MEININGER group secures Tel Aviv location for hybrid hotel

A mix of traditional double rooms and dormitory beds will be on offer to guests

By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS
A landscape view from the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality building (photo credit: COURTESY TEL AVIV MUNICIPALITY)
A landscape view from the Tel Aviv-Yafo municipality building
(photo credit: COURTESY TEL AVIV MUNICIPALITY)
MEININGER hotel group has signed a contract for its first property in Israel, to be located on Levanda Street in Tel Aviv.
The announcement comes a year after MEININGER announced its intentions to enter the Israeli market, and represents part of the company's expansion plans to operate 35,000 beds worldwide by 2024.
A record-breaking four million tourists visited Israel in 2018, a result of a solid marketing strategy, strengthening infrastructure, and collaboration with low-cost airlines and foreign travel agencies. Tel Aviv has enjoyed an 11 percent increase in tourism traffic alone, resulting in a continued increase in demand for hotel accommodation, particularly in the budget segment.
"The expansion into Israel opens up great potential for MEININGER Hotels in a completely new market," says Hannes Spanring, CEO of MEININGER Hotels.
"We are the first internationally operating hospitality company to bring the hybrid hotel concept to the Middle East. Although the city's supply has grown immensely over the last 10 years, accommodation in the hostel, economy and budget segments is severely under-represented. As is typical for MEININGER Hotels, we expect high room occupancy rates in Tel Aviv of 90 percent and more."
The new hotel, located in a 28-story, mixed-use building, will offer guests a choice of 800 beds across 210 rooms covering floors four to 15, with an exclusive lobby on the ground floor. The offering is a hybrid of the traditional and the budget, with guests being able to take their pick from traditional double rooms, through private rooms with multiple beds, to one bed in a dormitory.
"Tel Aviv is a city that is equally visited by business and city travelers," says Doros Theodorou, Chief Commercial Officer of MEININGER Hotels.
"Our hybrid concept, which combines the best features of hotel and hostel, serves this mix of guests in the city very well. We will be offering two-, three-, four- and six-bed rooms. In Tel Aviv, we are bringing forward a MEININGER-typical hotel that combines the reliable service and high quality amenities of a hotel with the advantages of a hostel: these include a guest kitchen, a game zone and spacious public areas where guests meet and socialize."
MEININGER, headquartered in Berlin, currently operates 29 hybrid hotels in Europe. Its portfolio contains a total of 4,527 rooms and 16,018 beds in 17 European cities including Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, Rome, St. Petersburg and Vienna. For the financial year 2018/19, the group achieved a 90 percent occupancy rate. A further 16 hotel projects are under development.
Israel’s Minister of Tourism Yariv Levin said: “Within the framework of the Tourism Ministry's policy of reducing vacation costs in Israel and in order to encourage competition, we are working hard to introduce low-cost hospitality chains into Israel. I am pleased that our efforts are bearing fruit and I would like to congratulate MEININGER on its entry into Israel. This is a vote of confidence in Israeli tourism, following the record-breaking figures in incoming tourism. We are sure that this is just the beginning.”
The project is being realized with an Israeli group of investors including Gal Emrald Ltd, Ez Hashaked Ltd, I.D.Barazani Ltd, A. Chver Ltd, Galileo Ashkenazi Ltd. The project manager is Nadav Lisovski and the law office representing them was Shimron Molcho.. The sides met during the Israel Ministry of Tourism’s inaugural IHIS hotel investment summit in 2018.


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