I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and holidays.
I do not expect anyone in Europe actually to be in their offices, but you might be reading from home (you might be?!), so I thought let me simply list a small selection of the articles I wrote during the course of 2025.
Have a very happy new year.
1. Investor interest in European hotels is high, but pricing remains an issue
This article, in my humble opinion, sums up the year adequately, and from what I hear might sum up 2026, too.
Hotel investors in Europe are itching to deploy their capital after years of waiting during the pandemic years and through a period of high interest rates. Now that economic conditions are improving and transactions are a bit easier to pencil, investors are considering the best type of deal to pursue: Single-hotel transactions or portfolio acquisitions.
2. Midscale and family-owned hotel brands seek strategies to compete against luxury and budget segments
Another continuing theme from 2024, perhaps, the idea as to how to add value and meaning to the midspace.
The success of the luxury and budget hotel segments post-pandemic has led to chatter about what might happen to every hotel segment in between. But hoteliers with brands and properties in the middle say there are ways to survive and thrive apart from mergers and acquisitions.
3. Indian regulator approves IPO plan for Brigade Hotel Ventures
The Indian hotel industry is maturing at a rapid pace, with several firms in 2025 adding themselves to the bourse or preparing to do so. Brigade Hotel Ventures started the ball rolling in the past 12 months.
Another hotel company in India is seeking to go public. An initial public offering of Brigade Hotel Ventures, the hotels subsidiary fully owned by Bengaluru-based conglomerate Brigade Enterprises, seeks to raise 9 billion Indian rupees.
4. Shiva Hotels refinances The BoTree, a luxury hotel in London’s Marylebone district, for more than £300 million
A huge development in 2025 was refinancing, a capital mechanism that evidently reduces repayments due to the lower interest rates in place. It also provides breathing room in what remains a confused market. The one for the BoTree, now part of Hilton’s Curio Collection, was the first big one I saw in 2025, and thereafter started a flood.
United Kingdom-based hotel owner and operator Shiva Hotels is refinancing The BoTree, its luxury hotel in London’s Marylebone neighbourhood, for more than £300 million ($375 million). London-based BlueWater Capital provided a £170 million senior loan, and NorthWall Capital, also based in London, provided a £140 million secured facility.
5. Acquisition of Ruby Hotels brand 'hits the spot' for IHG Hotels & Resorts, CEO says
There were several examples where big fish fed on smaller fish, or, perhaps, saw an opportunity for both sides to improve quality, distribution and market share. One of the big ones was IHG’s acquisition of Ruby Hotels.
IHG Hotels & Resorts has opened up its wallet to acquire its 20th hotel brand. United Kingdom-based IHG acquired the Ruby Hotels brand for €110.5 million ($115.8 million) from Munich-based hotel firm Ruby GmbH. Excluded from the deal is Ruby’s operating company, which will continue to manage all Ruby hotels open and currently in development.
6. Accor and India’s InterGlobe extend partnership, become majority owners of Treebo
The year 2025 was notable for the number of joint ventures and other types of partnerships, a co-investment of sorts that helps add portfolio in general and in new, difficult-to-access markets globally. Accor and InterGlobe was a notable news peg this year.
French hotel giant Accor and Indian travel-management and hotel-development firm InterGlobe have moved into a second phase of their partnership with the formation of a new Indian travel platform. The Hospitality Enterprise platform has a goal of opening 300 hotels in India.
7. Geopolitical uncertainty leads European hotel industry to rethink travel expectations
News moves on rapidly to the next item, but early this year, it almost seemed as though Europe might cut all ties with the U.S. It might still do that, especially in the realm of environmental, social and governance and green financing. Globalization certainly seems to be dead in the water.
The political rhetoric emanating from the U.S. is stirring some uncertainty abroad. On the first day of the International Hotel Investment Forum EMEA, speakers acknowledged that tensions between the U.S. and its allies could dampen travel expectations for the remainder of the year. Some even warned of a possible end to globalization.
8. Brookfield acquires Generator Hostels’ European assets for €776 million
The last 12 months did not see a great deal of M&A activity in Europe, Middle East and Africa, but this was a biggie.
New York City-based Brookfield Asset Management has acquired the Generator Hostels’ European brand and hotels for a price of €776 million ($869 million). The seller is London-based Queensgate Investments, which bought Generator in 2017 for approximately €450 million ($504 million) from Patron Capital in a deal that was seen as the first major acquisition and investment in the hostel niche.
9. Pandox, Eiendomsspar bid €1.27 billion to buy Ireland’s Dalata Hotel Group
And this was the biggest.
Stockholm-based hotel owner and operator Pandox AB and Oslo-based Eiendomsspar AS have made a possible all-cash bid for Irish hotel firm Dalata Hotel Group valued at €1.27 billion. The two Scandinavian partners have made a non-binding proposal of €6.05 per share, a 5% premium on the current value of Dalata shares. Eiendomsspar already owns 8.8% of Dalata and 24.8% of Pandox.
10. Langham Hospitality Group shifts brand growth focus to hotel management deals, CEO says
And to finish, one to look forward to as Langham Hotels & Resorts gets ready to open what is only its second European hotel in 16 decades, a property in Venice, La Serenísima.
As The Langham Hotels & Resorts brand celebrates its 160th birthday across 2025, the CEO of its parent company is planning its future growth. Bob van den Oord, CEO of Hong Kong-based parent company Langham Hospitality Group since September 2023, said in an interview that the company's oldest brand will take its next growth stage via management agreements.
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