Hotel News Now each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. Today’s compilation covers Europe.
Accor sees revenue boost
Paris-based Accor reported an increase in like-for-like revenues of 3.8% to €1.4 billion ($1.9 billion). Revenue from management and franchise fees increased 18.2% during the quarter. A negative currency effect reduced reported revenues by 3.7%, or €54 million ($73.8 million), because of declines in the Australian dollar, Brazilian real and British pound against the euro.
IHG builds momentum in UK, Germany, Russia and Azerbaijan
InterContinental Hotels Group announced a raft of properties this month. In London, it revealed the 452-room InterContinental London The O2, which will operate under a franchise agreement with Meridian Hotel Operations Limited and a management contract with Arora Hotel. Other announcements included a franchise agreement with Cannon Corporate UK Limited for the 130-room Crowne Plaza London-Albert Embankment and a franchise agreement with Chart Forte Court (West Ealing) Limited for the 75-room Holiday Inn Express London-Ealing.
In Germany, IHG signed a multi-development franchise agreement with Bierwirth & Kluth Hotelmanagement GmbH that will see five hotels, the first being the 297-room Holiday Inn Hamburg-City Nord.
IHG also signed two new hotels in Russia and one in Azerbaijan. The 145-room Holiday Inn Express Naberezhnye Chelny is the third hotel to be signed as part of the multiple development franchise agreement signed in March 2013 with Regional Hotel Chain, a portfolio company of VIY Management, to develop 15 new hotels in Russia by 2019. The 115-room Staybridge Suites Baku will operate under a franchise agreement with Asnaf Alkon Group, while the 145-room Holiday Inn Express Samara will operate under a franchise agreement with Rosa Mira Group, a first-time owner with IHG. IHG plans to have 100 hotels open or in the pipeline by 2020 in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, primarily driven by IHG’s Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express brands in primary and secondary cities across the region.
Even more Choice
Choice Hotels Europe announced in October five properties in Ireland and the U.K.’s The Midlands and Hampshire regions. In The Midlands, the Quality Hotel Wolverhampton, formerly The Connaught Hotel, will open. In addition, the Quality Hotel Birmingham Airport/NEC is under the new management of Hospitality First. Clarion Collection Hotel Makeney Hall, formerly The Makeney Hall Hotel, in Derbyshire will also open. In Hampshire, the Clarion Collection Hotel Winchester Royal dates to the 16th century.
Both the Winchester and Makeney properties are part of the strategic agreement signed with Akkeron Hotels Group Limited earlier this year, which has so far resulted in seven Akkeron hotels operating under Choice Hotels franchise agreements in the U.K. In Dublin, the Gibson Hotel has joined Choice’s Ascend Hotel Collection, which has opened 38 hotels worldwide since the beginning of the year.
September Europe pipeline
The Europe hotel development pipeline comprises 816 hotels totaling 135,006 rooms, according to the September 2013 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report. The total active pipeline data includes projects in the In Construction, Final Planning and Planning stages but does not include projects in the Pre-Planning stage.
Among the markets in the region, Manchester, United Kingdom, reported the largest expected supply growth (+25.3%) if all 3,451 rooms in the total active pipeline open. Six other markets reported expected growth of more than 10%: Moscow, Russia (+18.3% with 7,090 rooms); Istanbul (+16.7% with 6,188 rooms); London (+14.2% with 16,583 rooms); Amsterdam (+11.7% with 3,537 rooms); Birmingham, U.K. (+11.7% with 1,170 rooms), and Edinburgh, U.K. (+10.8% with 1,252 rooms).
Interstate buys Chardon
In September, Interstate Hotels & Resorts purchased Chardon Management Limited, an independent U.K.-based management company, elevating Interstate’s total U.K. portfolio to 47 hotels open or in the pipeline. Interstate Europe’s managing director in the U.K., Robert Crook, and executive VP of international operations Ken McLaren will run the operation. Chardon Management’s portfolio included 32 hotels with 3,414 rooms, consisting of Holiday Inn Express and Holiday Inn hotels, in addition to Hotel Indigo, Best Western, Choice, Ibis Styles and independent hotel brands.
Neumann at Azimut
Walter Neumann has been appointed CEO of Azimut Hotels; acting CEO Sebastian Kraemer will remain as COO. Neumann joins Azimut from Rocco Forte Hotels, where he was general director for the 169-room Rocco Forte Hotel Astoria and the 193-room Angleterre hotels in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has also worked for Lindner Hotels, Arabella Sheraton Group and Travel Charme Hotels & Resorts. Azimut has 11 Russian, one Austrian and seven German properties.
Europe consumers spending more on vacation
A growing share of consumers in Europe’s three largest economies, Germany, U.K. and France, is feeling confident enough to indulge in a much-needed vacation, according to travel industry research authority PhoCusWright. Its leisure travel incidence indicator in 2013 increased for all three markets.
The share of adults who took at least one vacation in the past 12 months jumped 4% in both Germany (to 72%) and France (to 70%), while the same number in the U.K. jumped by 3% to 78%.
“In addition to a larger traveler pool, consumers in Germany spent an average of €206 ($280) more on vacations in 2013 versus 2012, and spending among U.K. travelers jumped €283 ($385). In France, however, where trip spend lags the other two markets, annual household leisure travel spend dropped slightly year over year,” the report read.
Olé for Spain
Spain’s hotel sector at long last may be pulling out of its years-long doldrums as beach-bound foreign visitors approach record numbers and the domestic market bottoms out with indications the country’s tattered economy is on the mend, industry players and analysts said. The latest figures from the Ministry of Industry, Energy & Tourism report 42.3 million tourists in Spain from January through August, a 4.5% rise over same period a year ago.
Moscow and co on the go
Jones Lang LaSalle’s “Moscow hotel market update Q1-Q3 2013 results” report showed flat performance across the top tiers. In the luxury sector, occupancy for the last four years at this stage of the year has remained totally flat, with compound growth in average daily rate being only 7%.
In the upper-upscale market, growth remains almost 5% down on 2012 following a 6% drop in ADR and only a minimal increase in occupancy. In the upscale market, the real growth was in occupancy, but ADR was slightly down on 2012 by 1%. ADR in upper midscale has remained unchanged since 2010, with occupancy dropping back down to 2010 levels following a slight period of growth.
Deals and developments
- Marriott International unveiled the Powerscourt Hotel in County Wicklow, the first Autograph Collection hotel in Ireland. The 189-room, Palladian-style resort features two championship golf courses and a 30,000-square-foot spa.
- The 139-room DoubleTree by Hilton Lisbon-Fontana Park opened in the Portuguese capital. The brand’s first offering in the city, the hotel was formerly the Fontana Park Hotel and is located in Saldanha Square.
- Invesco purchased the 189-room Park Hotel Amsterdam from Grand City Hotels & Resorts for an undisclosed sum. Grand City will continue to manage the 4-star business hotel under its current name. According to Property Magazine International, Invesco’s dedicated hotel funds currently own 26 midscale hotels comprising more than 5,500 keys in 14 countries, with total assets under management being worth approximately €980m ($1.3 billion).
- Accor opened the 237-room Pullman Brussels Midi in the Belgian capital’s Gare du Midi train station. The hotel, the 80th in the brand, includes the Victor Bar & Restaurant, 10,764 square feet of meeting space and two Eurostar-train suites that view arriving and departing trains.
- Marking the presence of the Rosewood Hotels & Resorts brand in Europe, the Rosewood London opened this month in an 1914 Edwardian Belle Époque building. With 306 keys, the property is in a building with a Grade II-listed street frontage, seven floors and a 166-foot-high cupola.
Compiled by Terence Baker.