The Malaga-based chain Soho Boutique Hotels will incorporate twenty establishments this year.

In one of the crown jewels of the Malaga-based chain Soho Boutique Hotels, next to a window with direct views of Larios street, the president and co-founder of this group, Gonzalo Armenteros, outlines an ambitious expansion plan for this year. The group plans to add twenty new establishments, in a year in which they trust tourism will consolidate growth in 2024.

These will be hotels beyond the urban segment, where they are strategic, focusing on holiday resorts in prime beachfront locations. These businesses, which also include tourist apartments, will be managed under the Moon Dreams brand. Armenteros also indicates that the company's growth is not limited to Spanish territory, as they plan to expand the current portfolio of hotels in Morocco and land for the first time in Italy. "While our business center is urban, we have opened a new division for vacationing. We believe there is a huge opportunity and we are betting very strongly on the beach segment. In the coming years, we will continue with this strategy," states Armenteros, clarifying that for now, they will only focus on Spain in this expansion to the vacation segment, but later they will transfer the model abroad.

A third of these new additions, which include projects that have just opened their doors at the beginning of the year, are concentrated in Andalusia itself, considering that "there is a lot of potential on the coasts of Almería and Granada, which are less exploited or with assets that were somewhat forgotten. On the Almeria coast, we have 383 rooms on the beachfront."

3,000

are the beds that the Malaga chain will add with the incorporation of the twenty projects planned in the expansion plan for 2025.

Even so, Malaga continues to be in the sights of this chain headquartered in the capital of the Costa del Sol. "Considering that the average occupancy remains very high, that there is a shortage of hotels and convention facilities, in Malaga you always have to be on top because there is room for the urban segment that we do and because the city has to continue expanding. Also for the vacation segment in which we are getting involved," he points out. Hence, the Costa del Sol has entered the radar of this chain. "Of course, we are going to have more presence on the coast. There are products from the real estate and tourist boom that occurred in the 70s in Spain in destinations like Torremolinos that have not been renewed or that subsequent generations have not continued with the hotel projects and there is much to do to update that plant and offer a quality product. And there we will be. In Torremolinos, we are already there and we will continue to expand," he states to emphasize that "in the sun and beach segment we now find an opportunity like the one we had in 2011 in the urban segment."

The challenge for Soho Boutique is to have a presence in all the Andalusian provincial capitals within a couple of years. They still need to conquer Almería, Jaén, and Huelva, he announces to reveal that they will open another hotel in Seville before summer. "In the last ten years, the expansion of the chain in Spain and in Malaga has been crazy. Soho Boutique owes it to the Malaga capital to be who it is," he details, counting nine establishments in this city, to which he adds the deployment of the province with presence in Rincón de la Victoria, in Torremolinos, in Ronda, or Fuengirola. "We have planned another hotel in Malaga with more than one hundred rooms. This city was already a jewel and has become a powerhouse. With more than a thousand beds, we close 2024 with a 93% average occupancy per year," he advances. Nationally, he notes that they have also entered "very strongly" in the Balearic Islands, in Alicante, and on the Catalan coast.

International Leap

But the expansion plan goes beyond Spanish borders. "On the international stage, we want to jump to Italy as soon as we can, something we are going to do almost right now. And continue growing in Morocco, where we already have a presence in Tetouan and signed projects in Tangier, in Rabat, and in Casablanca. There we are present with a mix of pure and hard urban with Soho Boutique and with vacationing with our Moon Dreams brand. Given the proximity and the very similar weather, in Morocco we have a very important potential." Armenteros adds the purpose of having a presence in Portugal.

The twenty new establishments will add about 3,000 beds to the group, which was rescued by the government after the pandemic at a critical moment for this company, which has managed to recover. It was at the end of December 2021 when the Council of Ministers authorized a 30 million loan, which this group is still paying, and which at that time was a lifeline for the 34 establishments it had and the 3,000 jobs. Moreover, in light of the new projects, a key boost for a group that has not stopped growing since then and only thinks of adding new hotel units.

They trust to have a presence in all the provincial capitals of Andalusia within a couple of years

All this in a year in which Armenteros is convinced that "it will be good again." Specifically, he states that "although the year started weaker than the last, it has already picked up momentum. The outlook is very good." Moreover, he is confident of an upward trend despite all the global turmoil, including tariffs and wars. "Our forecast is that it will at least maintain like the previous year, which was super record. We consider that we will grow a little more. Our data indicate that, in addition, not only this year that we come from a period with a lot of momentum but that in the coming years we will indeed continue to increase the business."

Regarding the pressure exerted by anti-tourism, he assures that "you cannot say that because I have a Historic Center full, I no longer grow. Malaga already has the good and the bad of a big city, but the important thing is that people have prospered through tourism."