OUH to open more hotels

The boutique hotels company Once Upon a House (OUH) led by Bernardo Holstein Guedes, is planing to open more hotels — in Lisbon, Arrábida and Melides.

The company which specialises in creating boutique hotels from houses with history such as the Hotel Casa Palmela, Hotel Arrábida, the Hotel Alecrim ao Chiado in Lisbon, and the Alfama Yellow House, also in Lisbon, also has eight tourist apartments in the capital in the Baixa.
In consolidated terms the OUH Group closed 2022 with a €2.6 million turnover, almost a million more than in 2021 and above the €2 million posted in 2019.
The company currently employs 70 with an expected growth of 10% this year while its portfolio had 18,500 beds in 2022 attracting tourists mostly from Europe – Germans, French and Scandinavians. Visitors from the United States account for 30%. “A day doesn’t go by when there aren’t Americans in our hotels”, says Bernardo Holstein Guedes.
However, according to Negócios, he feels that the room take-up rate at its hotels has reached capacity in Lisbon and the company is now focusing its attentions on marketing Casa Palmela after having created an experiences company ‘One Upon a Day’, investing €200,000 in digital communication.
The OUH group ambitions to expand in Lisbon (a second boutique hotel in the Baixa similar to Alecrim), Arrábida (a second hotel with 30 rooms in a €2.5 million investment to open in 2025) and Melides near Grândola in the Alentejo. (Once Upon a House Melides with nine rooms, nine suites and nine houses in a €14 million project)