., the real-estate division of ESR Group.

Accor has opened what it claims is the largest Sofitel-branded hotel in the world, the 615-room, 24-floor-high Sofitel Cairo Downtown Nile. Its ballroom can host up to 1,000 people, and the hotel, rebranded from IHG’s Conrad Hotels, is owned by the Cairo-based International Company for Touristic Investments.

Local owner Brighton Hotels & Business PLC has signed a deal with Hilton to open two DoubleTree by Hilton Hotels in Ethiopia. The first, DoubleTree by Hilton Adama, will have 188 rooms, and the other will be the DoubleTree by Hilton Dire Dawa, with 150 rooms. Both are due to open in 2028 and complement the existing, 372-room Hilton Addis Ababa, which was opened in 1969 by Emperor Haile Selassie, and 105-room DoubleTree by Hilton Addis Ababa Airport, which will open on July 1.

Radisson Hotel Group is to open the 102-room Radisson Red Málaga in the second quarter of 2027 in collaboration with owner White Spain.

Italian owner Gruppo Statuto has acquired the 49-room Hotel Caesar Augustus in Capri, Italy, from family office Signorini for €180 million, or €3.67 million per room. The hotel has been in the possession of the Signorini family since 1940 and was built in 1850 as a home for another family.

Hoxton has opened its 17th hotel with the debut of The Hoxton Florence, which has 161 rooms and two distinct parts — a 1980s structure and a 16th century Renaissance palazzo, within which is a new concept for the brand. Called The House, the feature is a three-bedroom, four-bathroom villa, part of the hotel but with its own entrance. The hotel, owned by Ricasoli Service s.r.l., has undergone a 30-month renovation.

Maybourne, which operates six hotels, including four in London — The Berkeley, Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Emory — is to open its second hotel in France, the 101-room The Maybourne Saint-Germain. The Paris hotel will open in 2027 and be its third hotel to brandish the Maybourne name, the others being The Maybourne Beverly Hills and The Maybourne Riviera in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France.

MCAP Global Finance (U.K.), an affiliate of New York City-based global asset manager Marathon Asset Management, has sold the former, 116-room Crowne Plaza Felbridge, in the country of Surrey close to London Gatwick Airport, to United Kingdom hotel brand Britannia Hotels for an undisclosed price. Britannia will operate it under its Elite Venue Selection umbrella. The hotel is Britannia’s 65th hotel in the U.K. and the 16th that it owns.

Hyatt Hotels & Resorts acquired three hotels on Tenerife, Canary Islands, from investment firm Blantyre Capital for €119 million. The hotels are the 410-room Alua Atlántico Golf Resort; 438-room Alua Tenerife and 202-room AluaSoul Orotava Valley.

Owner-operator PPHE Hotel Group has opened the 99-room Art’otel Rome Piazza Sallustio following it acquiring the property in Nov. 2021 for approximately €35 million

Hilton debuted its Spark by Hilton brand in Germany in February. The Spark by Hilton Stuttgart Sindelfingen has 103 rooms.

Radisson and local owner Chorus Life have opened the 107-room Radisson Blu Hotel Bergamo ChorusLife in Bergamo, Italy.

Following a renovation that took a little more than two years, IHG and owners Bain Capital and Stoneweg Hospitality opened in February the 195-room Kimpton Los Monteros in Marbella, Spain, in a hotel that has operated, under several guises, since 1962. The hotel was acquired by the owners in 2022 for approximately €47 million, according to CoStar.

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