Co-owners of "G. M. R. Hospitality Planet" holdings, the company behind such restaurant chains as "Sbarro", "Oriental Bazaar", "Viaggio", "Cofesto", "Bash na Bash", Yamkee, "Elki-Palki" and "Little Japan", has started a hotel investment project. "G. M. R. Hospitality Planet" expects to open fifty "three-star" hotels with a total number of 7,500 rooms by 2018, when Russia will host the World Cup.
The total investment in the hotel business will be more than $ 300 million. $100M will be funded by "G. M. R. Hospitality Planet", and the remainder will be raised. The payback period of each hotel will be five years. The President of "G. M. R. Hospitality Planet" also said that by2018, it plans to open a total of 20 hostels, belonging to the PRIVET HOSTEL network, with more than 6,000 places in Russia’s largest cities. In addition, it plans to create a network of fifty three-star hotels with 7,000 beds and fifty roadside motels with 1,500 rooms. "Our plans also include franchise development, one of the most promising and profitable forms of business development," said M. Elashvili.
The first hostel in the Privet Hostels network opened in Moscow in March of this year. The facility has more than 300 rooms and is the largest hostel in Russia. According to Daniel Mishin, managing partner of the hostel chain, investments in the project amounted to about $ 2.5 million.