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Ikea to open 100 budget hotels across Europe

Swedish furniture giant Ikea is planning to build 100 budget hotels around Europe in its most recent push to join the property market.

Ikea to open 100 budget hotels across Europe

The hotels will be opened with the budget traveler in mind, with the first hotel set to open its doors in Germany soon.

“We will announce the first location for our budget hotel in Germany in the next few weeks and we are in talks with hotel operators to rapidly implement our concept,” said Harald Müller of Inter Ikea to the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper (SvD).

The budget accommodation will be launched through Inter Ikea, the company that owns the intellectual property rights of Ikea.

However, the hotels will not hold the Ikea brand, nor will the rooms be furnished with Ikea’s trademark furniture. Instead, the budget hotels will be opened through an established hotel operator.

“We will strip away everything unnecessary such as the in-house restaurants and instead go for a good breakfast, fast internet, fast check-in and no check out,” Müller said.

The Swedish company is also looking to put money into student housing around the continent.

The move is part of a long term capital investment plan, according to the paper, with hotels set to be opened in Poland, the Netherlands and the UK – as well as Germany.

Inter Ikea revealed last week that the Ikea brand was valued at 75 billion kronor ($11.2 billion) – a price tag experts called “reasonable”.

The Ikea brand ranks 89th among the world’s 100 most valuable brands, the second highest in Sweden behind clothing label H&M.

The Local/og

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WEATHER

Danish Ikea store shelters staff and customers overnight during snowstorm

Heavy snowfall left 31 people looking for a spare cushion at the Aalborg branch of Ikea on Wednesday as they were forced to spend the night at the store.

A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021.
A file photo at Ikea in Aalborg, where 31 people stayed overnight during a snowstorm on December 1st 2021. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Anyone who has found themselves wandering the mazy aisles of an Ikea might be able to empathise with the sense of being lost in the furniture store for a seemingly indefinite time.

Such a feeling was probably more real than usual for six customers and 25 staff members who were forced to spend the night at the furniture giant’s Aalborg branch after being snowed in.

Heavy snow in North Jutland brought traffic to a standstill and halted public transport in parts of the region on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in a snow-in at Ikea.

“This is certainly a new situation for us,” Ikea Aalborg store manager Peter Elmose told local media Nordjyske, which first reported the story.

“It’s certainly not how I thought my day would end when I drove to work this morning,” Elmose added.

The 31 people gathered in the store’s restaurant area and planned to see Christmas television and football to pass the evening, the store’s manager reported to Nordjyske.

“Our kitchen staff have made sure there is hot chocolate, risalamande, pastries, soft drinks, coffee and the odd beer for us in light of the occasion. So we’ll be able to keep warm,” he said.

“We couldn’t just send them outside and lock the door behind them at our 8pm closing time. Absolutely not. So of course they’ll be staying here,” he added.

The temporary guests were given lodging in different departments of the store in view of the Covid-19 situation, Nordjyske writes.

“For us , the most important thing was to take care of each other and that everyone feels safe,” Elmose said.

At least Ikea’s stranded customers and staff had somewhere comfortable to lay their heads.

The same can unlikely be said for around 300 passengers at the city’s airport who had to stay overnight at the terminal.

The airport was forced to stop flights from 2:30pm yesterday amid worsening weather, which also prevented buses from transferring passengers to hotels.

“We have around 300 people in the terminal right now and have been giving out blankets on the assumption they will be staying here tonight,” Aalborg Airport operations manager Kim Bermann told Nordjyske.

READ ALSO: Ikea reopens in Denmark after country’s worst retail month this century

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