Last Updated on: 22nd November 2023, 11:38 am
The Austrian hotel group Vienna House buys 17 city hotels and two projects from Rostock-based arcona Group effective 30 April 2019. In the future, arcona plans to focus on the holiday hotel business. In addition to eight successful arcona Living and four arcona Hotels, the purchase also concerns the five Steigenberger operations of franchisor Deutsche Hospitality as well as two projects in Greifswald and Mannheim. The parties have agreed not to disclose any details as to the purchase price. “The arcona city hotels fit perfectly into the portfolio of Vienna House. Here two partners have found each other who are focusing on their brand positioning, who want to grow meaningfully from it and who also get along splendidly,” says Rupert Simoner, CEO of Vienna House. All employees of the affected arcona city hotels will be taken over by Vienna House. The hotels will be managed as lease operations under the umbrella brand Vienna House. The largest Austrian hotel group currently operates and is developing over 40 hotels in Europe with a focus on city hotels under the brands Vienna House, Vienna House Easy and Vienna House R.evo.
In contrast, arcona Managing Director Alexander Winter sees his hotel market of the future in the holiday hotel sector. Remaining in the arcona portfolio are six hotels in successful destinations such as Sylt, Kitzbühel and Rügen as well as the Hotel Elephant in Weimar and the Romantik Hotel at Wartburg Castle in Eisenach. An important growth driver in the future will be the Barefoot Hotels, as arcona recently signed a long-term agreement with Barefoot founder Til Schweiger for the worldwide implementation of the concept as a licensee. “With the remaining houses and the Barefoot concept, we will now be concentrating fully on the growing holiday hotel market and successfully embarking on the future together with our employees,” say arcona shareholders Alexander Winter and Stephan Gerhard. A total of 20 Barefoot hotels are to be opened over the next ten years. “We see tremendous potential here, both nationally and internationally,” Winter confirms. The arcona headquarters will remain in Rostock, where the group will move into its new corporate headquarters, Villa Zeeck, in the second half of 2019.
For the successful sales process, arcona would like to thank ECOVIS and Wenske Legal while Vienna House thanks the representatives of Hogan Lovells International LLP and PricewaterhouseCoopers Vienna. The transaction was accompanied by Treugast Solution Group.
The following operations are being added to the Vienna House portfolio:
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● arcona Hotels in Potsdam, Stuttgart, Rostock and Stralsund
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● arcona Living in Osnabrück, Wetzlar, Leipzig, Baden-Baden, Berlin, Bremen, Munich and Schaffhausen (CH)
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● Steigenberger Hotels in Rostock, Wismar, Osnabrück, Braunschweig and Eisenach
● Projects in Greifswald and Mannheim
About Vienna House:
Vienna House is all about endless exploration, the European zeitgeist and modern hospitality. Vienna House is always bespoke, it is hospitality in its entirety. Always down-to-earth and on the pulse of the times. Austria’s largest hotel group owns and manages hotels with a focus on business travel and city breaks in Europe. Resorts in south-east Asia will be added. The company encompasses Vienna House, Vienna House Easy and Vienna House R.evo. The individual city hotels of Vienna House are operated in the upscale segment and combine timeless design with class. The concept of Vienna House Easy stands for a smart and casual design with a cool, easy-going style. Vienna House R.evo is the hotel revolution for the urban lifestyle, combining, for the first time ever, the lifestyle of a hotel, the flexibility of serviced apartments and the individuality of a home. The company currently owns and operates close to 40 hotels in Europe.
About arcona
Alexander Winter founded arcona Hotels & Resorts in 2008 together with his partner, Treugast founder Stephan Gerhard, as part of a management buy-out from Deutsche Seereederei. Since then, they have been particularly successful in developing the arcona Living brand with its urban hotel and serviced apartment properties. For three years, arcona has also been expanding in the holiday hotel business with properties on Rügen and Sylt as well as in Kitzbühel. In 2018, arcona concluded a contract with Barefoot Hotels owned by Til Schweiger. www.arcona.de
