A Strategic Guide for Hotel Owners, Investors and Family Businesses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
By Sergey Vakhnenko, CEO of Dominart Real Estate GmbH
Family succession has become one of the biggest challenges facing the European hotel industry.
For decades, family-owned hotels have shaped the hospitality landscape across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Many of these businesses have been managed by the same family for generations.
For many owners, there has always been one natural assumption:
“One day my children will take over the hotel.”
Unfortunately, this assumption is becoming increasingly unrealistic.
Today, succession—not financing, not tourism demand and not digitalisation—is one of the greatest strategic risks facing hotel owners throughout the DACH region.
Germany’s family businesses are approaching a historic transition
Germany remains one of the world’s strongest economies built on family entrepreneurship.
According to the Stiftung Familienunternehmen, approximately 88% of privately owned companies are family-controlled, employing more than half of the country’s private workforce.
At the same time, hundreds of thousands of German businesses will require a succession solution during the coming years.
The hotel sector is no exception.
Why many heirs no longer want to operate hotels
This is not a story about a lack of responsibility.
It is a story about changing opportunities.
The next generation has access to opportunities their parents never had.
Today’s entrepreneurs can:
- invest globally through digital investment platforms;
- build AI-powered businesses with relatively low capital requirements;
- participate in venture capital and startup ecosystems;
- work remotely from anywhere in the world;
- diversify wealth through public markets instead of operating businesses.
Operating a hotel offers a very different reality.
It requires:
- continuous operational management;
- large capital expenditures;
- employee responsibility;
- regulatory compliance;
- long-term commitment to one location;
- constant reinvestment.
Many heirs simply choose another entrepreneurial path.
A profitable hotel is not automatically an attractive investment
This creates a second challenge.
Many hotel owners believe:
If my children don’t continue the business, I can always sell the hotel later.
In reality, the investment market has changed dramatically.
Professional hotel investors no longer purchase hotels based solely on historical performance.
Instead, they evaluate future strategic potential.
Today investors ask very different questions.
- Can the property be repositioned?
- Can it become a wellness hotel?
- Is it suitable for medical hospitality?
- Could it support a longevity concept?
- Is the building flexible enough for future adaptation?
- Will institutional investors still be interested ten years from now?
These questions increasingly determine investment value.
Hotel succession is no longer only about ownership
At Dominart Real Estate GmbH, we have significantly expanded our advisory approach during recent years.
Under the leadership of Sergey Vakhnenko, the company increasingly supports hotel owners not only in selling hotel properties but also in developing long-term succession and exit strategies.
Our work starts long before a hotel enters the market.
We analyse:
- investment potential;
- repositioning opportunities;
- future operating concepts;
- buyer profiles;
- transaction structures;
- exit scenarios.
The objective is not simply to find a buyer.
The objective is to find the right investor for the next phase of the asset’s lifecycle.
Healthcare Real Estate is changing investor demand
Another structural trend is transforming hotel investments.
International investors increasingly allocate capital to Healthcare Real Estate, Wellness Hospitality and Longevity Hotels.
Hotels capable of integrating preventive healthcare, wellness, rehabilitation or healthy ageing concepts often receive significantly more attention than traditional hospitality assets.
This does not mean every hotel should become a medical facility.
It means future flexibility has become a major investment criterion.
The most important question every hotel owner should ask
For many years hotel owners focused on one question:
“What is my hotel worth today?”
Today a much more important question has emerged:
“Will my hotel still be attractive to investors ten years from now?”
That single question increasingly determines both market value and transaction success.
Conclusion
The future challenge for many family-owned hotels will not be finding guests.
It will be finding the next owner.
Successful succession requires years of preparation—not months.
Owners who begin planning early have significantly more strategic options than those who wait until retirement becomes urgent.
For that reason, succession planning should be considered an investment strategy rather than an exit strategy.
About the Author
Sergey Vakhnenko is the CEO of Dominart Real Estate GmbH, an international real estate investment advisory firm headquartered in Berlin.
For more than 15 years, Dominart Real Estate has advised international investors, hotel owners and institutional buyers on hotel investments, off-market hotel transactions, Healthcare Real Estate, hospitality assets and commercial property acquisitions across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
