Read the latest hotel industry news from around Europe.

Madrid-based Room Mate Hotels, a division of Room Mate Hospitality Holdings, has acquired Staying Valencia, a firm with 10 aparthotels and boutique hotels all in the Spanish city Valencia, writes Hotel News Now’s Terence Baker.

Room Mate, owned by private equity companies TPG Angelo Gordon and Westmont Hospitality, will have 32 hotels when this deal closes, which will be folded into its three existing brands, Room Mate, Be Mate and Wabi Sabi.

Hotel owner and operator Kaya Holdings acquired the 88-room Great Northern Hotel, its first acquisition outside of its native Turkey. No price was disclosed for the hotel, which was first opened in 1854 as one of London’s first purpose-built hotels, writes Paul Norman of CoStar News.

The property will be operated as part of Marriott International’s Tribute Portfolio. It was designed by Lewis Cubitt, who was noted for building grand stations, including the nearby King’s Cross station built in 1852. The hotel was renovated and reopened in 2013 as part of the King’s Cross Central Partnership’s regeneration of the surrounding district that included entertainment hub Kings Place.

Two years after Hyatt Hotels Corp. made a distribution agreement with hotel firm Lindner Hotels, it has bought the German firm’s brand Me and All Hotels, writes Hotel News Now’s Sean McCracken, who said that the brand, listed under Hyatt over the last 24 months as within its JdV umbrella, will now be a stand-alone flag.

McCracken added the deal marks Hyatt’s first acquisition of 2024, following an active two years or so in which it acquired Apple Leisure Group, Dream Hotel Group, Mr & Mrs Smith and Two Roads Hospitality.

BWH Hotels and Madrid-based hotel management firm Braintrust Hospitality entered a “preferred partnership” agreement to help grow BWH Hotels’ portfolio in Spain and Portugal, according to Javier Serrano, director of development and investor relations at Braintrust. He added the goal is to open between 30 and 40 hotels over the next five years in Portugal and Spain.

Phoenix, Arizona-based hotel firm BWH currently has seven hotels in Spain and one in Portugal, but it used to have approximately 30.

Although the first half of 2024 was not a record for hotel transaction volumes, there was considerable movement in hotel investment.

The article compiles the key deals in the first half of the year, which range from single, luxury acquisitions to small portfolios and beyond.

• Corinthia Hotels plans to open the 126-room Corinthia Grand Hotel Astoria Brussels in November 2024. It is repositioning the existing Hotel Astoria in the Belgian capital built on the orders of the country’s King Leopold II for the 1910 International Exhibition.
• Wyndham Hotels & Resorts has announced the opening of two hotels under its Dolce brand. The first is the 178-room Dolce by Wyndham Versailles-Domaine du Montcel in the small town of Jouy-en-Josas just outside of Versailles, France. The second is the 155-room Dolce by Wyndham Çeşme Alaçatı — as well as two other hotels on the same site, La Quinta by Wyndham Çeşme and Wyndham Datça Perili Bay — with owner DRD Hotels.
• Scandic Hotels has announced two office conversions to open in the first quarter of the for its Scandic Go brand launched in September 2023. The first is a 176-room hotel in Gothenburg, and the second, also in Sweden, is a 100-room hotel in Umeå.
• Avani Hotels & Resorts, a brand of Minor Hotels, has opened its first hotel in the Netherlands, the 163-room Avani Museum Quarter Amsterdam Hotel, which is four blocks from the Museumplein park and Van Gogh Museum.
• Ionian Hotel Enterprises, which is redeveloping the former Hilton Athens that opened in 1963, has announced the property will be reborn as the 278-room Conrad Athens, another brand from Hilton. Ionian said the investment will eventually reach €340 million ($369 million) and include 55 residences branded as either Conrad or Waldorf Astoria and numerous non-hotel restaurants, entertainment facilities, wellness options and a members’ club.
• Soft brand Exclusive Collection, a brand of Louis Hotels, opened on June 29 the 87-room, adults-only King Jason Zante on the Eastern Greece island of Zakynthos, usually referred to as Zante.
• The 93-room Zannier Hotels Bendor is set to open in spring 2026 on the 17-acre Mediterranean isle of Bendor on the southern French coast close to Saint-Cyr-sur-Mar and Toulon.
• Radisson Hotel Group has announced the opening of the 97-room Radisson Hotel Tunis City Center.
• Marriott International brand Moxy Hotels on June 27 opened the 91-room Moxy Paris Clamart in partnership with owner EPH Clamart. It is to be managed by Cycas Hospitality.
• CBRE Investment Management has completed the development of a new-build, 188-room Premier Inn hotel in York, England. Operator Whitbread PLC has signed a 25-year lease agreement for 25 years on the property, which used to be a carpet warehouse.
• IHG Hotels & Resorts and owner Novum Hospitality in June opened the first of a new partnership Holiday Inn-The Niu that comes on the back of an agreement between the two entities in April for which the expectations are for 200 hotels across 100 German cities. The debut hotel will be the 177-room Holiday Inn-The Niu Cure in Erlangen. Some of those 200 hotels will derive from Novum’s existing portfolio.
• Spanish family office Bet Capital Group has acquired Spanish hotel firm Izán Hotels Group, subject to official approval. The hotel firm has five hotels — three operated by Izán, the rest operated by white-label firms — and 663 rooms across the country.
• Germany hotel firm HR Group has acquired 34 hotels from Centro Holding and Centro Hotel Management. The deal consists of approximately 2,800 rooms across several European countries, and the brands included run to Boutique, Centro Hotels, FourSide, NinetyNine and NYCE. No financial numbers were disclosed.
• German hotel firm Ruby Hotels has opened the 272-room Ruby Molly in Dublin and announced the signing of a 225-room Ruby-branded hotel in Rotterdam, with its opening date as yet unannounced.
• Mar-Bella Collection will open its fourth hotel this summer, the 76-room Avali on the Greek island of Corfu. The firm already has two hotels on the island, its third property being on the Greek mainland, in a spot called Parga, which sits opposite Corfu.
• Australian firm TFE Hotels is to debut its aparthotel brand A by Adina in Europe with the opening of the A by Adina Vienna Danube in the Austrian capital. In cooperation with owners S+B Group and Soravia, the hotel will have 120 keys and will open in 2025. Adina’s eponymous brand has 18 hotels in Europe.
• The 117-room, independent Hotel Maria in Helsinki is enlarging the property to include two adjacent buildings, Liisankatu 8A and Maneesikatu, which will double the room count.
  

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