Best of Budapest & Hungary

A new hotel brand has been launched in Hungary after QPR Properties opened its 151-room luxury hotel, the W Budapest Hotel, in the Drechsler Palace on Andrássy Avenue in Budapest.

The conversion of the landmark building, which once housed the State Ballet Institute, into a hotel was completed in two and a half years by DVM Group, an integrated architectural and construction services provider, the contractor DVM Group told MTI.

The hotel is operated by W Hotels, a subsidiary of Marriott International.

The Drechsler Palace was built between 1883 and 1886 in the French Renaissance and Neo-Gothic styles based on designs by Ödön Lechner and Gyula Pártos. A UNESCO World Heritage site, the protected monument has fulfilled a variety of roles over its 135-year history, from institutional and residential to hospitality and cultural. The palace has been completely abandoned for the past two decades, they wrote.

The palace, which was in a very poor state of repair, was renovated by DVM Group, the general contractor for the project. The heritage conservation and restoration work was complemented by a major mechanical and electrical renewal, which involved all the rooms of the 16,000 sqm property. The contractor also had to prepare the building to meet the technical requirements of a five-star hotel, they said.

According to the statement, Hungary is a key market for Marriott International, which currently has eight hotels ranging from the luxury segment (W Budapest, Ritz-Carlton Budapest, Matild Palace Budapest, Luxury Collection hotel) to the premium category (Budapest Marriott Hotel) and a selection of services (Courtyard by Marriott Budapest City Center, Four Points by Sheraton Budapest Danube), catering to the needs of leisure and business travelers alike.

They have significant further development plans in the country: following the debut of the W Hotels brand in the region, they will launch the first Autograph Collection hotel in Hungary, the Dorothea Hotel, Autograph Collection, in the fall.

As of Q1 2023, Marriott's global accommodation services network counted nearly 8,400 properties with more than 1,534,000 rooms.

Marriott International, which operates the world's largest hotel chain, had consolidated net revenues of USD 20.773 billion last year. The company has forecast annual revenues of USD 13.86 billion in 2021.