Based here, Develhotel.com is not a brokerage or consulting firm; instead, it charges users an annual fee to access its database or post information about a company or specific project. "Our company is not an intermediary as such, we are a facilitator," says CEO Ivar Yuste. "The parties can interact amongst themselves."
The subscription fee is €980 to showcase two assets and upload a company profile. To post information about a specific asset in an effort to find a new partner or operator or sell it, the charge is €480. So far, the website has just under 100 subscribers, a number Develhotel.com's executives hope to double by year's end. Users are all from all parts of the globe, Yuste points out.
"The feedback from the market is quite positive, especially since the current environment from the point of view of economics, financing and investment is tough," Yuste states. "Any channel to market is welcome. It's a new way of doing business that is also more cost effective and allows for the leveraging of the Internet."
A veteran of the travel and hospitality industry across the globe, Yuste was most recently managing director, corporate development with Hotetur, the hotel division of the Marsans group, the largest tourist conglomerate in Spain. Prior to Hotetur, Yuste served as business development director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa with RCI (Resorts Condominium International), NorthCourse Leisure Real Estate Solutions and Hotel Dynamics, three divisions of Wyndham Worldwide.
Develhotel.com's potential users run the spectrum from owners; lodging chains; public and private investors; brokers; management and construction companies; developers; REITs; and banks. Even national tourism agencies can log on as a means of developing areas for tourism purposes, Yuste notes.
Omran Boaira, Develhotel.com's chief technology officer, says users can access the website at any stage along the lifespan of a hotel project, from project design to sourcing financing and finding investors; operator selection; construction and conversion; the addition of residential units; a contract change; or any type of transaction, including a sale, acquisition or sale-leaseback.
"We have leveraged technology to take all possible parameters into consideration for version 1.0," Boaira says. "Develhotel is a database of professionals who want to close deals around specific assets. Hoteliers and investors can search for projects or properties and developers can showcase their hotels and resorts in order to find the appropriate business partners." He adds that the website's development team is already devising version 2.0 that will feature new functionality and tools.
No deals have yet come to fruition from the Develhotel.com platform, which went live on July 15, Yuste says. "It's in the very early stages," he says, adding that the firm will announce any transactions that were done as a result of its portal.
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