Hyatt has entered into a franchise agreement with AG Group-backed Botteghe Oscure to open a 70-room Thompson Hotels property in Rome, Italy.
Located near the Capitoline Hill, Fori Imperiali and Jewish Quarter, the building, which was formerly the headquarters of the Italian Communist Party, will undergo extensive refurbishment before opening as Thompson Rome in mid-2024. The luxury lifestyle hotel will comprise 70 rooms, four dining outlets - including a rooftop restaurant and terrace with a cocktail bar with panoramic vies of the city -, two meeting rooms and a fitness centre.
The new Thompson Rome is the second hotel under the Thompson Hotels brand, joining Thompson Madrid which opened in 2022. Hyatt plans to add Thompson Vienna to the portfolio in 2025. Thompson Rome will mark the seventh Hyatt-branded hotel in Italy and the second in Rome.
Why it matters
Hyatt’s move to convert an office building into a hotel represents a continuation of the trend towards adaptive reuse, or the transformation of non-hotel properties into hotel spaces. The conversion reflects increasing investor interest in the transformation of office buildings into hotels and highlights the value which can be found in office buildings. This is particularly relevant given the surplus of vacant office space in many cities following the shift towards remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the IHIF Conference in Berlin in May, Kristen Kozlowski, managing director at PineBridge Benson Elliot said: “While we should question if a building will be viable as an hotel when it’s not viable as an office, this is a 100-year flood event for the real estate industry as a whole. We don’t want office buildings sitting vacant; someone’s going to find a solution and they’re going to make a lot of money in the process.”
What they said
Nuno Galvao Pinto, regional vice president of real estate and development at Hyatt said: “We know that there is a growing appetite amongst today’s travellers and developers for hotels that cater to culturally savvy guests and bring a modern approach to conventional hospitality. We are excited to meet this demand with one of the most exciting new hotels in Rome as we continue to scale our luxury, lifestyle and leisure brands across the region.”
Andrea Girolami, president of AG Group added: “We are delighted to expand our relationship with Hyatt in this sought-after market with the debut of the Thompson Hotels brand in Italy. Hyatt shares our vision of delivering a refined hideaway in the heart of Rome that combines a casual sense of luxury with refined rooms and layered design throughout for an authentic experience. We look forward to welcoming guests and locals alike to this one-of-a-kind property.”