Reims, Caen, Colmar: 31 hotel conversions approved and 370 rooms in heritage buildings

Reims, Caen and Colmar share a rare quality: their urban fabric bears the mark of history. A post-war reconstructed centre in Caen, the heritage of coronations and Champagne in Reims, half-timbered houses and listed buildings in Colmar. This heritage foundation lends itself to ambitious conversions, and the figures confirm it.

In total, the Sitadel database records 31 approved applications (excluding cancelled ones) creating hotel-type accommodation (hébergement hôtelier) through conversion across these three municipalities since 2013. Together, they represent 23,623 m² of converted floor area, 13,143 m² of created floor area and 370 rooms. A further eight applications were cancelled and are not included in these totals.

The momentum remains strong: 10 applications have been submitted since 2024, a sign that the conversion movement is not an old legacy but an underlying trend, driven by cultural tourism that is shaping destination hotels rather than mere stopover accommodation.

What sets these three cities apart is the scale of the operations. Measured against the number of applications, the volumes converted place these municipalities among the highest in France, with average floor areas in the region of 850 to 966 m² per application. We are a long way from micro-conversions of studio flats: the historic building stock, often made up of large bourgeois buildings, former offices or private mansions, calls for large-scale projects.

The breakdown by municipality sheds light on these averages:

• Reims: 11 applications, 9,346 m² converted, 738 m² created, 90 rooms, including 2 applications since 2024.
• Caen: 10 applications, 9,663 m² converted, 4,839 m² created, 211 rooms, including 5 applications since 2024.
• Colmar: 10 applications, 4,614 m² converted, 7,566 m² created, 69 rooms, including 3 applications since 2024.

Caen alone accounts for 211 rooms, more than half the total across the three cities, reflecting large-capacity hotel operations. Colmar stands out for a created floor area (7,566 m²) that exceeds its converted floor area, a sign of operations involving ambitious extensions or reconstructions of the existing building stock.

Where does the converted stock come from? Across all three municipalities, housing is by far the dominant source, accounting for 18 applications out of 31. Next come hotel-type accommodation itself (5 applications, i.e. the restructuring or upgrading of existing hotels) and offices (3 applications).

This predominance of housing deserves attention. In heritage centres where the old residential stock is plentiful, conversion to legal year-round hotel-type accommodation — distinct from the regulated short-term rental (meublé de tourisme) — represents a structured route to value creation. In Reims, 8 of the 11 applications start from housing; in Caen, 6 out of 10. Colmar presents a more mixed profile, with 4 applications from housing, 3 from hotel-type accommodation and 2 from offices.

For an owner, this breakdown is a reminder of one reality: converting a home into hotel-type accommodation requires a proper change of destination, processed by the planning authority and sometimes subject to enhanced heritage constraints in these conservation areas.

The most recent applications map out the concrete typology of these projects. A few approved or completed examples:

• Reims, 1 cour de la Gare: 1,297 m² from housing, 9 rooms, approved in November 2025 — an operation right next to the station, ideal for business and cultural-tourism guests.
• Reims, 23 boulevard Lundy: 1,655 m² from housing, a project already completed in September 2025.
• Colmar, 1 rue Jacques Preiss: 1,511 m² from offices, approved in October 2024 — an illustration of office-to-hotel reconversion.
• Colmar, 16 rue de Turenne: 175 m² from retail premises, approved in November 2024, in the heart of the historic centre.
• Colmar, 9 rue Gambetta: 200 m² from offices, approved in January 2026.
• Caen, 46 rue Caponière: 161 m² from housing, 4 rooms, approved in July 2024.

Two complementary logics can be read here: large hotel operations (over 1,300 m²) in Reims and Colmar, and more modest projects of a few rooms that increase the density of the city-centre offer. To check activity at a specific address or in a particular neighbourhood, the conversions observatory allows searches by municipality and by street.

These figures outline a market where heritage is not a hindrance but an asset. Cultural tourism — the cathedral and Champagne houses in Reims, D-Day remembrance in Caen, the old town and the wine route in Colmar — generates demand for quality accommodation with high use value, which justifies heavy investment in restructuring the building stock.

For the owner of an old building or former offices, the question is not only one of heritage but also regulatory and economic: a change of destination to hotel-type accommodation opens the way to legal year-round operation, without the growing constraints weighing on short-term rental. The high average floor areas observed here show that the economic break-even point is more often reached on large-scale operations.

Before taking the plunge, it is worth mapping the local potential: our dedicated Reims page and our guide to letting in Reims set out the applicable framework, the conservation-area constraints and the levers for value creation. For a property already operated as a short-term let that you are considering selling, specialist support helps you weigh up operation, conversion and sale.

The figures in this article are drawn from the Sitadel database (SDES, French Ministry for Ecological Transition), which records planning authorisations. The scope covers applications creating hotel-type accommodation floor area through conversion (change of destination) since 2013, in the municipalities of Reims, Caen and Colmar.

The headline totals (31 applications, 23,623 m² converted, 13,143 m² created, 370 rooms) relate to approved applications excluding cancelled ones. Eight cancelled applications are excluded from these totals. Data vintage: 2026-09. The average floor areas (850 to 966 m² per application) are orders of magnitude derived from the converted volumes divided by the number of applications.