Read the latest hotel industry news from around Europe.

The United Kingdom is not out of the woods fully yet, but the gradual reopening of the economy and the end to all COVID-19-related restrictions is seeing hotel performance move in the right direction, according to STR director Thomas Emanuel in his latest video update. He said average weekend occupancy now is above 55%,

“Rates are now at their highest level since the start of the pandemic and much higher than the August peaks we saw last year. At the time of recording, [average daily rate] for the past seven days was consistently sitting at just under 120 pounds sterling. … [although] revenue per available room is approximately at 60% of its pre-pandemic level,” he said.

Data from STR showed that through July 18, the U.K. led the rest of Europe in hotel occupancy with four straight weeks above 60% in the metric, reaching a high of 63.5%. But the U.K.'s hotel industry still has a long way to go to reach pre-pandemic levels, when occupancy in the comparable week of July 2019 was 84.5%. (STR is CoStar's hospitality analytics company.)

Also, during the week of July 12-18, 2021, a handful of European countries showed continued week-over-week improvement in occupancy levels — Ireland (54.3%), Spain (53.7%), France (51.4%), Italy (51.1%), Poland (50.1%), Switzerland (44.0%) and The Netherlands (43.6%).

Azora, the Madrid-based real estate investment trust, bought two hotels in Portugal’s Algarve region for 148 million euros ($174.1 million) from Bangkok-based Minor International, which owns NH Hotels, in a 20-year sale-and-manage-back deal, writes Hotel News Now's Terence Baker.

The Spanish owner launched its latest fund, the 680-million-euro European Hotel & Leisure Fund in July 2020. It latest buy is for the 383-room Tivoli Marina Vilamoura, with the largest conference center in the region, and 248-room Tivoli Carvoeiro.

CEO Sébastien Bazin said Accor is seeing signs of recovery and is ready to pounce on the expected rebound, writes Terence Baker, who added the French firm also is using this time of poorer performance to pursue its efforts around conservation, sustainability and human resources.

Speaking at a presentation of Accor’s half-year 2021 earnings, Jean-Jacques Morin, Accor's chief financial officer and deputy CEO, said revenue in the first six months of 2021 was 824 million euros, which in like-for-like terms is a 6% decline from 2020 and a 53% decline from 2019, and Accor’s guidance until the end of this year continues to be that for every percentage drop in revenue per available room there will be approximately an 18-million-euro drop in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.

The UEFA European Football Championships, known as the Euros, has been celebrated as being the return of a pan-European, crowd-attended event, but hoteliers haven't had much to cheer about, writes Terence Baker.

England hosted numerous matches in June and July, including the final and both semifinals, and the English team's 2-0 win against Germany, which 40,000 people attended. But according to STR, within a three-mile radius of the stadium, occupancy for the night of that game reached 68.2%. Average daily rate on that day, June 29, was 109.06 pounds sterling, and RevPAR was 74.40 pounds sterling. In comparison, year to date through June 29, average occupancy across all of London was 37.5%, ADR was 110.07 pounds sterling and RevPAR was 41.26 pounds sterling.

The government might have tweaked the app in the last week, which might mean more efficiency, or more people at risk not being alerted to the need to isolate, but the National Health Services’ track-and-trace system has put huge pressure on hotel and hospitality staffing, writes Terence Baker.

The NHS app “pings” — and numbers “pinged” per week have reached 600,000 and 700,000 — those who have been in close contact with those testing positive for COVID-19. Small and independent hotel businesses are most affected due to having no backup teams that might exist in large hotel chains, for instance.

• London’s The Carlton Tower Jumeirah reopened on July 26 following an 18-month, 137-million-pounds-sterling refurbishment, which reduced its number of guest rooms to 186.

• In 2024, Starwood Capital Group and SH Hotels & Resorts will open the Baccarat Hotel Florence, Italy, within the 14th-century Villa Camerata estate. No room count has been announced as yet.
• IHG Hotels & Resorts debuted its InterContinental brand in Azerbaijan with the July opening of the 128-room InterContinental Baku in the country’s capital.

• Mexico City-based real estate investment trust RLH Properties has spent 115 million euros on the 111-room Bless Hotel Madrid from AINA Hospitality and Grupo Didra.

• Operator Standard International and owner Befimmo have announced they will open in 2025 The Standard, Brussels, with 180 guest rooms.

• Meliá Hotels International bought the 314-room Hotel Barcelona Apolo from the Dospuntos Asset Management division of U.S. investment firm Värde Partners for 96 million euros.

• Mactaggart Family & Partners have bought the freehold and operations of The Resident Edinburgh from developer Mapeley. The 166-room property is due to open in 2024 in the city’s Meldrum House, built in the 1960s as the Edinburgh headquarters of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs.

• Deutsche Hospitality will open the Zleep Hotel Lausanne in the Swiss city in 2023, which will have 120 rooms and 300 student apartments, among other facilities.

• Barceló Hotel Group opened the new-build, 128-room Barceló Nura in Sant Lluís following an investment of more than 20 million euros.