A new, powerful pole of hotel activities is emerging in the Greek hospitality market. The new chain, called Donkey Hotels, is the result of the merger by absorption of the hotel chain YES! Hotels from Athinaion SA (Intercontinental) belonging to the Ioannou family.
The new scheme, which will feature 85,000 square metres of privately owned hotel infrastructure, will focus on the acquisition and repositioning of existing units in urban centres and the development of new units in popular destinations. The timing of the merger arises due to recent changes in the shareholder composition, and the Ioannou family will now control over 94%, as highlighted in a related announcement.
The new entity will operate the privately owned hotel units, Athinaion Intercontinental, Semiramis, NEW Hotel and Periscope.
At the same time, it was announced that in spring 2022, a new hotel unit in Santorini with a capacity of 121 rooms (50% of which have private pools) is expected to come into operation. In total, the new chain is expected to own and manage 836 five-star rooms in 2022.
Mr. Ioannou, President of Donkey Hotels said that «with this move we aim to highlight our successful presence in the hotel industry and to create economies of scale and synergies that will give great momentum to Donkey Hotels. At the same time, we are focusing on the strong prospects expected for tourism in our country with the completion of the pandemic. With the innovative design of the YES! chain and the high aesthetics of the Intercontinental's art, our goal is to create new units that will harmoniously combine and develop this dual heritage. Our priority is always to provide top quality services for our guests.».
The operation and strategic direction of the company will be under the responsibility of Messrs. Christos Ioannou as Chairman of the company, Thomas Giumas as Executive Vice President, Panos Panagiotopoulos as Director of Intercontinental and Stefania Flegga as General Manager of Yes! Hotels.
