Romanian entrepreneur Ovidiu Budeanu has signed a franchise agreement with French hotel group Accor for the opening of a new 4-star Mercure Hotel in Bacău.

In its latest study on the CEE hotel market, hotel real estate expert Christie & Co sheds light on how the capital cities of Prague, Bratislava and Budapest developed during the Covid-19 pandemic and which of the three cities emerged the strongest from the crisis.

The most popular destinations for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day in the winter season are Zakopane and Krynica Zdrój, a Sun & Snow survey has found. Karpacz, Kraków and Gdańsk are also catching on. 

Massive construction is underway on one of the artificial peninsulas being created off the UAE's coast. The Czech company Preston Capital is now investing in a four-star hotel complex there. It plans to invest $50 million (€48 million) in Ras al-Khaimah, E15.cz reported.

The volume of investment transactions recorded in the hotel sector on European markets in the first half of 2022, reached a similar level to last year's. The UK remains the most active market, followed by France, Italy, Spain and Germany, says Walter Herz.

Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced the opening of Hyatt Place Kraków, marking the first Hyatt hotel in the city. The hotel represents the return of the Hyatt brand to Poland.

Romanian developer Urban Invest will add a hotel under the AC Marriott brand in its mixed-use project Urban Plaza that is currently under construction in Brașov. 

Several big new hotels are to be open in Prague in the next few years. Most of them will be operated by multinational chains and most of them will be the reconstructions of historical sites, except only two new of them that are planned by Penta Investments. For one of them, Penta obtained a €38.5 million loan from the Komerční banka, writes E15.cz.

Despite the strong recovery of travel demand and the wall of capital looking for opportunities, transaction activity in the EU hotel market in the first half of 2022 remained flat compared to the same period last year. Nevertheless, there are five countries that are recording notable growth in transaction activity, says Cushman & Wakefield's European Hotel Market Report for H1 2022.

Atenor and Ennismore have announced the signing of a new TRIBE hotel within the FORT 7 project near Warsaw Chopin Airport.