The CEE hotel sector continues to boom, with investment levels expected to exceed €800 million by the end of 2018. This marks a slight decline compared to last year’s volumes. The primary reason for that is the lack of prime assets and portfolios on the market that could satisfy investors’ongoing appetite for hotels in key CEE cities. Institutional and listed investors are becoming more dominant, accounting for 74% of total transaction volume in 2017 and 54% in the first three quarters of 2018. The changing consumer trends and evolution of accommodation concepts over the recent years have resulted in a blurring of lines between traditional hotel classes. These are the findings of the first edition of the joint Cushman & Wakefield – CMS report on the hotel Investment scene in CEE and its underlying investment trends.

Advised by Colliers International’s UK Hospitality Asset Management team and the local Colliers office in Albania, Hyatt Hotels Corporation has announced a management agreement with Kastrati Hotels & Tower for the first Hyatt-branded hotel in Albania.

The Radisson Hotel Group announced the signing of a new property to Radisson Collection in Budapest, Hungary. With 71 guest rooms and suites, a first-class fitness center, restaurant, lobby bar and a further rooftop bar the hotel will open in mid-2020.

Orbis Hotel Group, a strategic partner of AccorHotels, continues its expansion in Romania by signing a management contract for ibis Politehnica Hotel in Bucharest with its partner and investor Novum Business Services SRL.

In 2020 Poland’s first NYX Hotel will open in the middle of the three Varso Place buildings HB Reavis is developing. It will occupy almost 20,000 sqm of space on fifteen floors. The four-star hotel will offer 331 rooms.

DVM group signed a contract with German developer B&L group to build a hotel next to Keleti Railway Station in Budapest. This mandate is one of the largest instructions DVM group has won on the Hungarian market to date. Planning and preparations already started early November. The scheduled delivery date of the building is 2020.

Park Inn by Radisson announced the opening of a 166-room hotel in Poznan, Poland. This brings the group's Polish portfolio to 16 hotels and more than 3,500 rooms in operation or under development. Radisson Hotel Group's international brands are represented in almost all key cities of Poland - including Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice, Gdansk, Wroclaw, Szczecin, Swinoujscie, and now also in Poznan.

The Central and Eastern European (CEE) hospitality market is showing a positive evolution, with all the performance indicators higher than in the previous year. Between 2013 and 2017, Bucharest stands out with an average increase of overnight stays of 10.1% per year, the highest in the region, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s latest report.

While investors in CEE are figuring out what is the best operating model for maximising hotel investments and returns, international investors are flooding the market to acquire assets. Marius Gomola MRICS, Managing Director of Horwath HTL Hungary and Founder of HOTCO talked to Property Forum about recent developments on CEE hotel markets.  

Orbis Hotel Group, the strategic partner of AccorHotels, has signed a management contract for a new ibis Styles hotel in the city centre of Bucharest.