Room Mate acquires the Staying Valencia portfolio

Spanish lifestyle chain Room Mate Hotels, which was purchased out of bankruptcy by TPG Angelo Gordon and Westmont Hospitality in 2022, has acquired Staying Valencia, which comprises six boutique hotels totalling 356 rooms, and four apartment buildings totalling 138 units, in Valencia, Spain’s third largest city, which is located on the centre of the country’s eastern coastline. Following the acquisition, the properties are to be integrated into Room Mate’s existing brands – hotel brand Room Mate and aparthotel brand Be Mate. The group now has a portfolio of 32 properties in Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and Turkey, and operates with no debt and has a target EBITDA of €40 million for 2025. The group is also in the process of launching a new quiet luxury collection brand, Room Mate Collection. It also has a hostel brand, Wabi Sabi.

ISTAR Club-Deal sells Best Western Premier Opera Opal in Paris

ISTAR, a club-deal between French institutional investor Extendam and a group of private investors, managed by French investment managers CENTAURUS, formerly Paris Inn Group, has divested its stake in the four-star, 33-room Best Western Premier Opera Opal in Paris, France, for a total consideration between €19.8 million (€600,000 per room) and €23.1 million (€700,000 per room). The hotel is centrally located in the eighth arrondissement of the capital, and within a 15-minute walk of the Place de La Concorde. The divestment comes ahead of the Paris Olympics, due to start in the last week of July 2024. The hotel was acquired in 2017 by the club-deal, following the raising of €11 million (€333,000 per room) for the purpose of its acquisition. 

Entra sells Clarion Collection Hotel Savoy in Oslo 

Norwegian publicly-traded real estate company Entra ASA, headquartered in Oslo, has sold the four-star, 93-room Clarion Collection Hotel Savoy in Oslo, Norway, to an undisclosed buyer for a total cash consideration of approximately NOK 225 million (NOK 2.42 million per room), or €19.7 million (€212,000 per room). The hotel, located in the city centre nearby the Royal Palace, the Oslo Cathedral and the National Theatre, includes a restaurant and a bar. The price paid for the asset is reported to have been roughly 28% higher than its book value as of the 31 March 2024. The Clarion Collection brand is part of Strawberry, formerly Nordic Choice Hotels, a franchisee of Choice Hotels International with over 240 hotels in the Nordics and the Baltics. 

Kaya Tourism Group acquires Great Northern Hotel in London

Turkish hotel owner and operator Kaya Tourism Group, owned by Kaya Holding, has acquired the five-star, 88-room Great Northern Hotel, A Tribute Portfolio Hotel in London, UK, from an undisclosed private equity group. The hotel is located between the King’s Cross and St Pancras International railway stations. It includes three food and beverage outlets and three meeting rooms totalling 95 sqm, which are able to accommodate roughly 100 attendees. The hotel opened in 1854, two years after the opening of King’s Cross railway station, and was designed by the same architect. It was fully renovated in 2013, and is now branded under Marriott’s Tribute Portfolio collection brand. Kaya presently operates 13 hotels, and this acquisition marked its first international investment.

VOIhotels acquires Arenella Resort in Sicily, Italy

Hotel chain VOIhotels, owned by the Italian tour operator Alpitour, has acquired the four-star, 460-room Arenella Resort in Sicily, Italy. The property, located on the east coast to the south of Catania, has been managed by VOIhotels since 2004. The resort complex sits on a 650,000 sqm plot of land and includes three swimming pools, three restaurants, five bars, tennis and paddle courts, football fields, a beach volley court and a wellness centre with sauna, jacuzzi and fitness space. Following the acquisition, the chain is expected to fully refurbish and reposition the property by modernising rooms, adding food and beverage outlets and sport facilities, and developing a theatre event hall to accommodate over 700 attendees. The group is aiming to focus on the luxury segment in its future expansion strategies.

Dudok Real Estate acquires Holiday Inn Express Rotterdam Central Station

Dutch real estate developer and investor Dudok Real Estate has acquired the three-star, 214-room Holiday Inn Express Rotterdam Central in Rotterdam, Netherlands, as part of the acquisition of the mixed-use, 12-storey Weenahuis building. In addition to the hotel, the asset comprises 4,350 sqm of office spaces, 500 sqm of retail space and a 407-space parking garage. The hotel has been on long term lease to its operator since 2013, and is located in the central business district of Rotterdam within walking distance of the central railway station. Following the acquisition, Dudok is expected to reposition the asset. The seller was an undisclosed Dutch institutional investor.

• Venice Market Pulse (Read here)
• Paris Market Pulse (Read here)
• Amsterdam Market Pulse (Read here)
• 2023 European Hotel Transactions (Read here)
• Easier Visas Lead to Tourism Growth and Increased GDP (Read here)
• HVS 2023 European Hotel Valuation Index (Read here)
• PAM – The Most Useful Benchmark for Hotel Investment (Read here)
• Hotel Franchising in Europe – The Push Continues for New Ways to Expand (Read here)