Hotel News Now each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. This week’s compilation covers Europe.
What’s cold, warming and hot in Europe
Berlin, Málaga and Madrid are three markets continuing to show strength in hotel performance metrics, notably in those markets’ achievement of the highest year-over-year revenue per available room numbers in the first half of 2019, while Jerusalem, Seville and Valencia show significant progress. At the other end of the scale, Barcelona and Venice have experienced declines, according to Natalie Weisz, STR’s senior manager, research and analysis. STR is the parent company of Hotel News Now.
In STR’s 2018 Global Hotel Study, Weisz said one of Europe’s markets showing a sharp recovery is Brussels, which has rebounded from terrorism attacks in 2015 and 2016 by posting “double-digit growth, boosted by growth in both occupancy and (average daily rate). This has continued at a slightly slower rate in the first half of 2019, with RevPAR up 6.9%, boosted by growth in both occupancy (+2.8%) and ADR (+4.0%).”
UK competition watchdog secures major OTA changes
The United Kingdom’s anti-monopoly body, the Competition & Markets Authority, has secured notable concessions from the major booking sites, online travel agencies and hotel firms, including Airbnb, Booking.com, Google and TripAdvisor in how they operate, according to a CMA press release. The 25 signees have agreed to abide by consumer protection law, not publish false impressions as to a hotel or room’s popularity and to always display the full cost of a room.
The release said hotel firms “Accor, (InterContinental Hotels Group), Hilton, Marriott (International), Radisson Hotel Group and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts requested more time as they will need to introduce specific technical updates,” with the CMA committed to following up on the required changes.
Hoteliers hopeful Barcelona moratorium might alter
Hoteliers and related industry executives in Barcelona have been putting pressure on city officials to alter its four-year moratorium on new-builds and renovations, but all sides still remain conscious of the pressure of overtourism in the Catalan capital, reports HNN’s Terence Baker.
Officials behind the moratorium, properly known as the Special Tourist Accommodation Plan (or as its Spanish acronym PEUAT), have agreed to discuss one judicial demand, said Bruno Hallé, partner at business advisory Cushman & Wakefield and a resident of Barcelona, the “one that states that if any hotel does complete a major renovation, it would have to lose 20% of its room count.”
STR: Europe hotel performance for July 2019
Europe’s hotel industry reported positive results in the three key performance metrics during July 2019, according to data from STR. In year-over-year comparison, occupancy increased 1.2% to 79%, ADR increased 0.1% to €120.92 ($133.35) and RevPAR increased 1.3% to €95.54 ($105.39).
One market doing well in that same period was Milan, which posted a 4.8% increase in occupancy to 75.2%, an 11.3% increase in ADR to €145.59 ($160.60) and a 16.6% increase in RevPAR to €109.54 ($120.83).
Mufraggi tops Club Med’s new Europe division
All-inclusive French resort firm Club Med has appointed Xavier Mufraggi to lead a newly created division with responsibility for Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The new CEO moves from his previous position as CEO, North America and the Caribbean.
Bordeaux is flourishing on and off the vine
The French wine center off Bordeaux is seeing excellent growth due to an increase in demand from budget and economy travelers, new capital sources and renewed interest from international hotel flags, according to HNN contributor Tamara Thiessen.
The city, Thiessen said, currently has 16,600 rooms and 220 hotels and a pipeline of approximately 750 rooms, with flags such as Radisson Blu, Hilton Garden Inn and Golden Tulip, all having opened in the second half of 2018 to take advantage of inbound visitor numbers having increased by 3.6 million from 2010.
Deals and developments
- Radisson Hotel Group will debut its Radisson Red brand in Tallinn, Estonia, and London. In Tallinn, a 150-room hotel is due to open in late 2023, while in the British capital a 70-room asset will open in 2020 close to the O2 Arena in the district of Greenwich.
- The Park Hotel Centraal opened in Amsterdam on 4 September, an 189-room renovation of the Park Hotel Amsterdam. In an early 19th century building that has been a hotel since 1880 (original name: Hotel Parkzicht), the new guise of it is the debut hotel of brand Park Centraal, with the second asset to open in The Hague, also in The Netherlands, in 2020.
- The 14-room Niehku Mountain Villa, which opened in May 2018 120 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Riksgränsen, Sweden, has won the UNESCO Prix Versailles for the world’s best hotel design in the “hotel interior” category, beating out competition from such countries as Brazil, Oman and the U.S. and being the first Scandinavian hotel to be awarded the prize. “Niehku” means “dream” in the local Sami language.
- Munich-based Ruby Hotels has announced its U.K. debut will open in January 2020, the 76-room Ruby Lucy on Lower Marsh (street) close to Waterloo Station.
- Vienna-based S+B Gruppe AG has bought the 441-room Panorama Hotel in Prague from Maltese hotel firm Corinthia, which will continue to manage it as a white-label property.
- Deutsche Hospitality is to build the 136-room Maxx by Steigenberger Aalen with owners and developers Brendal Hotel Group and Isin & Co. Architekten, with the property, 45 miles east of Stuttgart, Germany, due to open in early 2022.
- Cycas Hospitality has signed to operate a dual-branded asset in Dundee, Scotland, with owner Percor Capital. The two hotels, one to sit above the other, are both InterContinental Hotels Group brands, a 102-room Hotel Indigo and a 85-room Staybridge Suites. Cycas now operates six of IHG’s eight U.K. Staybridge Suites hotels and nine U.K. IHG properties in total.
- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts in partnership with management firm Gorgeous Smiling Hotels GmbH announced a major expansion in Germany, with six hotels to open in between now and 2021. The Super 8 by Wyndham properties will be in Augsburg, Berlin, Hamburg, Koblenz and Mainz. The partnership also opened a Super 8, with 176 rooms, in Dresden in June.
Compiled by Terence Baker.