Sources told the newspaper that Amtel Properties is investing 2.5 billion rubles ($32 million) to construct a hostel in Moscow that will have room for up to 3,000 guests.
The complex is to be built on a 15,000 square meter plot of land in the western outskirts of Moscow, in anticipation of large numbers of visitors who will need low-cost accommodation during the 2018 World Cup in Russia. The company, which already owns three hotels in Moscow and others in Minsk and Tblisi, also predicts rising numbers of Russian tourists seeking affordable accommodation in the capital.
"Today we are seeing a rise in internal tourism and an increase in demand from those groups with smaller budgets for accommodation," explained Tatyana Weller, head of the Department for the Hotel and catering industry at property consultancy firm JLL.
The hostel's construction ahead of the World Cup has parallels with the construction of the Izmailovo Hotel complex in Moscow, which was built for visitors to the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
The Izmailovo complex comprises four buildings and has 5,000 rooms, making it the largest hotel in Europe and the fourth largest in the world. For some time it was the world's largest until the expansion of the MGM Grand Las Vegas in 1993 to 5,009 rooms.
