03/12/2025
Would you buy a hotel where your great-grandchildren are still working on the ROI? 🤔
We’ve been reviewing our European hotel pipeline (~200 assets) and came across a striking contrast within roughly 150 km on the same coastline.
Asset #1 – Italy, first line to the sea
• 40 keys
• Purchase price: €300k
• Average rate: €55/night
• Implied value per key: ~€7.5k
Asset #2 – Monaco, first line to the casino
• 150+ keys
• Purchase price: €3.2bn
• Average rate: €550/night
• Implied value per key: €17m+
That’s roughly 2,500x difference on a per-key basis.
On a traditional ROI model, the Monaco asset looks almost irrational: payback drifts far beyond a single generation. And yet, these are exactly the properties that global hotel chains, funds and UHNW investors actively chase.
Why? Because this type of hotel is a trophy asset, not just a yield play:
• Brand & signalling in one of the most prestigious locations in the world
• Capital preservation and scarcity value where supply is structurally limited
• Strategic presence for a group or fund that wants to anchor its brand in Monaco
In hospitality real estate, the income spreadsheet is only half of the story.
For a certain class of investor, status, location and brand architecture outweigh pure IRR.
If you represent a hotel group, fund or family office and are looking at European hospitality – from yield-driven assets with solid ROI to rare trophy hotels – I’m happy to share a concise off-market overview of what we’re working on right now in Spain and France.
Feel free to reach out or connect to compare notes.
Realivo – your dedicated partner for off-market European hotel deals.
