Despite the crisis, the Hungarian-owned Mellow Mood Group (MMG) continues its major hotel developments. The company will be launching its new hotel shortly before the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix, with five more construction and preparation for operation accelerated, and has obtained bank financing for each. The company also entered the Central European market by launching a business hotel in Vienna and preparing for…
Bratislava, Prague and other regional capitals. First they want to appear almost everywhere as an operator, and later in development.
“The Expo Congress Hotel near BNV has been completely refurbished and redeveloped with a 5 billion HUF investment, and a 250-person conference facility has been set up and is in the process of being handed over at the end of July” General Manager Judit Blandl told our newspaper. There is a close business relationship with the operator of the nearby Hungexpo, so they have been able to gain a significant share of the accommodation business for multi-day events there. The same is true of László Papp at Budapest Sport Arena.
Mellow Mood is also known for investing in downtown, which targets both business travelers and city tourists. Each hotel has a smaller or larger conference room or meeting room, and with the exception of the Buddha Bar Hotel in the Klotild Palace, the group is the trustee everywhere. Now, MMG, will take over the operation of the luxury hotel, and may take possession of the building next spring when the contractor retires.
When asked about when the company ventured out of the Hungarian capital and appeared in rural districts, the manager replied that a county seat in Transdanubia and the Great Plain had been under investigation for a long time and would probably appear as operators. For the time being, they do not really want to increase their equity ratio, as they also require bank credit, which is difficult for any developer to obtain today. For the ongoing projects, the loan agreement was concluded before the start of the crisis, with CIB Bank and Erste Bank as partners. Usually, they work at a rent that is proportional to the volume of traffic, and when they rent a building, they manage to reduce their risk.
Among the markets in the surrounding countries, she called Bratislava and Prague extremely promising. “We see a lot of fantasy in the Slovak capital, it seems easier to enter the market there than Prague and we could still work at affordable prices. We are likely to appear as an operator. Prague is also attractive, the facts show that it is more saturated than Budapest, but the occupancy figures are better, there is potential, so we are looking into it as well, ” she added, pointing out that they were looking forward to their first overseas action to redevelop a building they had acquired in downtown Vienna. The 51-room, four-star Cosmo Hotel is due to be delivered next spring.
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Source: Company Announcement