Thomas Cook is to open a fifth Casa Cook hotel in Ibiza in summer 2019.
Cook will renovate an existing property and an adjacent plot of land in the bay of Cala Gracio near San Antonio into a 200-room hotel.
Cook has Casa Cook hotels in Rhodes and Kos. A third Casa Cook will open this summer in Crete dedicated to families and a fourth property in Brela, Croatia, will open in 2019.
The Ibiza hotel is being developed from Cook’s newly launched hotel fund it has set-up with Swiss-based hotel property development company, LMEY Investments.
Thomas Cook Hotel Investments will focus on acquiring hotel properties across “key destination markets” to expand its portfolio of own-brand hotels.
The fund comprises four other hotel assets worth around £150 million, including two Thomas Cook hotels – Sunwing Kallithea in Rhodes and Sunwing Makrigialos in Crete, and two Aldiana-branded hotels in Spain, one in Andalucia and the other in Alcadesia.
The gross assets and profit before tax of the two Thomas Cook hotels transferred into the joint venture total £69 million.
The legal ownership of the seed assets will transfer to the fund on its completion later this month.
Thomas Cook Hotel Investments will be 50/50 owned by Cook and LMEY.
Ingo Burmester, Cook’s chief hotels officer, said: “With the customer at the heart of our business, providing a high-quality own-brand hotel portfolio is integral to the success of Thomas Cook. The new hotel fund has been an objective for some time.
“We are now able to accelerate our plan to acquire established properties in popular destinations for us to transform into own-brand hotels. We are in discussions with several hoteliers across the Mediterranean and envisage announcing further projects over the coming months.
“Delivering some of the highest customer satisfaction scores in the business and attracting a new generation of customers to Thomas Cook, Casa Cook is a key pillar in our own-brand hotel strategy. I’m particularly excited to be working with LMEY to develop our first Casa Cook in Spain – and in Ibiza, the perfect destination for the Casa Cook customer who looks for a beach retreat to match their urban lifestyle.”
More: Thomas Cook reveals images of Casa Cook Kos property
Thomas Cook to open new Sunprime adult-only hotel on Kos