Augustine hotel in Prague leaves Marriott, as Kempinski launches a rare ‘asset heavy’ strategy

The Augustine hotel in Prague, one of Marriott’s flagship European properties and part of The Luxury Collection, has left the chain.

It is currently operating as an unbranded hotel before becoming a Kempinski in late 2026 after a ‘design led’ refurbishment.

This is a genuinely historic property, built around a 13th-century church and monastery, and retains many original architectural and design features. The monks are still there – there is a ‘living, working community of Augustinian monks that preserve a daily routine of worship, work and study’.

Readers with long memories will remember that Rocco Forte operated this hotel before Marriott took over.

What’s interesting is the deal. Kempinksi has bought the hotel outright as part of a new ‘asset heavy’ approach.

The last 20 years have been dominated by ‘asset light’ strategies. Just this week, Accor raised over €1 billion by selling another batch of hotel freeholds and long leaseholds. The big global chains (Hilton, Marriott, IHG) now own just a handful of hotels. Hyatt, which held on longer than most, has been selling aggressively in recent years to fund its all-inclusive acquisition spree.

To put the deal in context, it is FIFTY FIVE years since Kempinski bought a hotel outright. In 1970 it acquired Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski Munich.

To quote:

The acquisition reflects Kempinski’s broader strategic recalibration towards direct investment and ownership of landmark properties to control the guest experience from beginning to end.

There are two ways of looking at this. Either:

• Kempinski has decided that the tide has turned, and that to build your brand for the genuinely long term – beyond the 10-20 year life of management contracts – and get consistent investment in the property means owning the infrastructure, or

• it is struggling to get luxury hotel owners to choose it over better positioned luxury brands, and buying hotels outright is the only way to gain high profile management contracts

Either way, it seems that we will be seeing Kempinski do more of these deals.

Kempinski is part of Global Hotel Alliance so those who match their credit card status (!) to GHA top-tier status via the current offer will have a new option soon.