The 75% occupancy limit does not mean working at full capacity, but the recovery of the hotel market is driven by the return of holiday travel and stronger demand for hospitality services. Although the industry is facing a number of challenges, hotel owners hold onto their assets, they are reluctant to sell at a discount, believing that business will return to pre-pandemic levels. JLL summarizes the current situation on the Polish hotel market.

Wyndham Hotels & Resorts announced the opening of H2 Hotel Budapest, Trademark Collection by Wyndham, the latest addition in Wyndham’s portfolio of Trademark properties across Europe and its first property under the Trademark Collection brand in Hungary.

The Faculty of Law within Babeș-Bolyai University paid 40 million lei (around €8.1 million) to purchase Opera Plaza Hotel in Cluj-Napoca. The building will serve as the new HQ of the public educational institution. 

Belgrade Waterfront developer Eagle Hills has completed structural works on Kula Belgrade. With 168 metres, 42 levels and a total area of about 50,000 sqm, the tower is the tallest building in Serbia and the region.

Wing has completed the first Hungarian unit of B&B Hotels, having converted the former Angyal office building in Boráros Square, on the bank of the Danube in Budapest. The hotel features a restaurant, a bar, a rooftop bar with a view, two meeting rooms, and an underground parking garage with electric charging stations. The new hotel will welcome its first guests in the summer of 2021.

The hotel sector in Romania in on the recovery path following the steep drop in demand recorded in 2020 due to lockdown measures designed to contain the pandemic. Despite the health crisis, few projects have been abandoned, while deliveries of new hotels were delayed or postponed. 

Radisson Hotel Group has announced the opening of Belgrade Art Hotel, a member of Radisson Individuals, located in the heart of the old city. This opening marks the debut of the Radisson Individuals brand, a conversion solution recently launched in Europe in Q4 2020 and complements the existing Radisson Collection Hotel in Serbia's capital city.

In 2020, €370 million was transacted in the CEE-6 (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia) region. This figure was far below initial expectations for the year (€1.8 billion), as many deals were put on hold or withdrawn, and transaction activity initially brought to a near halt as a result of the pandemic. Most of the volume transacted in the last year (87.6%) comprised deals that had already been committed to before the outbreak of the pandemic.

The International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI) has confirmed that the Crowne Plaza and Holiday Inn Express Warsaw - The HUB and conference centre located in The Warsaw HUB complex have been awarded the WELL Health-Safety Rating. They are the first hotels in Europe to receive this certification. Since July last year, nearly 12 thousand objects all over the world have been trying to obtain this certification. As a result, the entire complex of The Warsaw HUB meets the stringent security requirements against COVID-19.

Radisson Hotel Group announced the relaunch and repositioning of Radisson Blu Hotel Bucharest, following a major capital investment to transform the hotel’s lobby and garden area, as well as increase the hotel’s room inventory by more than 600 rooms.