At MEININGER Hotels, the signs continue to point to expansion: the hotel group signed a contract for its first property in Warsaw and is thus celebrating its official market entry in Poland. Together with openings planned for this year in Paris and Lyon as well as next year in Washington D.C., which will mark the respective market entries in France and the U.S., MEININGER Hotels is massively pushing its international growth strategy to manage around 34,000 beds by 2024.
“Poland is an absolute growth market. Warsaw in particular has developed enormously in the wake of increased foreign investment and economic growth in recent years. Be it new roads, bridges and buildings, the expanded public transport system or Warsaw’s largest and mosat important airport, Chopin, which had a total of 17.7 million passengers in 2018 and is thus increasingly becoming the most important hub in Eastern Europe. In terms of infrastructure, Warsaw is a top address in Europe,” says Hannes Spanring, CEO of MEININGER Hotels.
This development is also noticeable in the tourism segment. Both arrivals and overnight stays have risen sharply by 46.9 percent and 53.2 percent respectively since 2012. The forecasts are also positive and assume that both business and leisure tourism in Warsaw will continue to grow in the coming years. “This is due on the one hand to the flourishing domestic tourism resulting from the sustained economic upswing in Poland, and on the other hand to the increasing foreign tourism, which is favoured by the increasing flight connections of European low-cost carriers to Warsaw. Since 2013, 26 new hotel properties have been built in Warsaw. However, the market is dominated by the mid- and upscale segment, and the budget and economy segment still has plenty of development potential in terms of international quality standards. With our unique hybrid hotel concept, which combines the service and comfort of international budget hotels with the exceptional facilities and flexible room structure of hostels, our goal is now to become the market leader in this segment in Poland,” Spanring continued.
