Ikea eyes budget hotel chain
Scandinavian furniture retailer Ikea is said to be preparing the launch of a chain of budget hotels.
Inter Ikea, the subsidiary which owns the intellectual property rights of Ikea, is scoping out potential sites for 100 design hotels across Europe, the Financial Times reports.
The hotels are likely be furnished with Ikea products but will, however, not be run by Ikea management or use the Ikea brand.
The FT cites comments made to a German paper by Harald Muller, business development manager at Ikea Inter, who says it will announce the first hotel location in Germany “within a few weeks” and that it is in talks with hotel operators to “rapidly implement” the concept.
Requests for further information were not returned at the time of publishing this article.
Ikea is also thought to be considering building student halls across Europe in an expansion of its property division to create long term value through property investments.
Earlier this year, Ikea’s real estate arm revealed plans to build an “Ikea Town” in a former industrial area of London’s Stratford. The site, just south of the Olympic Park will include more than 1,000 homes as well as restaurants, bars, shops and a hotel.
Ikea, which rarely discloses financial information, revealed last week that its brand is valued at €9bn as part of a change in structure that saw ownership of the Ikea brand switch to another subsidiary of the business.
