AC Hotels by Marriott, part of Marriott Bonvoy’s portfolio of 31 brands, announced its brand debut in Croatia with the opening of AC Hotel by Marriott Split. Housed on the high floors of the 135-metre-high Westgate Tower, the hotel offers 214 guestrooms.

Offices might become hotels, hotels can be converted into apartment buildings and warehouses may serve as retail centres. But location, revenue-generating capacity and environmental considerations are the most important factors in converting successfully an existing commercial property, say experts of Hungarian developer Wing. Ernő Takács, Deputy CEO, responsible for hotels and retail at Wing and Chairman of the Association of Hungarian Property Developers and Gábor Angel, Deputy CEO, responsible for offices at Wing, talked to Property Forum about the challenges of changing the use of a property.

The Ritz-Carlton luxury hotel, which is to be built in the heart of Prague after the renovation of eight historic buildings, and was delayed is now moving forward again. The long-planned construction of a five-star hotel was supposed to be completed last year, but the new completion date is now set for 2025 at the earliest. The reconstruction will also include 26 apartments for long-term rent, writes E15.cz.

Prague is the second most attractive market in CEE for hotel operators with a presence or interest in the region. Its popularity is backed up by H1 2023 being a period of healthy recovery for Prague hotels which achieved the second highest (after Budapest) RevPAR (revenue per available room) among the region’s capitals. In this year’s first six months, it reached €69, which is an increase of 57 percent versus H1 2022, and already a 5 percent increase versus the pre-Covid H1 2019. This was primarily driven by the strong ADR (average daily rate) growth, which surpassed 2019 levels by over 20 percent. Hotel operators are optimistic about the industry’s outlook and keen to expand across the CEE region. However, 28 percent of planned hotel projects in the region are facing delays or put on hold, mainly due to the increased development costs, reports Cushman & Wakefield in the Hotel Operator Beat survey.

Equity strong private investors have become active due to the most attractive yields seen in years, although the overall investment volumes have continued to fall in Q2 2023, while hotels remain a strong asset, according to a report of Arnold Investments. 

Bucharest is the fifth most attractive market out of 20 cities in CEE-12 in terms of the interest of the main operators to invest in new hotel facilities in the next period, while the results of hotel operators in the Romanian capital reaching pre-pandemic rates, according to a survey by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox. 

Synapsis Property Ventures plans to build a new type of hotel at the entrance to Železná studienka in the office zone next to ESET's headquarters in Bratislava. The plan has already received a positive investment decision from the City of Bratislava. The total cost of the construction is estimated by the developer to exceed €50 million. The project is co-financed by Tatra Banka. 

Romanian real estate company Rock Development Holding will invest €70 million in the development of its first five-star luxury hotel in Poiana Brașov. The new luxury project will comprise a hotel with 120 rooms and an aparthotel with 75 residential units.

At the beginning of August, ibis Styles Warszawa Airport with 124 rooms was launched in Warsaw, replacing Holiday Inn Express Airport opened in 2012 in the Poleczki Park complex with six office buildings. It is the 19th facility under the ibis Styles brand in Poland. The hotel is managed by the Accor network.

The mixed-use property development Liberty by Hungarian developer Wing has reached a major milestone. The office area in the south wing has received its use permit, and the first tenants have already moved in. At the same time, a sports store is now open on the ground floor.