By the time Kokomo Capital closed on Seehotel Waltershof at the tail end of 2025, the deal had already been years in the making. Purchased by German musician Bernie Paul in 2015, the hotel had been family operated since then. However, as the years went by, the owners decided it was time the property changed hands.
Why?
“The hotel had been family operated for a long time. They’d suffered a fire in the spa area, there was no succession plan and ultimately, they decided to sell,” said Toni Ingenhoven, who oversees investments and development alongside Kokomo founder & CEO Alexander Haas.
The 36-key hotel sits directly on the shores of Lake Tegernsee, and for Kokomo, the acquisition represents far more than a single resort play. It is a strategic extension of a growing European lifestyle platform built around repositioning under-optimised assets and a clear statement of where the firm believes demand is heading.
The acquisition is to complement the group’s existing foothold in Munich, where Kokomo has operated its first hotel successfully for five years.
“Tegernsee is about an hour south of Munich. We have a city hotel and now a complementary resort product by the lake. That pairing works extremely well for us.”
The location itself did much of the heavy lifting. The property sits in Rottach-Egern, widely regarded as the prime area of the lake and is surrounded by high-end hospitality supply. But Kokomo’s investment thesis was built around what wasn’t there.
“Luxury hotels around the lake are pricing at €600 to €800 a night and in some cases significantly more. Our aim is to deliver a very high-quality, design-led product at around €300 a night while still offering comparable amenities.”
Repositioning
That positioning - what Kokomo describes as five-star design sophistication at a four-star price point - sits at the heart of the Anagram concept. At Tegernsee, that means delivering a retreat-style product with strong wellness and leisure credentials, without drifting into ultra-luxury pricing. Post-acquisition, Kokomo plans to embark on a repositioning project which will include a full refurbishment of rooms and public spaces, with a strong emphasis on energy efficiency upgrades and ESG-led investments.
This is as in Europe, luxury hotel supply has expanded rapidly over the past few years, with rate growth outpacing wage growth and pushing a growing cohort of travellers out of the top end of the market.
The repositioning will add 21 keys by constructing an additional floor, taking the hotel to 57 rooms and suites. It will also see the full reactivation and upgrade of the spa and indoor pool, refurbished wellness areas and two outdoor saunas set within the hotel’s gardens.
“There’s also a big focus on opening up the views. Almost every room has a direct lake view, and we want to really activate that and take advantage of that proximity. Tegernsee will be retreat-focused, about wellness, recharging, the lake and the landscape.”
The hotel will reopen in 2027 as Anagram Tegernsee – Haus am See. Total project costs are being underwritten at close to €45 million, with financing secured at around 60 percent loan-to-cost via a local Sparkasse lender.
“We're starting to engage the first contractors and we’ll progress to the strip out in Q1 this year. Then we’ll have a month or two of pre-development period followed by the actual execution of the development. We are looking to have our soft opening in April 2027 and then a full-blown, perfectly timed for the summer season,” Ingenhoven said.
What next?
Despite broader macro uncertainty, Kokomo remains cautiously bullish on Germany, particularly southern Bavaria.
Tourism arrivals are forecast to grow steadily over the next five years and Tegernsee is seeing rising international interest, driven in part by its reputation for medical excellence.
“We’re expecting around 30 to 40 percent international guests. The rest will remain domestic,” Ingenhoven says.
Climate dynamics are also playing a role. As Mediterranean summers become increasingly extreme, demand is shifting toward lakes and mountain destinations during peak months a trend that has quietly strengthened markets like Tegernsee.
Looking ahead, Kokomo shares a broader pan-European growth plan, building from its first acquisition in Rome in 2025 where it committed a low double-digit million euro investment to reposition a former office building into an Anagram hotel opening in late 2026.
Italy remains a core focus, with advanced opportunities currently under review in Florence, Venice and Palermo. Elsewhere, the group is actively screening assets in Spain, Portugal and France such as in Madrid, Barcelona, San Sebastián, Málaga, Lisbon, Porto, Paris and Bordeaux.
“Our overarching theme is key European gateway cities with strong leisure appeal. Rome is the perfect example,” Ingenhoven says.
Kokomo is deliberately targeting assets between 30 and 120 keys. Looking ahead, the company’s ambition is clear: to scale to at least ten hotels across Europe within five years, establishing Anagram as a pan-European, design-led lifestyle brand, one that deliberately sits between standardised chain hotels and ultra-luxury flagships.
“In a world of overly branded, overly standardised hotels on one side and gimmicky or hyper-luxury concepts on the other, we see real space for something more thoughtful. That’s what we’re building,” Ingenhoven says.