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.

Local developer Sekyra Group has acquired the Stýblův dům townhouse on Wenceslas Square in Prague for around €16.6 million (CZK 450 million). The company is planning to invest €31.3 million (CZK 850 million) in restoring the building.

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.

Warimpex achieved a positive operating result (EBITDA) in the first half of 2020 despite losses in the hotel segment due to the coronavirus. This can be attributed primarily to the earnings contribution from the rental of office properties – this segment saw a 15% increase in revenues compared with the prior-year period. Following the posting of property impairments and currency losses, this led to a loss of €21.7 million for the first half of 2020, including a result of minus €3.0 million for the second quarter of 2020.

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.

Calea Victoriei in Bucharest, the 2.8-kilometer-long artery between Piața Victoriei and Piața Națiunilor Unite, will continue to grow as an office and hotel hub in the upcoming years, with the developers' plans to build seven new office buildings and six hotels as a result of investments that could exceed the €300 million threshold, according to Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

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.