The Vice Chairman and CEO of Meliá Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer, and the CEO of the real estate company WGF AG, Pino Sergio, today signed a contract by which the Spanish hotel chain will run a new 205-room hotel in the German city of Hamburg under a lease agreement.

The hotel has a great location only 800 meters from the main railway station in Hamburg and to the west of the City-Süd financial and business district. The location will connect to the new “Hamburg HafenCity” development area planned for the city.

The new Innside Hamburg, whose construction is expected to start in 2013, will open in 2015, providing meeting facilities, fitness centre, bar-restaurant and all the attributes of the Innside by Meliá brand, design and avant-garde urban spirit, designed for a clientele that requires both modern elegance and high tech. Highly appreciated in Germany, the Innside by Meliá brand will open three more hotels in the country between 2013 and 2015 in the cities of Frankfurt, Wolfsburg and Düsseldorf. In addition, the brand will open other establishments outside Germany, in cities such as Manchester (UK) and Copenhagen (Denmark).

Meliá Hotels International operates 22 hotels in Germany under 3 of the Group’s brands: Meliá, Innside and TRYP, and in the coming months will open four additional hotels, thus continuing with its ambitious expansion plan in the major European cities. Meliá aims to double its presence in Germany in the coming years to benefit from the dynamism of a country in which revenue per available room (RevPAR) increased in the first half of 2012 by 7.4% over the same period the previous year - and continue to increase the brand recognition of its hotels in the German market.