Vienna House buys 17 city hotels from arcona

In addition to eight 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 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," said 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. Vinenna House, the largest Austrian hotel group, currently operates and is developing more than 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 is looking to the holiday hotel sector. Remaining in the arcona portfolio are six hotels in 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 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," said arcona founder Alexander Winter. A total of 20 Barefoot hotels are to be opened over the next ten years.