Facade of the new Marriott Moxy hotel in Barcelona
The managers in Spain of Marriott, the first hotel company in the world with almost 9,000 properties all over the planet, have October 1, 2024 marked in red on their calendar. Today is the date chosen for the launch of the first Moxy brand hotel in Spain, located a few meters from the Sants train station (Barcelona), after a thorough renovation of the Expo Barcelona hotel, acquired by the Canadian fund Brookfield in 2021 from the Catalan group Selenta. In the operation, four assets were transacted (the Sofia hotel, now under the Grand Hyatt brand, and the Expo in Barcelona, Don Carlos Resort & Spa in Marbella and Mare Nostrum Resort in Tenerife) for 440 million euros. Thus, Brookfield is the owner of the new Moxy hotel, Selenta is in charge of the operation and Marriott provides the brand.
The hotel is located in a traditional business tourism area due to the proximity of the train station and the Fira de Barcelona, so there is a high presence of hotel chains in the area such as Barceló, H10, Abba or AC Hotels by Marriott, another of the American giant’s brands. The renovation of the hotel, with 414 rooms, has been absolute both in the rooms and in the common areas because the client pursued by the Moxy brand is completely different from that of Expo Barcelona, going from a purely corporate tourist to another mostly under 35 years old. who travels for leisure or business reasons.
As distinctive elements of the brand, the check-in will be held in the hotel restaurant with a cocktail, technology plays a key role in the rooms, the common areas have been designed to house meeting and leisure spaces open to the city and not only for hotel guests, the presence of The music is constant 24 hours a day and one of the strong points of the offer is the rooftop pool with sun loungers, cabanas and a bar with views of the historic center of Barcelona.
Barcelona Moxy games roomCathrine Stukhard
Moxy is the youngest brand (it will be 10 years old in 2024) of the thirty that Marriott has in its portfolio and currently has 136 hotels around the world, of which 93 are in Europe. The goal that Marriott has set is to reach 100 hotels by the end of 2025 with the incorporation of new assets, including Barcelona. “We continue to see strong demand for hotel experiences that are as stylish as they are affordable in the region. “Our ambitious expansion plans for Moxy are not about being everywhere, in every market, but about finding the right destinations that help us honor the playful spirit for which the brand is known,” emphasizes Jerome Briet, Chief Development Officer. of Marriott for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
In any case, Spain is at a disadvantage compared to other major European tourist destinations. Of the 93 hotels it currently operates, Germany has a third (31), followed by the United Kingdom (17) and France (11). In addition to Barcelona, the brand also debuts this year in Luxembourg and Türkiye, Spain’s leading competitor for sun and beach travelers. In the case of the Ottoman country it will open at the end of the year Moxy Istanbul Beyoglu, located in the Taksim neighborhood and built on a historic building from 1905. In 2025, another hotel will open in the coastal city of Izmir.
Hilton and IHG also strengthen their presence
Marriott is not the only large US hotel company that has set its sights on Spain. IHG and Hilton, the third and fourth in the world by number of assets, also want to expand their footprint in Spain. IHG has opened three new hotels so far this year (Holiday Inn Logroño, Crowne Plaza Madrid Retiro and Voco Madrid Retiro) and plans to open another two by the end of the year (Kimpton Los Monteros Marbella and Staybridge Suites Málaga). These five openings will be joined by another eight signed hotels that will be updated or renovated. Two will be from the new luxury brand Vignette Collection (Mallorca and Jerez de la Frontera), two from the Indigo brand (Gandía and Jerez), one from the Voco brand (Granada) and three from the economy brand Holiday Inn Express (Seville, Sabadell and San Sebastián).
For its part, HIlton has announced the opening of three hotels in Spain. The first two on the calendar will be the Hampton by Hilton in Malaga and the Curio Collection by Hilton in Cáceres, scheduled for the end of the year, and the next will be the Hampton by Hilton Alicante, whose opening will take place in early 2025.
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