Do-it-yourself hotel rooms? It doesn't seem likely, but it may be the first image that springs to travelers' minds: Ikea, the Swedish budget furniture retailer, is reportedly looking to build and develop at least 100 budget hotels across Europe, according to the Financial Times.
Inter Ikea, the company that owns the intellectual property rights of Ikea (which the article says are currently valued at €9bn by the company) is considering sites across Europe for what it calls “budget design” hotels.
The hotels will not use the Ikea name and will not be run by the Swedish company, but by an established hotel operator, the story continues, noting that Inter Ikea will build the hotels in markets where it is already active in property, such as the UK, Netherlands and Poland, as well as new markets such as Germany.
