Hotel News Now each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. This week’s compilation covers Europe.

British hotel firm IHG Hotels & Resorts has launched a new conversion soft brand, Vignette Collection, as it seeks to increase its luxury and upper-upscale offerings. While Vignette's debut hotels are in Australia and Thailand, the company says it expects to bring it to scale with approximately 100 global properties by the end of the decade.

Speaking at the hotel firm’s conference for its half-year earnings on Aug. 10, CEO Keith Barr said Vignette would be a “luxury, lifestyle brand, a conversion flag … it will be at a different price point to Voco.” He added the brand would complement recent acquisitions in the luxury and lifestyle arena such as Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Regent and Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas.

As Europe gathers on September 1-3 in Berlin for the International Hotel Investment Forums, the German capital in July posted its highest performance levels since the beginning of the pandemic in the three main hotel-industry metrics, according to data from STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm.

For the month, occupancy came in at 48.5%, average daily rate at 75.80 euros ($89.07) and revenue per available room at 36.76 euros. The absolute occupancy and RevPAR levels were the highest for any month in Berlin since February 2020, while the ADR level was the highest since October 2020.

• MORE: Europe Set for a Record Number of New Hotel Rooms

With many employees working from home during the pandemic, one notable phenomenon of the crisis is how having good Wi-Fi has allowed those seeking to move from urban environment to set up just about anywhere. This includes the most remote parts of the United Kingdom such as the Scottish isles and Highlands, with hotels, often operating at the hearts of such places, central to this change.

Chris Wayne-Wills, CEO of Crerar Hotels, which owns and operates such assets as the 75-room Isle of Mull Hotel & Spa on the Isle of Mull — a Hebridean island to the west of the Scottish mainland with a population of 2,800 — said initiatives to encourage new life in such places include buying properties to house staff, encouraging retirees to work for perhaps a couple of days a week and improving F&B options to encourage local and income spend. Andrew Mackay, owner of the three-hotel Caithness Collection, said staycationers fall in love with the regions his hotels are in and immediately looked around for employment opportunities.

The 600-million-pound-sterling merger between two U.K. holiday-home firms, Aria Resorts, which has a small handful of hotels, and Away Resorts signals investor appetite for alternative accommodations amid staycations fueled by travel restrictions.

The Aug. 5 purchase of Aria by Away’s owner — Luxembourg-based public-equity firm CVC — comes a few months following Starwood Capital Group and Blackstone Capital Partners 1.8-billion-pounds-sterling acquisition of another U.K.-based holiday-home operator, Bourne Leisure, which has three brands with approximately 25,000 holiday homes that attract approximately 4.5 million guests annually.

IHG executives, speaking at its half-year earnings announcement on Aug. 10, said the steps the company has put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic will see the company be able to take advantage of the gradual return of corporate travel and its systems growth. They added operating profit in the first six months of 2021 was $138 million, a stark contrast to the same period in 2020 when losses measured $233 million.

Paul Edgecliffe-Johnson, IHG's CFO and head of group strategy, said its fee-based business model would show its resiliency as demand returned, adding “recovery skews to domestic leisure markets where restrictions have been lifted. Overall RevPAR continues to be down compared 2019 levels, but it is moving in the right direction.”

Long plagued by overtourism by day-trippers that walk a lot but spend little, the Italian city of Venice is getting closer to imposing a daily entry fee set to start next summer. Officials are discussing what the fee should be, likely to be between 3 euros and 10 euros. Some exemptions will apply, including for those booking hotels on the island city.

Venetian lawmakers approved the restrictions in August, but the fee, originally touted in 2019, has continually been delayed due to the pandemic. According to statistician Statista, 4.8 million tourists visited Venice in 2019.

• Hilton has signed a franchise agreement with Invesco Real Estate to operate the 244-room Hilton Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany, which is due to open next summer.
• London-based H.I.G. Capital has announced that an affiliate has bought the 238-room, former Swissôtel Basel, which will now undertake a renovation rebranding.
  
• The South Africa-based Leeu Collection has named Auberge Resorts Collection as the operator of the 82-key hotel Collegio alla Querce, Florence, Italy, a 16th-century property with a chapel and theatre. Due to open in 2023, it will be Auberge’s second European property.
  
• On Aug. 18, Deutsche Hospitality and owner MTK Group AG opened the 163-room Jaz in the City Vienna in the Austrian capital.
  
• Also on Aug. 18, Radisson Hotel Group opened the 113-room Radisson Blu Zaffron Resort, Santorini, on the Greek island of Santorini.
  
• On Aug. 24, Radisson, along with owner Nine Group, also opened the Radisson RED London Greenwich The O2, the first of that brand in Central London.
  
• IHG has opened the 421-room Holiday Inn Dublin Airport in the Irish capital with owner JMK Group.
  
• Accor will debut its Tribe brand in Hungary in a partnership with owner Futureal for the 250-room Tribe Budapest, due to open at the end of 2023.