Minor Hotels has signed a franchise agreement with EASYRENT PE for NH Hotel Tashkent, a 151-room property in the Uzbek capital. The deal brings the group’s NH Hotels & Resorts brand into Uzbekistan and marks Minor Hotels’ first move into the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Central Asia, according to Breaking Travel News.
The agreement was formalised at a signing ceremony in Tashkent attended by the Deputy Chairman of Uzbekistan’s Tourism Committee, Minor Hotels senior management and the project owner. The hotel is being refurbished and repositioned under the NH banner and is expected to open in the first quarter of 2027.
After the renovation it will offer standard twin and double rooms, deluxe rooms and family suites, plus an all-day dining restaurant, a gym and a meeting room. It sits about ten minutes from the airport and close to event venues such as the UzExpo Center and the Palace of International Forums, which positions it for business and MICE demand.
Minor Hotels says franchising pairs independent local ownership with the group’s commercial reach and operating support. The hotel will plug into Minor DISCOVERY, the group’s loyalty programme with 38 million members, along with its distribution platforms.
The group describes itself as a hospitality company with more than 660 properties in operation and under development across 67 countries. Gonzalo Aguilar, CEO of Minor Hotels Europe & Americas, called the signing:
“the first step in our expansion in Central Asia”
He said it reflects the role of franchising in bringing the group’s brands to new markets. The company also says the signing supports its asset-light expansion and creates a platform for further growth in Central Asia.
The structure is the point of interest. Minor Hotels is entering a new region by licensing its brand to a local owner rather than building the asset itself, the same logic seen in recent hotel-brand deals such as the Accor and Hard Rock partnership led by Ennismore, the Unscripted by Hyatt debut in Riyadh and the Wyndham Registry Collection resort in Nathdwara. For investors in Asia Pacific and the Middle East, it shows that international hotel groups are using franchise agreements to reach secondary and frontier capitals, where local ownership knowledge carries the project.
The timeline is short. The hotel is already being refurbished, with opening expected within roughly a quarter or two, so the owner is converting an existing asset rather than starting a ground-up build. That conversion route is typically faster than new construction and lets a franchisor test a new country with a single property before committing to more.
Central Asia is also drawing consumer and service brands through master-franchise routes, as in Mom’s Touch’s Kazakhstan agreement. Whether hotel franchising follows the same path in Uzbekistan will depend on how NH Hotel Tashkent performs after its planned opening in early 2027.
Source: Breaking Travel News — Minor Hotels Enters Uzbekistan with the Signing of NH Hotel Tashkent
