About

Hello, my name is David Etmenan. I am the Chief Executive Officer & Owner of NOVUM Hospitality, which – as one of Germany’s largest family-run hotel groups – currently boasts more than 150 hotels with over 20,000 rooms in more than 60 locations across Europe. Our hotel portfolio comprises three- and four-star hotels in central locations run under the brands of Novum Hotels, Select Hotels, the niu and Yggotel. Additionally, NOVUM Hospitality acts as a franchisee of InterContinental Hotels Group, Accor and Best Western Hotels & Resorts.

Besides being an entrepreneur, it is my heartfelt objective to support charities: In honour of my father and to help people with less financial stability to pursue their life and career, I have initiated the Nader Etmenan Foundation in 2015.

Hobby-wise, I am a passionate race driver and traveller.

– Hoteliers backed by more than 33 years of experience -


The booming pan-European hotel group has a recipe for success: five own hotel brands, a tradition-steeped hosting mentality combined with forward-looking thinking, a high degree of digitalisation and courageous industry experts. Nader Etmenan showed entrepreneurial farsightedness when he embarked upon a career in tourism and founded the company in 1988. With the first hotels in the traditional Hamburg district of St. Georg, near the Outer Alster Lake, he laid the foundation of the hotel group. In 2004, he handed over the company to his sons who have been advancing the Europe-wide expansion ever since.

As an experienced hotel operator, NOVUM Hospitality invests in the restructuring and maintenance of hotel properties and projects new hotel developments with vision. The hotel group is managed centrally from the Hanseatic City of Hamburg. The administrative departments there are Reservations, Sales & Marketing, Corporate Communications, Accounting, Personnel Management, IT as well as Asset and Property Management. This arrangement ensures that effective processes and streamlined cost structures are guaranteed.