Over the past few months, Blackstone leaders have been vocal about their positive outlook on real estate investment. While data centres may be getting the larger slice of their attention, hospitality is also gaining traction. Peter Werhahn, managing director in the real estate group based in London focuses on investment opportunities in the hospitality sector across Europe and he shares his take on opportunities in hotels and why operational strategy is critical to achieving investment goals.
Hospitality Investor: How would you characterise current hospitality investment conditions in Europe?
Peter Werhahn: European hospitality investment conditions remain positive, aided by continued growth and normalising operating costs. In our portfolio we are seeing positive performance in leisure‑led and experience‑driven formats, supported by strong domestic demand in the UK and continued international travel into Southern Europe. While operators continue to manage cost inflation and regulatory pressures, limited new supply and improving visibility on trading are supporting underlying asset fundamentals. Transaction volumes remain below pre‑Covid levels, driven more by a lack of assets coming to market than by investor demand, with most well‑positioned sale processes continuing to progress.
Hospitality Investor: Which segments do you currently consider the most investable in hospitality?
Peter Werhahn: Leisure‑oriented and experience‑led hospitality remains one of our highest‑conviction segments across Europe, broadly consistent with last year but with an increased focus on the quality of platforms and the ability to drive operational outperformance. In the UK, Village Hotels is a strong example of this with a high‑quality management team and a differentiated proposition that has translated into clear results, with revpar outperforming the comp set. A core component of this proposition is health and fitness, which is seeing strong membership growth on a base of over 140,000 members. This provides stable, recurring income while deepening loyalty among both local communities and hotel guests, reinforcing the resilience of the model.
In Southern Europe, we continue to see momentum in HIP with pricing power supported by longer trading seasons, and resilient international demand. HIP’s highly localised operating approach and deep market expertise remain key differentiators, underpinning a positive outlook into 2026.
Hospitality Investor: Where do you see the strongest opportunities for value creation today?
Peter Werhahn: Value creation today is asset‑specific and driven by active ownership rather than a single approach. The strongest opportunities are coming from operational optimisation and targeted repositioning, supported by disciplined capital investment which we all do alongside our best-in-class management teams. Village illustrates this well, where we’ve been growing our footprint by repositioning traditional hotels through the introduction of the brand’s distinctive leisure, fitness, and F&B offer, including more efficient use of underutilised spaces to enhance the guest and community experience. In parallel, the brand is expanding through a pipeline of new hotel openings, reflecting continued investment in its geographic footprint and teams, including local employment opportunities as new locations open. Selective scale strategies also remain attractive, particularly in fragmented leisure segments where established platforms provide a strong foundation for growth.
Hospitality Investor: How is investment mandate evolving in response to today’s market conditions?
Peter Werhahn: We continue to be highly selective, focusing on opportunities where we can partner with strong platforms with local roots, experienced management teams, and apply hands‑on operational expertise. While transaction volumes remain below pre‑COVID levels, investor interest is strong, and we see more and more buyers either returning to the space or entering it for the first time – so deal availability is the main constraint. Higher yields and improving liquidity are creating attractive entry points, while also allowing us to recycle capital from more mature assets. We remain flexible on timing and structure in a market with limited supply but strong demand for high‑quality hospitality assets.
Peter Werhahn will join the investor panel ‘Capital talks: Redefining returns and raising opportunities in EMEA’ at IHIF EMEA 2026 in Berlin.