News & Stories

Hamburg/Brussels. The new joint venture between the German budget design group prizeotel in Hamburg and the Rezidor Hotel Group in Brussels bears the first fruits when it comes to development: End of 2019, the first prizeotel will open in Bern, Switzerland.

Munich. Anyone looking to be successful with numerous hotel businesses in Europe and elsewhere is seldom owner and operator in one and the same person. This combination can be just one variety on the path to profitability. Owner operators exist in various combinations: there's complete, majority and minority ownership of the property, and the operator part can be added in some cases before the hotel is open, and in others at a later stage. The benefits and drawbacks of these different combinations was the subject of discussion at the beginning of October at the Expo Real hotel conference on the corresponding panel regarding the pan-European owner operator.

Berlin. Digital technologies are a big challenge for the real estate industry, but also offer great opportunities. A new competition aims to recognize the best startup ideas for the real estate world of tomorrow.

Rome. L'Agenzia del Demanio, the Italian State property office, in cooperation with the Ministry of Defense and other interested local authorities, has just initiated the second wave of renting out state-owned assets located by the sea in scenic national sites.

Warsaw. Poland's hotel market has witnessed continuous growth for several years, with 2015 experiencing an increase of 79% in hotel supply compared to 2006, totaling 2,316 hotels. This attracts international investors.

Rome. L'Agenzia del Demanio, the Italian State property office, has just assigned the first nine lighthouses included in the project called ValorePaeseFari.

Hamburg. The German hotel market is booming. Not only in the country's most desirable cities. An increasing number of investors are now going after B, C and even D locations. Smaller cities offering solid tour-ist activities and/or good infrastructure are becoming increasingly attractive. C locations have increased their transaction volume in the past two years by roughly 150 percent. Today, Alexander Trobitz, Head of Hotel Services of BNP Paribas Real Estate, explains this trend in a guest article.

Frankfurt. Germany remains the most attractive hotel market in Europe, investors said in a survey measuring investors' sentiment. Also, investments in Germany currently increase whereas Europe and UK report declines. And: Concepts of Airbnb & Co may have been overstated.

Gdansk. UBM Development AG has made a move into hotel operations business. It wants to get closer to its assets itself and to control them. The 43 hotels in the European portfolio - and all future hotels - are bundled into the newly established subsidiary "UBMhotels". The product developer and investor based in Vienna hopes that it will grow faster this way - also by restructuring the hotels of other owners. UBM Chief Operating Officer Martin Loecker explained the details last week in Gdansk. There, UBM and its partners presented their most recent project for the popular Granary Island in the middle of Gdank's picturesque old town.

Greenwich. Starwood Capital Group and Brookfield Property Partners have announced the sale of nine hotels from the Interhotel portfolio to FDM Management, a joint venture of Foncières des Regions and institutional investors. The German company Event Hotels now also holds a minority stake in these hotels.