Ikea, the world's largest furniture retailer, plans to build a budget hotel chain across Europe, following a trend for cheap but cool accommodation driven by low air fares and increasingly price-conscious business travellers.
The 100 hotels, which will not feature Ikea's eponymous flat-pack furniture nor its brand name, represent the company's biggest real estate development to date.
Demand for stylish yet affordable rooms from austerity-hit business guests and leisure travellers is high and growing, according to Harald Muller, senior executive at the property unit of Inter Ikea, the company that owns the Ikea brand and concept.
"Budget designer hotels are the fastest developing hotel segment," he said.
Motel One, citizenM and B&B Hotels are all part of a new breed challenging established budget brands such as Travelodge, Whitbread's Premier Inn and Accor's Formule 1.
Ikea's first hotel will most likely open in Germany in 2014 and the chain will be run by an international hotel operator.