BERLIN — Yotel CEO Hubert Viriot understands why people would question the investment thesis behind city-center hotels in major urban markets right now.
Over the course of the pandemic, demand all but zeroed out, especially in cities dependent on international tourism. But as the leader of a hotel brand that has built itself around being centrally located in the major cities of the world, including New York, Miami, San Francisco, London, Singapore and Istanbul — Viriot said he has “always remained confident” that urban markets would bounce back.
“I think big cities have so much to offer socially, economically, and for any generation, but especially the younger crowds that are huge believers in cities,” he said while speaking to Hotel News Now at the International Hospitality Investment Forum. “Now, cities may have to be reinvented and be built more around the people and less around the cars and less around the industries. But I think the future’s still there.”
Viriot said Yotel is…