HotelNewsNow.com each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. Today’s review covers Europe.
Strong Europe hotel performance results
The European hotel industry posted positive results in year-over-year metrics when reported in U.S. dollars, euros and British pounds for July 2011, according to data compiled by STR Global.
Year-over-year, June 2011 figures for Europe (U.S. dollars, euros and British pounds):
Source: STR Global
“European hotels continued to improve on last year with increased demand driving occupancy and ADR growth. The gains provided a welcomed contrast to more subdued economic news that made headlines recently,” said Elizabeth Randall, managing director of STR Global. “However, the slower GDP growth rates in selected key European markets make the outlook for the region a bit more challenging than it was a few months ago.”
Europe hotel recovery spotty
A panel of European executives shared concerns about the state of recovery for the region’s hotel industry last week during the “View from the Top” session at the inaugural Hotel Investment Conference Europe.
Pandox CEO Anders Nissen said the economic landscape is “scary,” while Ian Livingstone, executive chairman of London & Regional, said the eurozone debt crisis has left some hotels in Ireland, Greece and Spain teetering on disaster.
Recovery, meanwhile, has been spotty, the panelists said. Major markets in France, for example, are doing well, while the outlying suburbs are still struggling.
Read “Europe’s hotel market remains spotty.”
Germany hotels post solid recovery
Tourism is showing healthy improvement in Germany. The country ranks as the second most popular destination worldwide for Europeans as of 2010and first in the European Union, according to the German National Tourist Board. It had the highest growth rate in number of trips (11%) over 2009.
Germany’s hotel metrics show modest growth. For June 2011 year-to-date, occupancy was 62.5% (a year-over-year increase of 3.7%), average daily rate was up 2.2% to €93.65 (US$135.67) and revenue per available room was up 6% to €57.90 (US$83.88), according to STR Global.
Read “Germany’s hotel industry shows vitality.”
Netherland hotels report mixed performance
The hotel industry in the Netherlands, on the other hand, showed mixed year-to-date performance, according to STR Global.
Market information compiled by STR Global for the year to 30 June 2011 highlights the impact of trade fairs and events as well as the change in the supply of rooms on the results of major Dutch destinations.
Hotel Performance, year to June 2010
Source: STR Global
Europe Ad Will Appear Here
Louvre sets aggressive growth goals
Paris-based Louvre Hotels Group will make a concerted effort to open 100 hotels a year during the next five years. The key focus is on emerging economies, with 16 hotels already earmarked in India and 28 in Brazil, according to President Pierre-Frédéric Roulot.
Louvre in 2011 has added 4,000 rooms to its stable with new properties in France, the Ukraine, Thailand, Tunisia, Muscat, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
IHG sets sights on growth in Russia
InterContinental Hotels Group has its own 100-hotel goal. The company sees Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States as a huge growth opportunity and plans to have 100 hotels open by 2020.
IHG has 16 hotels across Russia and the CIS, including 11 hotels in Russia.
Hotel investment heats up in London
Investment opportunities abound in the United Kingdom. The only questions are how much hoteliers want to spend and where they want to spend it, according to Jonathan Hubbard, managing director at Jones Lang LaSalle in London.
In London, for example, where there’s a tremendous amount of investor interest chasing a limited amount of assets, capitalizing on a strong asset can be difficult. The task becomes easier in the regional U.K., though the quality of hotel properties is greatly diminished, he said.
After falling to £395 million (US$643 million) during 2009, investment volumes in during 2010 jumped back up to £2 billion (US$3.3 billion), according to Jones Lang LaSalle.
“What we’re expecting this year is you’re probably going to see an increase to £2.25 billion (US$3.7 billion) to £2.5 billion (US$4.1 billion), certainly,” Hubbard said. “Next year with the release of more distressed product, we’re going to see that move back up and again and it could well push up to £4 billion (US$6.5 billion).”
Von Essen hotels begin to sell
After two rounds of bidding, 19 of the 28 von Essen hotels on the market are now under offer, according to HVS. The hotels will be sold on a subgroup or individual basis to a number of high-net-worth individuals and experienced hotel operators. English entrepreneur Andrew Brownsword has agreed terms for the purchase of four hotels, and property tycoons Ian and Richard Livingstone will buy the Cliveden in Berkshire, southeast England, which is the most expensive asset in the portfolio with a guide price of £41 million (US$65 million).
Deals, developments and openings
• It was another busy month for The Rezidor Hotel Group. The company announced its ninth hotel in Poland, the 435-room Radisson Blu Sobieski Hotel, which is set to open in Q3 2011. It also announced the Park Inn Trysil Mountain Resort in Norway, which has a scheduled opening in December 2011.
• Spanish property developer sold the 126-room Rafael Casnova Hotel in Barcelona, Spain, to hotel chain H10 for €25 million (US$34 million).
• Choice Hotels International announced that the newly-branded Clarion Collection Birmingham hotel joined its global network of 6,100-plus hotels. The 4-star hotel will initially offer 60 rooms, increasing to 73 later in the year after 13 suites are added.
• Premier Inn and Vale of Glamorgan Council have exchanged contracts to develop a new hotel at the Innovation Quarter on Barry Waterfront. The intention is to develop a new 80-bedroom hotel on a prominent two-acre site as a catalyst to the further regeneration of the Innovation Quarter on Barry Waterfront.
• Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is opening its first hotel in Zaporozhye, Ukraine, on 29 September, the hotel operating under Four Points by Sheraton brand. Kiev-based Bud House Group is the project investor and developer.
• The Royal Bank of Scotland sold the Hilton Glasgow Grosvenor to an unnamed private investor for £9.45 million (US$15 million), according to HVS. The hotel was part of a portfolio of 11 Hilton properties bought by the bank in 2001; the 319-room Hilton Glasgow is now the only one of these properties that remains unsold.
• An affiliate of Hyatt Hotels Corporation has entered into management agreements with OJSC Nash Dom-Primorye for two new Hyatt hotels in Russia. The Hyatt Regency Vladivostok, Golden Horn and Hyatt Vladivostok, Burny, which will be the third and fourth Hyatt-branded hotels in Russia, are under construction and expected to open in advance of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit during the fall of 2012.