Tag: Palladium Group

The Matutes Family Buys Real Cinema In Madrid For €17M

2 October 2017 – Eje Prime

Madrid is still active in terms of real estate transactions. The former Real Cinema, located opposite the Teatro Real de Madrid, is going to pass into the hands of Marc Rahola Matutes, nephew of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Abel Matutes, and cousin of Abel Matutes Prats, for €17 million.

The building, which has a constructed surface area of 2,300 m2, will undergo a remodelling, which could see Matutes’ total investment rise to €24 million, according to El Confidencial.

According to sources in the real estate sector, the company that owns the property, Selbridge SL, purchased it in 2003 and has constituted a purchase option over the entire domain of the property in favour of White Land, a company administered by Rahola Matutes. The building occupies a plot of land measuring 900 m2 and houses a performance hall.

Marc Rahola Matutes launched his career at the Palladium Group. In addition, the director manages the investments of the fund Ocean Group Capital, which he created after leaving his role at Matutes’ company, and through which he has bet heavily on the hotel sector.

The fund started out by acquiring the iconic OD Ocean Drive, located in the Marina Botafoch area. Then, it bought three luxury hotels in the Balearic Islands: OD Port Portals, in Mallorca; OD Talamanca (formerly Hotel Victoria) and OD Can Jaume, a holiday farm property, both in Ibiza.

Original story: Eje Prime

Translation: Carmel Drake

Hoteliers At FITUR Stand United Against Airbnb

25 January 2017 – Expansión

Same rules of the game / Directors of several major hotel chains are accusing the collaborative economy platform of unfair competition. They are also demanding more regulation and control by the authorities regarding homes made available for tourist use.

Fitur – the major tourism fair – brought together the main players in the tourism sector once again: airlines, hotel groups, transport companies, tour operators, travel agencies and purchasing centres, amongst others. One group of player, who did not attend but who were omnipresent at all the meetings, were online platforms, such as Airbnb. Even the definition of the collaborative economy was generating controversy.

Sources at Madrid’s Hotel Business Association (AEHM), the capital’s hotel trade association, emphasised that the boom in tourist homes is not only a phenomenon that is affecting cities such as Barcelona, although that city is hitting the headlines the most.

“Madrid has seen spectacular growth, increasing from 10,000 to 20,000 homes in one year and from 37,000 to 74,000 beds, although most of those have not been registered”, said the AEHM’s President, Gabriel García. “It constitutes unfair competition for the sector and it must be addressed”, he said.

Gabriel Escarrer, Vice-President and CEO at Meliá, was equally convinced. “There is a lack of regulation in the poorly-named collaborative economy. Meliá spends almost €18 per room in order to comply with regulations, not just in terms of taxes and licences, but also to comply with specific measures such as fire-proofing, security, occupational health and safety. That generates a disadvantage for us with respect to any individual who decides to rent out their apartment; what’s more, in most cases, those apartments do not have a licence or pay VAT”, he said.

For Escarrer, the person responsible “should not only be the owner of the home, but also parties that include such properties on their websites when they do not have operating licences”.

The Director General at the Palladium Group, Abel Matutes Prats, is aware that “we cannot buck the trends”, but, he emphasises that “it is unfair that there is so much regulation for hoteliers and yet a complete lack of regulation, both fiscal and normative, for everyone else. To illustrate the situation, he says that one segment has five referees watching over it, whilst the other has none”.

Antonio Catalán, President of AC by Marriott expresses the same sentiment. He considers that it is essential that the authorities act.

Sources at Airbnb say that they are not opposed to regulation but rather that they require it to “allow people to share their own homes”, in other words, they want “a single legal framework for individuals, distinct from the one applicable to professionals”. And they add: “The existing framework favours professional operators and harms those middle class people and families who want to open up their habitual residence. The collaborative economy needs clear legislation and Airbnb has always been open to working with cities to identify specific solutions”.

Property conversions

(…). “In many urban centres, residential assets are being converted into tourist properties and many cities are just not ready for the change, from the point of view of infrastructure or services. This results in problems for people living together”, explains Escarrer.

For Catalán, the key resides in “what type of city we want, Paris or Cancun, and what we have to do to achieve it”.

“In Ibiza, a type of tourism-phobia is started to emerge, which is hitting hoteliers. We have fewer rooms there than before. We bring fewer tourists than before, with higher quality but less volume. Why are there more tourists? Because of the collaborative economy. We need specific laws, like in New York, to limit the duration of stays and to require tourist apartments to comply with certain minimum health and safety requirements, and moreover, for tax fraud to be prosecuted”, said Matutes.

Airbnb’s sources reiterate that they are “part of the solution” to the challenges that cities are facing: “Airbnb complements the traditional tourist industry and helps to redistribute economic benefits from tourism amongst citizens, communities and neighbourhoods”.

Original story: Expansión (by Rebeca Arroyo)

Translation: Carmel Drake

Palladium Strengthens ‘Only You’ With New Hotel In Madrid

24 February 2016 – Cinco Días

The Palladium group is strengthening its presence in Madrid with the launch of a second Only You hotel. The four-star property, located opposite Atocha train station, will have 206 rooms and is expected to open its doors in June.

The hotel is following in the footsteps of the first Only You hotel, located on Calle Barquillo in Madrid, which has become one of the iconic boutique establishments in the city. “We want to operate a dynamic model under the umbrella of the Only You chain, to serve both a hotel with 100 rooms, as well as one with 250 rooms”, said Juan Serra yesterday, the CEO of Only You and Ayre Hoteles, the urban division of the Palladium group, in which El Corte Inglés holds a 50% stake and which recorded double digit growth figures last year.

In this way, the Group has established a period of between six and ten months to analyse the evolution of its brand and begin its expansion. To drive its growth, Palladium will evaluate the conversion of some of its hotels, possibly including its property in Valencia, as well as its management model. According to Abel Matutes Prats, the CEO of Palladium, the group may also extend its brand “to several Spanish and European cities over the next five years, and we are not ruling out certain Latin American capital cities”. “We have built the foundations for growth and that is what we intend to do”, said the executive.

The future hotel, which will employ around 60 people, has received an investment of around €38 million, to finance the purchase of the property and its renovation. The opening of the establishment will also coincide with the extension of the hotel on Calle Barquillo, to include 55 new rooms.

The Palladium group, which recorded revenues of more than €500 million last year, is also working on the construction of its second Hard Rock Café, in Tenerife, where it will invest around €80 million and which is expected to be ready in November. Moreover, it will spend another €700 million on three hotels in Cancun, one of which will operate under the Usuahïa brand. This growth is being financed primarily using own funds.

Abel Matutes also acknowledged that the company is currently evaluating the Socimi (company structure) formula, at a time when the group owns all but three of its hotels, but he highlighted that this analysis is at “an embryonic stage”. And he said that the group will focus its investment on America over the next few years.

Original story: Cinco Días (by Laura Salces)

Translation: Carmel Drake