- H Hotels Collection is investing 60.3 million euros in a five-star resort in Kiotari, on the southeast coast of Rhodes.
- 503 beds on a plot of 57,273 square metres, spread across two contiguous parcels.
- The land adjoins the Boutique 5 Hotel & Spa, another property belonging to the group.
- The building permit has received pre-approval. Around 136 permanent jobs are announced.
- Mixed financing: equity, bank loans and development funding tools.
Rhodes has not lacked beds over the past twenty years; it has lacked high-end beds. This is the gamble being made by the family-run Hatzilazarou group, owner of H Hotels Collection, by committing more than sixty million euros to a plot of land in Kiotari that it already knows well, having operated the neighbouring property.
Sixty million euros, 57,000 square metres
The investment amounts to 60.3 million euros for a 503-bed resort on a 57,273-square-metre plot split into two contiguous parcels. The ratio between the land area and the number of beds is the figure that matters: barely more than one hundred square metres of land per bed, which is a low density for the Mediterranean and leaves plenty of room for the landscape.
The building permit has obtained pre-approval, the step preceding final authorisation. The financing combines equity, a bank loan and development funding tools. Around 136 permanent operating jobs have been announced.
◆ Kiotari and the group’s properties in Rhodes
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The future resort is not yet built: these photographs show the Boutique 5 Hotel & Spa, the immediate neighbour of the site, and other properties of the group in Rhodes.
A plot chosen because it is adjoining
The site adjoins the Boutique 5 Hotel & Spa, which the group already operates. This contiguity is not a market coincidence but the very logic of the operation: it allows for the sharing of teams, logistics and some of the equipment, and enables two distinct products to be sold on the same site.
This is also what makes the timeline credible. An operator building next to what it already operates knows the terrain, local permits and the season, unlike a developer discovering an island for the first time.
What we do not know yet
It must be said, because this type of announcement spreads quickly, accumulating details absent from the file. The opening date, the brand name, the architectural firm and the exact breakdown of accommodation have not been disclosed. What has been established is the amount, bed capacity, surface area, permit pre-approval and number of jobs.
We will update this article when the schedule and brand are made public.
The southeast coast, the other Rhodes
Kiotari is located about fifty kilometres from the town of Rhodes, on the east coast as you head down towards Lindos and beyond. This is the part of the island that escaped the mass tourism of the 1990s, remaining apart from the heavy concentrations in the north.
The season here is that of the Aegean: long, from May to October, with a peak from July to August that the heat makes increasingly questionable each year. A resort opening today would be well advised to focus on the shoulder seasons of May to June and September to October, when the island is at its best.
Our perspective
The figure to remember is not the sixty million, but the 503 beds. Relative to the investment, this works out at around 120,000 euros per bed, a ratio that places the project firmly in the genuine luxury segment rather than upgraded four-star territory, where costs often fall below 70,000.
There remains the question raised by every new bed in the Mediterranean: water. Rhodes has experienced strains on its water resources, and a resort of this size consumes a great deal. The file highlights energy efficiency; it will need to say just as much about water, as that is where the project’s social licence will be decided.
