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Selina Hotels to Invest €250 Million in Portugal
13 May 2018
The chain’s first investment in Europe will be in Porto. Lisbon, Algarve, Comporta, Ericeira, Peniche and Cascais will follow in sequence.
Selina is the latest international group to enter Portugal, and it already expects to expand its presence. Selina will open a hotel in Porto this year, and its goal is to have 1,400 beds by 2020, which will involve investments exceeding €250 million. The hotels will have their individual aesthetics, combining the boutique concept with coworking areas and areas for shows, and will be decorated by local artists or ‘nomads’ who travel the world.
“Like Selina, Portugal is a multi-faceted country and has the potential to continue to be a top destination over the next few years,” Rafael Museri, co-founder of the Selina group, stated. The group currently has 24 hotels in Latin America, and it is looking to expand in Europe, to Germany, the UK, Greece, and, of course, Portugal.
Selina is already placing the finishing touches on its hotel in Porto and expects to begin operations there in the third quarter of this year. Located on the Rua das Oliveiras, the hotel has 260 beds and involved an investment of €10 million, “including the purchase of property, renovations and investments in art and design,” Rafael Museri explained. “Porto is known for its warm people who know how to take guests in and share their spirit of community. We like places like this, with personality and local life. We are not interested in mass-market tourist areas.”
Hotel in Lisbon Planned for 2019
Following Porto, Selina is preparing to open a hotel in Lisbon, most likely for the first quarter of 2019. “We want to start the project in Lisbon later this year. We have negotiations underway in five potential locations, and we expect to open the hotel in Lisbon within the next 12 months,” Mr Museri added.
The group has identified more than 30 different places in Portugal that are “full of life, full of young people, perfect for the Selina group”, and predicts that the chain will also open in Cascais, Albufeira, Lagos, Comporta, Ericeira and Peniche by 2020. Selina expects to reach a total of 1400 beds in this first phase of expansion in Portugal.
“We are still in negotiations in these places, but were are always open to adding new projects. Our investment plans in Portugal are flexible, depending on the opportunities that exist in the market,” the head of Selina noted. “The Lisbon project will be important as an anchor location in the capital, which will allow us to expand to other smaller and less transited areas of the country,” he said. The hotels that the group expects to open in the next three years in Ericeira, Peniche or Comporta will also allow the group to “create new experiences in satellite locations, which will be an opportunity to explore the country in a completely different way, both for foreigners and locals.”
Employing a concept aimed at new travellers, Selina currently has hotels in eight countries in Latin America, such as Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia and Peru, and wants to expand quickly to Europe and the United States. By the end of 2018, it expects to be present in 15 countries and have a portfolio of 54,000 beds in the next three years.
The choice of Portugal to start the expansion in Europe was “natural” for the group. “Portugal is full of culture, so rich in landscapes that it is a good place for Selina to test new concepts and the way people can combine life, work and travel,” Mr Museri stressed, believing that “Selina and Portugal have much to learn from each other.”
Original Story: Expresso – Conceição Antunes
Photo: D.R.
Translation: Richard Turner