Yes!

Per Mortensen is the CEO of Linstow AS, a leading Norwegian property developer and owner of the former Reval Hotels, the biggest hotel chain in the Baltics. In April 2010, he signed a portfolio deal with Rezidor and handed over the management of 10 hotels with more than 2,400 rooms in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia to Rezidor – a day he and his Head of Hotel Division, Daniel Nordvaller, will always remember:

A few days prior to our press conference in Riga, when the news was to be announced both to our employees and to the public, the volcano in Iceland erupted and completely disrupted our travel plans. Our Linstow people and Rezidor’s management team had to travel by ship and train to Latvia. We, including Rezidor’s CEO Kurt Ritter spent the night on a ferry between Stockholm and Riga. A really remarkable trip.

It wasn’t only the forces of nature that made this signing so special for us. Since 1998, when we started our hotel business in the Baltics with the acquisition of the former Intourist hotels Latvija in Riga and Lietuva in Vilnius, we have been both owner and operator, very active and very involved. Now we had to learn to take a step back again and concentrate on our core business: property development.

But we’d realised that there wasn’t much more for us to develop – we were already the biggest chain in the region – and that we needed to start looking at new markets and their positive impact on our business. We wanted to open up bigger international markets for our relatively small and regional hotels, and began to look for an experienced international operator with a strong brand awareness. It was crucial for us to find a group with a considerable presence in our main feeder markets, the Nordics, Russia and Germany. Rezidor has strong Scandinavian roots, a good reputation in Germany and extensive knowledge of Russia – including an already well-established position in the Russian market. We were also in line with Rezidor’s growth strategy with its focus on emerging regions and felt that there would be a cultural match between our two companies.

The signing of our agreement and the conversion process were completed within a short time frame. We were impressed by how smoothly and efficiently Rezidor and our staff have converted our hotels. If you look at the properties today, you get the impression that they have been Radisson Blu or Park Inn by Radisson hotels for a long time – which is very positive for the guests.

We appreciated the fact that Rezidor opened its own regional office in Riga and that we have one dedicated contact person. There was also good follow-up from the executive team at Rezidor’s head office after the hand­over, and we have an open line of communication. We’re now working together on further stabilising and improving our internal structures. A major focus of attention in 2011 will be Rezidor’s training of our staff.

We want to be a challenging and demanding partner for Rezidor – in a positive sense: we, too, have been an operator, we know this business and our region well and we want to share our knowledge. The Baltics offer a lot of opportunities. We’ve seen previously how successful their small economies can be, and we strongly believe that once the upturn comes to these countries, business will grow fast.

We see our co-operation with Rezidor on a long-term basis, and we’re monitoring the market to assess whether further development opportunities might arise. Our target is to continue to be the first to know and the first to act – perhaps together with Rezidor. We’re always open to looking into new joint projects.