easyHotel now open for business in Spain

Yesterday’s opening of easyHotel Barcelona is the latest phase in the super-budget operator’s European expansion program with 14 more hotels due to open in Spain alone over the next five years. easyHotel invested 16 million euros to open its first hotel in Spain in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat (Barcelona), with more openings planned for Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Bilbao, Malaga, San Sebastián, Alicante, Santander, Granada and Córdoba.

easyHotel Barcelona is located on Gran Via and has 204 rooms, with excellent connections to the city centre and the airport as well as proximity to the local shopping mall. It has already started to trade well with excellent occupancy rates.

Development Director Marc Vieillent said:
“We will deploy an active investment strategy to develop our concept of hospitality in Spain. In order to achieve this, we intend to acquire buildings to turn them into hotels or buy existing hotels to become ‘EasyHotels’ as well as investing in development projects.”

He also highlighted the “great potential for growth” of cheap hotels in Spain: they represent 3.5% of the national market, while in France this rate can reach 20%.

The opening ceremony was attended by the general director of easyHotel Spain, Jorge Rodríguez and mayoress of L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Núria Marín.

Founded in 2004, easyHotel has a portfolio of 33 hotels in nine countries and is promoting a strategy of geographical expansion, especially in Spain, Germany and France.