News and F.A.Q.

News

The easyHotel master franchise holder for Germany,  i.gen hotels GmbH, has announced that the first easyHotel in Germany has had the cornerstone laid and will be constructed on the corner of Rosenthalerstr./ Linienstr. in the popular Hackescher Markt area of Berlin. The construction planning calls for a 125 room hotel to be opened late 2009. The bedroom design follows the easyHotel concept of small, well designed rooms with all necessary facilities of approximately 10m². Room rates will start at very competitive € 19,95. The easyHotel strapline of 'simple comfort, great value' will be perfectly presented.

Other locations that i.gen hotels, together with the developer NDC Real Estate Management GmbH, has identified as possible future sites in Berlin include the area near the landmark Checkpoint Charlie as well as near the Kurfuerstendamm.  i.gen is also seeking other top locations for the easyHotel brand in all of Germany’s major cities.  Potential areas have been identified in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Munich, Cologne, Duesseldorf, Leipzig, Dresden, Bremen, and Nuremberg.

easyHotel has 8 hotels operating in the UK, Switzerland and Hungary, with the next hotel, London, Heathrow, due to open in December 2008.  15 further hotels are due to open in 2009, including Dubai, Porto and Sofia.

Mr. Achim Marowsky, the CEO of i.gen, stated that the mix of brand identity, unbeatable pricing, and top central city locations should prove to be a success story especially in the budget hotel sector.

F.A.Q.

How do you see the future of budget hotels?

Very good. Especially in the current financial climate, we believe that budget hotels will continue to be a driving force in the future.

In your opinion, could we be speaking about a boom? If so, how do you explain the boom?

Yes. In Germany there is shortage of budget hotel rooms; actually we estimate that less than 15% of the available hotel rooms in Germany can be classified as budget. So there is a wonderful opportunity with great potential in this sector.

Why is it that the rooms can be offered at such a low-priced rate/at a lower rate than most of the competitors?

Size matters; be it in construction or conversion costs and later when it comes to energy conservation (i.e. utility costs), by optimizing the space available to only what is required, we can pass on the savings to our customers.

What is given up?

Not much, we offer a queen sized bed, a hot shower, and an air conditioned room. Our rooms will not have the armchair that no one ever sits in or the table, which is never used.

Where do the prices start at?

Our yield management system will be demand driven; that said we will remain competitively priced from EUR 19.95.

Is breakfast included? If not, how much extra does it cost and what is offered?

Breakfast is not included and will not be offered because easyHotels in Germany will only be in top inner-city locations. Cafes, restaurants, and bakeries are usually just acress the street.