Ikea to open 100 budget hotels across Europe

Swedish furniture giant Ikea is planning to build 100 budget hotels around Europe in its most recent push to join the property market.

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The hotels will be opened with the budget traveler in mind, with the first hotel set to open its doors in Germany soon.

"We will announce the first location for our budget hotel in Germany in the next few weeks and we are in talks with hotel operators to rapidly implement our concept," said Harald Müller of Inter Ikea to the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper (SvD).

The budget accommodation will be launched through Inter Ikea, the company that owns the intellectual property rights of Ikea.

However, the hotels will not hold the Ikea brand, nor will the rooms be furnished with Ikea’s trademark furniture. Instead, the budget hotels will be opened through an established hotel operator.

“We will strip away everything unnecessary such as the in-house restaurants and instead go for a good breakfast, fast internet, fast check-in and no check out,” Müller said.

The Swedish company is also looking to put money into student housing around the continent.

The move is part of a long term capital investment plan, according to the paper, with hotels set to be opened in Poland, the Netherlands and the UK – as well as Germany.

Inter Ikea revealed last week that the Ikea brand was valued at 75 billion kronor ($11.2 billion) – a price tag experts called “reasonable”.

The Ikea brand ranks 89th among the world’s 100 most valuable brands, the second highest in Sweden behind clothing label H&M.

The Local/og
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