Summary from Final Day of The 18th International Hotel Investment Forum

The final day of the 18^th International Hotel Investment Forum (IHIF), took a new format this year with the introduction of new In-The-Round sessions. These were introduced following suggestions from the IHIF Advisory Board to facilitate more intimate and informative discussion platforms on specialist subject areas. Each session was guided by an industry expert who prepared information in advance to share with delegates to enable a worthwhile and useful conversation. The sessions covered a wide range of topics including assessing the reliability of hotel valuations, crisis management, the sharing economy, technology and improving RevPAR among others. The In-The-Round sessions also provided an opportunity for an in-depth focus on specific geographical areas and the hospitality and investment status within those countries. These included Italy, The Maldives, Scotland, Switzerland, Austria, Morocco, Brazil, Ecuador and Macedonia.

The closing lunch provided an opportunity for Kerry Gumas, President & Chief Executive Officer, Questex, to thank all delegates for their attendance and the sponsors for their support. He also thanked his colleagues at Questex, specifically Event Director, Tess Pearson, for their dedication to organising a hugely successful event.

News from the final day of the event includes InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG®) announcing at IHIF the signing of Holiday Inn Express® Cologne - City Centre under a multiple development agreement with Foremost Hospitality. Located in the heart of Cologne's city centre, the 323-room hotel will join Holiday Inn Express Amsterdam Arena Tours in first place as the largest Holiday Inn Express hotel in Europe. The hotel will open during quarter one of 2017. Foremost currently have 16 IHG hotels open or under development in Germany.

HVS released two reports to coincide with IHIF. The first, their annual European Hotel Transactions report, saw European hotel transaction volumes rise to a total of €14.4 billion, an increase of 86% on 2013. This is a record figure since the onset of the financial crisis. The 2015 European Hotel Valuation Index saw Europe's hotels witness their fifth consecutive year of value growth last year, with properties in the UK and Southern Europe seeing some of the biggest gains.

Foncière des Régions announced the acquisition of 22 B&B hotels in Germany totalling €128 million. The group also announced a €400 million investment target for 2015.

For all the news from the event, please visit the media centre on the IHIF website. IHIF 2016 will take place on 7^th-9^th March. To keep up to date with news, debate and information from the event, follow us on @IHIF_News and use #IHIF2015. Photos from the event will be available on our Facebook page.