Hotel News Now each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. This week’s compilation covers Europe.
STR: Europe, London, see healthy July metrics
In July, Europe’s hotels saw year-over-year occupancy increase by 0.8% to 78.6%, while in euro constant currency average daily rate rose 6.2% to €123.11 ($142.78) and revenue per available room rose 7% to €96.82 ($112.29), according to STR, the parent company of Hotel News Now.
Hotels in London continues to perform well. The British capital saw occupancy increase 4% to 91%, ADR increase 4.3% to €170.63 ($197.89) and RevPAR increase 8.5% to €155.31 ($180.12). According to STR analysts, the absolute ADR and RevPAR levels are the highest for any month in STR’s London performance history, which they attribute to unseasonably warm summer and high-impact events such as Wimbledon and London Pride.
Whitbread now standalone hotel company with Costa sale
British hotel company Whitbread PLC now only has its hotel interests—Premier Inn and Hub by Premier Inn—to worry about following its 31 August sale of its Costa coffee division to Coca-Cola for £3.9 billion ($5.1 billion), writes HNN’s Terence Baker.
Earlier in the year, Whitbread executives had said its two divisions would be split in terms of management, but now it has decided to sell Costa outright, a move Whitbread Group Finance Director Nicholas Cadbury said would allow the firm to address its pension deficit and “volatility in the cash structure of the company,” as well as to “to allow us firepower to move faster and accelerate (hotel growth) in the U.K. and Germany.”
Dalata spends £91m on London development
Irish hotel company Dalata has paid £91 million ($118.6 million) for the 300-year leasehold interest in a hotel under development in London’s Aldgate district, which was previously owned by an international private equity investor.
The 212-room property is scheduled to join one of Dalata’s brands, Clayton Hotels, as the Clayton Hotel Aldgate London. It is expected to open by the end of the year.
AccorHotels completes Mövenpick buy
AccorHotels finalized the acquisition of Swiss-brand Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts, the French firm announced on 3 September.
The deal, worth 560 million Swiss francs ($574.8 million), was with Mövenpick Holding, which previously owned 66.6%, and Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holdings, which owned the remainder. Mövenpick’s current portfolio has 84 hotels and a pipeline of 42 hotels that all are expected to open by 2021.
Marriott seeks unprecedented growth in Europe
Marriott International seeks unprecedented growth across all segments in Europe by consolidating its luxury lead and seeking to dominate the budget and midscale landscape, notably via its Moxy brand. In the process, the group will be adding assets by encouraging hotels to switch brands, according to HNN contributor Tamara Thiessen.
In Germany, Europe’s largest economy, the strategy is to grow the Moxy brand, said Tim Zeichhardt, Marriott’s director of international development in Germany, Switzerland and Austria.
“Moxy is definitely our strongest-growing brand in Germany, (and) with more than 70 hotels and nearly 18,000 rooms. … we need strongly capitalized franchisee partners who are able to sign leases,” he said. “We have established franchisees who can do this but our pool of franchisees needs to grow.”
Deals and developments
- Israeli hotel firm Fattal Hotels has acquired for an undisclosed price the freehold of an Edinburgh site adjacent to the Jurys Inn Edinburgh, which it acquired after it bought the Jurys Inn brand last December. Fattal proposes to invest €35.6 million ($41.3 million) in adding 101 rooms to and overhauling the Jurys Inn for a new total of 287 rooms and the development on the adjacent space of a 131-room NYX-branded asset.
- Hyatt Hotels Corporation announced it will open its second Hyatt House asset in Frankfurt, the 180-room Hyatt House Frankfurt/City Goetheplatz to open in 2023.
- The Radisson Blu Hotel, Larnaca opened in Cyprus with 106 rooms.
- The Curtain Hotel & Members Club in Shoreditch, London, has been sold to private equity firm Reuben Brothers for £90 million ($117.3 million) from joint-venture partners Michael Achenbaum, president of the Gansevoort Hotel Group, and Jeffrey Levine. The hotel has 120 rooms and a screening room, among other spaces.
- Indian Hotels Company Limited—the parent of Taj Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris—will open its first Vivanta-brand property in the U.K., with a 108-room asset at London’s Heathrow Airport in cooperation with developer Hayre Group.
Compiled by Terence Baker.