MEININGER Signs Contract for Hotel in Marseille, France

Main Photo: The MEININGER Marseille, imagined – opening summer 2021

Date: May 2019

Location: Marseille, France

Name:The MEININGER Marseille – opening 2021

No. of Keys: 194 rooms with 574 beds

Seller: The site is part of Euroméditerranée, Europe’s largest urban renovation project, the once-neglected port area has undergone extensive refurbishment, new building projects and the establishment of major cultural and leisure facilities, including several shopping and business centres.

Buyer: MEININGER Hotels is executing its expansion strategy to grow further in France, with the signing of the contract for a new hotel in Marseille, France’s second largest city.

MEININGER’s number of prospective beds in France grows to over 2,600.

The deal is between the hotel group and the French real estate developer COFFIM. The new hotel will be located in the middle of the “new Marseille”, the totally renewed urban area around the Marseille harbour.

Hannes Spanring, CEO of MEININGER Hotels about the new location: “Marseille has undergone a tremendously impressive transformation over the last few years and is developing into the Mediterranean metropolis of tomorrow. The city offers everything that we’re looking for when it comes to MEININGER’s accelerated growth and our ambitious expansion plans in Europe and beyond. The local hostel market, in particular, offers great potential according to our analyses, while at the same time we are consolidating our national presence in France.”

Typical for MEININGER Hotels, the new hotel centrally located at 22-25 Rue de Forbin will have an extremely flexible room structure. It is therefore appealing to different types of guests, such as city travellers, families, backpackers, groups and business travellers. Accommodation options include private single and double rooms, rooms with multiple beds and a bed in a dormitory. “With our hybrid concept, which combines the advantages of a hostel and hotel, we are able to appeal to an unusually wide target group. The flexible room structure allows us to maximise our occupancy rates way better than let’s say a classical hotel,” adds Hannes Spanring. The hotel also offers a kitchen which can be used by guests 24/7, a game zone with table football or pool table and free, unlimited Wi-Fi.

From the hotel, the largest port in France is just a five-minute walk away, as well as the sea-facing shopping center “Les Terrasses du Port” with a great gastronomic offer and the trendy harbor docks “Docks Village” with diverse shopping and culinary opportunities. The Joliette metro station is about 300 meters away from the new MEININGER Hotel. The main station Marseille Saint-Charles can be reached by metro in about 5 minutes. On foot, it is about 10 minutes from the hotel to the city centre and the old harbour. The Marseille Provence Airport can be reached in about 30 minutes by car or 60 minutes by public transport. “We are very happy to realise a first hotel in Marseille with MEININGER in such an excellent location. It will allow us to pursue our development in Marseille, a city in which COFFIM is historically present and has realised numerous projects,” explains Thibault Dutreix, General Manager of COFFIM.

The MEININGER hotel group with strong growth ambitions will open its first hotel in France this summer. The MEININGER Hotel Paris Porte de Vincennes holds 950 beds, making it the largest hostel-style accommodation in the French capital. Also under construction are a MEINININGER Hotel in Lyon (169 rooms and 590 beds) and Bordeaux (173 rooms and 526 beds). The openings are planned for 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Price: Undisclosed

THPT Comment: Serious growth track record for this major play in the hostel/hotel hybrid sector.

First Seen: Meininger website

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