The world’s largest furniture and homeware brand, IKEA, has
announced plans to start a budget hotel chain across Europe. The project
has been estimated to cost €1bn.
The Swedish-based
retailer hopes to capitalise on budget-conscious travellers with at
least 100 hotels scattered across Europe. The brand says the hotels will
not feature any IKEA flat-pack furniture and will not be branded IKEA.
“Budget
designer hotels are today the fastest developing hotel segment,” says a
Senior Executive at the brand’s property unit of Inter IKEA, Harald
Muller. “There is no IKEA furniture in it. It is not an IKEA hotel. It’s
a continuation of our normal investment activities in real estate.”
The first hotel, which will be run by an international hotel management company, is set to be opened in Germany by 2014.
The
owner of the concept and name IKEA, Inter IKEA, already operates a
series of hotels in Europe including a development around London’s
Olympic Park.
Any conference-related news? Email sarah@mashmedia.net
