Operator quality as the key to value creation – operational strength moves into the focus of investors

The German hotel market is also resilient in the second quarter of 2026. Despite geopolitical uncertainties and a challenging financing environment, the industry is benefiting from stable demand. Business travel, trade fair and congress events as well as continued high levels of leisure travel ensure solid fundamentals. With a transaction volume of around EUR 625 million in the first half of the year, it is clear that valuable hotel investments are possible despite the challenging market environment – provided that the operating basis is right.

In particular, the large urban and metropolitan regions as well as established leisure destinations recorded stable demand for overnight stays and constant occupancy rates in the first half of the year. The main driver of this development was robust domestic demand. In addition, structural trends such as shorter but more frequent trips, the increasing integration of business and leisure stays ("bleisure") and the growing demand for flexible accommodation concepts are providing additional impetus. Hotel projects outside the classic metropolitan locations are also increasingly benefiting from this development.  

Analogous to the development on the European hotel investment markets, the focus of many investors is increasingly shifting to the operational performance of the operators. Their creditworthiness, the scalability of the business model, efficient cost structures and the design of lease and management contracts are increasingly determining risk assessment and pricing. Operators with strong brands, digitized processes and efficient cost structures in particular benefit from this development.

At the same time, consolidation in the operator environment continues. Platforms with scalable brands as well as hotel companies with strong cost and technology expertise continue to expand their market position. International hotel groups are once again focusing more on the German hotel market. In particular, changes of operator, restructuring and expiring contract structures create space for new market participants and concepts. New players such as Brown Hotels or Prism are increasingly entering the market and expanding the spectrum of established operator and brand concepts. Structured partnerships as well as platform and joint venture models are becoming increasingly important and are increasingly shaping the market structure. They enable investors to become more involved operationally and thus actively shape value creation.