Meininger Announces Hotel in Reyjavik

Date: December 2018

Location: Vesturbaer District, Reykjavik, Iceland

Name: The MEININGER Hotel – opening 2nd Qtr 2020

No. of Keys: 122 rooms – 442 beds

Seller: The building was iconic JL House, a famous 1940s warehouse owned by JL Holding ehf, a private company owned, among others, by twin brothers and former professional football players turned entrepreneurs, Arnar Gunnlaugsson and Bjarki Gunnlaugsson.

Buyer: The hotel will have a gross floor area of ​​5,500 square meters. The rooms will be spread over 5 floors.

The room types will range from classic double rooms to private multi-bed-rooms through to a bed in a dorm. The public areas such as reception, lobby, lounge, bar and breakfast room as well as the guest kitchen and games zone, which are typical features of a MEININGER, will be located on the ground floor of the building. The interior design of the hotel will be based on an individual theme specific to the local area.

Iceland is the fastest growing market in Europe. In 2017, about 2.2 million tourists visited the country (five-fold increase compared to 2010), which is about six times the permanent resident population of the country. The rapid-fire growth made Reykjavik having the highest market-wide occupancy in Europe.

The main reason for visiting Iceland is its natural attractions, but Reykjavik is an equally popular tourist destination, as it has lots to offer like numerous museum and hosts many events and festivals. Due to the relatively small size of Iceland, many attractions and popular activities can be reached and completed in a day, making day trips from Reykjavik very popular.

Hannes Spanring, CEO of MEININGER Hotels, highlights the strategic importance of the agreement: “I’m very pleased, with the project in Reykjavik as it expands our geographical reach and provide options to our guests.”

“Reykjavik increased its significance as a hub between Europe and North America in the past years, also because the accessibility by air greatly improved.

The major share of visitors is leisure tourists coming from both of these continents. Looking at the Iceland tourism market, we expect to host the typical mix of MEININGER guests, individual travellers like backpackers as well as groups and a small number of business travellers,” stated Doros Theodorou, CCO of MEININGER Hotels.

Next year MEININGER will enter two further important new markets with the opening of a hotel in Budapest and a hotel in Paris.

THPT Comment: Meininger have done very well since their inception in 1999, as a fore-runner of the trendy hostel scene, with some 35 properties in Europe. The company is a subsidiary of Cox and Kings, joint oldest travel agency in the world (with Thomas Cook) and Holidaybreak, headed up by Navneet Bali.

First Seen: Hotel News Resource

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