Press Affairs

International expansion: prizeotel goes to Antwerp

 

Hamburg, March 28th 2019.The economy design brand prizeotel continues its international expansion and announces a hotel in Antwerp, Belgium. The hotel, inspired by star designer Karim Rashid, will open in spring 2020 with 144 rooms in the port city. After Berne and Vienna, the prizeotel in Antwerp is the brand's third home in other European countries. 

"With the signing of the first contract in Belgium, we are keeping what we promised. In addition to the core markets in Germany, prizeotel is growing selectively at selected international locations," says Marco Nussbaum, founder and CEO of prizeotel. "With our design concept and our corporate structure, which thanks to flat hierarchies ensures rapid decision-making and efficiency, we are generating growing interest, including from foreign investors," says Nussbaum. The hotel in Antwerp is prizeotel's twelfth hotel, which is in the brand's pipeline alongside established hotels in Bremen, Hamburg and Hanover.

Developed by Triple Living NV, guests will find the new hotel in the "Het Eilandje" quarter near the port of Antwerp. In the city known for its diamond trade, a building with state-of-the-art architecture is being built. In addition to the prizeotel, it will also house 144 student apartments, 74 condominiums and over 1,000 square metres of retail space. Eilandje has become one of Antwerp's hippest districts. Gastronomy, museums and old trading houses radiate a unique flair and attract crowds of visitors and travellers. "Exactly the right location for a prizeotel," says Nussbaum, who refers to the tourist significance of the port city.

The largest city in Flanders attracts more than a million visitors every year, who spend an average of two nights in Antwerp. The city's hotels welcome about half of leisure and the other half business travellers. Around two thirds of the tourists come from abroad, one third from Belgium. In recent years, Antwerp has seen a steady increase in the number of overnight stays to over 1.9 million. In addition, the European Capital of Culture of 1993 is increasingly positioning itself as a destination for congresses and meetings and is now, after Brussels, the second most important city in Belgium for conferences and events.

"What the city has so far been without is a genuine economy-design-hotel with an international outlook. We are now closing this gap with our prizeotel in a highly demanded location," reports Nussbaum. The oldest harbour area in the town is a popular "hotspot" in Antwerp. Completely surrounded by water, the district convinces with its historical charm combined with modern architecture. Among the most popular attractions are the "MAS Museum aan de Stroom", the "Red Star Line Museum" and the "Port House". Numerous gastronomic and artistic offerings underline the attractiveness of the waterfront quarter.

The Belgian port city is known worldwide for its diamond trade. But already in the past the city had a lot to offer: In the 15th and 16th centuries, Antwerp was one of the largest cities in the world and at some times the continent's most important trading metropolis. World-famous artists, such as the baroque painter Rubens, had their place of work here. Today, tourists visit places such as the "Plantin-Moretus-Museum", the "Maison Guiette of Le Corbusier" and the tower of the "Cathedral of Our Lady", which are all UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

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High-res pictures can be found here: https://medien.prizeotel.com/index.php/s/EWB1SI9co75b9Ao

More information on: www.prizeotel.com

Media contact:
Franziska Mettenheimer
T: +49 421 2222 307

prizeotel
Esplanade 41 | 20354 Hamburg
[email protected] 

About prizeotel
Founded by Marco Nussbaum in 2006, prizeotel is the most unconventional economy design hotel brand (2-star superior). The hotels owe their extraordinary appearance to the American star designer Karim Rashid. Often celebrated as the "popstar of the design world", Rashid makes high-quality hotel design affordable for all guests in all prizeotels for the first time. At prizeotel travellers enjoy innovative technologies, such as free high-speed Internet and mobile check-in via smartphone, which can also be used as a digital room key, for years. prizeotel not only receives excellent guest satisfactory ratings but was honoured also the best employer in the German hotel industry by Focus Business in cooperation with 'kununu' in 2018. The first prizeotel with 127 rooms opened in Bremen in 2009. In 2014, the group's second hotel in Hamburg followed with 393 rooms. In 2015, the prizeotel Hannover-City opened with 212 rooms. The Group's latest hotel, the prizeotel Hamburg-St. Pauli, with 257 rooms, has been welcoming guests since 2018. In 2019, a hotel in Erfurt (208 rooms), one at Munich Airport (160 rooms) and a hotel in Bern (188 rooms) will follow. In 2020 a prizeotel in Münster (195 rooms), a hotel in Vienna (294 rooms), one in Bonn (210 rooms), one in Antwerp (144 rooms) and, in 2022, a hotel in Düsseldorf (250 rooms) enriches the portfolio. In addition to these twelve hotels with more than 2.000 rooms, contracts have recently been signed for additional hotels. prizeotel is thus continuing its strategy of being represented with its economy design concept in the core markets of Germany and in selected international metropolises in the medium term. Further information is available on www.prizeotel.com.