One of the largest and most illustrious places to stay in Paris is up for sale for €800 million, testing investors’ appetite for such trophy hotels in a post-coronavirus world.
The hotel is currently being offered at around €800 million despite the impact of the pandemic on the sector - a “punchy” valuation, according to Kenneth Hatton, head of hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at property company CBRE. The sales process, first reported by property publication React, is a gauge of the willingness of investors to buy into high-end city centre hotels after two years in which the sector has been battered by ongoing and volatile travel restrictions.
With the pandemic eating into revenues, the Westin announced a large round of redundancies at the start of 2021. Around half of the 350 or so staff at the hotel were made redundant and their roles filled with subcontractors.