Austrian hotel group Vienna House has bought 17 city hotels from Rostock-based arcona Group.

The deal also includes two projects on route to fruition.

In the future, arcona plans to focus on the holiday hotel business.

In addition to eight successful arcona Living and four arcona Hotels, the purchase also concerns the five Steigenberger operations of franchisor Deutsche Hospitality as well as two projects in Greifswald and Mannheim.

No details as to the purchase price were revealed.

“The arcona city hotels fit perfectly into the portfolio of Vienna House.

“Here two partners have found each other who are focusing on their brand positioning, who want to grow meaningfully from it and who also get along splendidly,” said Rupert Simoner, chief executive of Vienna House.

“All employees of the affected arcona city hotels will be taken over by Vienna House.

“The hotels will be managed as lease operations under the umbrella brand Vienna House.

The largest Austrian hotel group currently operates and is developing over 40 hotels in Europe, with a focus on city hotels under the brands Vienna House, Vienna House Easy and Vienna House R.evo.

In contrast, arcona managing director, Alexander Winter, sees his hotel market of the future in the holiday hotel sector.

Remaining in the arcona portfolio are six hotels in successful destinations such as Sylt, Kitzbühel and Rügen as well as the Hotel Elephant in Weimar and the Romantik Hotel at Wartburg Castle in Eisenach.

An important growth driver in the future will be the Barefoot Hotels, as arcona recently signed a long-term agreement with Barefoot founder, Til Schweiger, for the worldwide implementation of the concept as a licensee.

“With the remaining houses and the Barefoot concept, we will now be concentrating fully on the growing holiday hotel market and successfully embarking on the future together with our employees,” said arcona shareholders Alexander Winter and Stephan Gerhard.

A total of 20 Barefoot hotels are to be opened over the next ten years.

“We see tremendous potential here, both nationally and internationally,” Winter added.

The arcona headquarters will remain in Rostock, where the group will move into its new corporate headquarters, Villa Zeeck, in the second half of 2019.