Ott Ventures, the private equity arm and fund management platform run by Orco Property Group and MaMaison Hotels & Residences founder Ott Properties, has announced the launch of its first hotel fund, Velvet. The pan-European investment vehicle is targeting total assets under management of €500 million with a planned LTV of 50%. It will invest across Europe with a focus on the main Central European markets of Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary as well as Germany and Austria.

Grand Plaza Hotel, the company that owns the Sheraton Bucharest Hotel in the centre of the Romanian capital, plans to add around 100 rooms to the 270 existing ones by building a new section, economica.net reports. The cost of the project is estimated at €5 million.

IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) has signed a management agreement with Granit Polus Group for a compelling property to be re-branded to Crowne Plaza Budapest in 2021. The hotel, located in downtown Pest in the same building complex as the Westend City Centre shopping centre, is currently operated by Hilton under the name Hilton Garden Inn Budapest City Centre.

Most hotels in Budapest will see their revenues decrease by more than 70% compared to 2019 this year, while hotels outside the capital expect 20% to 40% lower revenues, according to a representative survey commissioned by the Hungarian Hotel and Restaurant Association.

Savvy hotel operators could harness the remote working trend and adapt their space to deliver a ‘hybrid hospitality’ concept to generate an additional source of income. Colliers International, predicts that where hotels provide office space to enable co-working and interacting, turnover could be increased by up to 20 percent.

New European hotel transaction data from Cushman & Wakefield reveals that the first half of 2020 saw a marked increase in investors retreating to their home regions amid COVID-19 related uncertainty, with 78% of the recorded €5.7 billion in transactions (a year-on-year fall of 55%) originating from within Europe.

A survey, prepared by Cushman & Wakefield in partnership with FIHR, targeting Romanian hoteliers was launched in April 2020 to understand the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic holds on the commercial lodging industry. The survey asses the ways in which business have been affected while identifying the critical factors to prevail from the crisis. Cushman & Wakefield and FIHR remain committed towards ensuring that the industry receives appropriate support by collecting and analysing available data and appealing to authorities.

The hotel investment market in Poland is still relatively immature. In an average year, the city of Berlin alone receives twice the number of hotel transactions than Poland as a whole. However, Poland has developed a strong track record in other commercial real estate sectors and, as a result, has an even stronger brand for investing. This has laid down the foundations for global capital to enter the hotel sector, and, indeed, there has been an uptick in the number of international hotel investors actively pursuing opportunities in Poland.

Accor has signed a management agreement with Alexandra Residence Design to open 144-room ibis hotel by the end of 2022. The newly signed hotel will be located near the future Terminal 2 of Henri Coandă International Airport in Bucharest. Est Hospitality Consulting is the consultant of the project until its official opening while Cumulus Architecture is responsible for the design.

Romania’s largest hotel chain, Continental Hotels and French hotel group Accor have decided to terminate the management agreement signed 20 years ago for four hotels. According to the mutual agreement, starting with July 1, 2020, four hotels owned by Continental Hotels (Ibis Gara de Nord, Ibis Parlament, Ibis Constanta and Ibis Sibiu) will no longer operate under the Ibis brand, profit.ro reports.