Continuing financial maneuvers in the world of hospitality, the British Villages Hotels, 33 establishments across the country for some 4,400 rooms, changes of ownership from KSL Capital Partners to Blackstone for an estimated amount of 850 million pounds Sterling , or a little over a billion euros (or around 225,000 euros per key).
The Village Hotels concept is similar to a club hotel combining accommodation, catering, sports, fitness and swimming pool facilities, and, more recently, coworking and seminar spaces. The brand offers a series of combined packages aimed at an essentially leisure and incidentally business target.
For the Blackstone fund, this is an additional step in its strategy of accumulated presence in the leisure segment. Coming out of Covid, it had already acquired Bourne Leisure, owner of campsites and leisure parks, under the Haven brand, and the Warner Hotels chain, for holidaymakers without children.
In a recent comment, James Seppala, in charge of Real Estate Europe at Blackstone, declares the group’s desire to strengthen its position in the hotel sector compared to other less performing asset categories, and in particular the Leisure segment, which is more reactive than the Business segment.
Gary Davis, current CEO of Village Hotels, is banking on Blackstone’s financial power to accelerate its development in the United Kingdom and invest excessively in capex. He remembers the 600 million euros spent by its new owner to bring Bourne Loisirs up to the level of the competition.
