Hotel News Now each week features a news roundup from a different region of the world. This week’s compilation covers Europe.
STR Global: European pipeline for April
There are 857 hotels totaling 138,152 rooms under contract in Europe, according to the April 2015 STR Global Construction Pipeline Report. This represents a 6.4% decrease in rooms under contract compared with April 2014 and a 3.6% year-over-year decrease in rooms under construction. The under contract data includes projects in the in construction, final planning and planning stages but does not include projects in the unconfirmed stage.
The region reported 58,372 rooms in 360 hotels under construction for the month.
STR Global: March performance data
The European hotel industry posted mixed results in year-over-year metrics when reported in U.S. dollars, euros and British pounds for March 2015, according to data compiled by STR Global, HNN’s sister company.
Among Europe’s subregions, Northern Europe saw double-digit growth for average daily rate (+14.2% to €110.53, $124) and revenue per available room (+16.2% to €80.31, $90.14) when compared to March 2014. Within Northern Europe, Ireland drove the increases with significant gains in both ADR (+9.4% to €97.33, $109.24) and RevPAR (+17.9% to €71.81, $80.60).
Booking.com alters stance on rate parity in Germany
Online travel agency Booking.com, part of The Priceline Group, announced on 19 May it will waive enforcement of its existing wide parity provisions with German accommodations with immediate effect and amend its standard terms and other agreements with German accommodations by 1 July.
This latest Booking.com decision is consistent with its recent commitments given to the French, Italian and Swedish national competition authorities.
Whitbread moves up, CEO moves out
Whitbread, which operates the Premier Inn and Hub by Premier brands, posted healthy full-year results on 28 April but also announced the February 2016 exit of CEO Andy Harrison. The company’s latest earnings saw RevPAR growth of 8.7%; a 6.1% increase in guestrooms; and a record occupancy of 81.3%, up 3.2 percentage points.
Spanish hoteliers push for united rating system
Spanish hoteliers are becoming increasingly frustrated with the country’s hodgepodge of star classification systems, which can differ tremendously among Spain’s 17 autonomous regions and prevents one of the world’s leading tourism destinations from joining a European rating regime, writes HNN correspondent Benjamin Jones.
“In the Canary Islands, for example, there is a lovely boutique hotel in a 16th century structure with its own beach, a huge garden and that charges €200 ($218) per person, per night. … TripAdvisor ranks it as a 5-star, but under the Canary Islands regional classification system it is defined as a 1-star hotel because it lacks an elevator and has no covered garage,” said Ramón Estalella, secretary general of the Spanish Confederation of Hotels & Tourism Accommodations.
TUI to boost hotels, simplify customer journey
The world’s largest leisure tourism group, TUI Group, is to slowly migrate all of its many brands and offerings—hotels, airlines, tour operators, among others—under the one TUI name and one integrated booking platform, writes HNN’s Terence Baker.
TUI released its first half-year results on 13 May following its two operating units, TUI Travel and TUI AG merging late last year. The company will add approximately 60 hotels by fiscal year 2019 to boost the 310 properties the company operates.
TUI Group’s joint CEO Peter Long said during an earnings conference call that the company would also jettison non-core assets such as OTA LateRooms.com and a 15% stake in container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd.
Deals and developments
- Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide sold, but retains management of the Gritti Palace. The 82-room property has been bought by Qatar-based Nozul Hotels & Resorts, which paid €105 million ($120 million), or just under €1.28 million ($1.46 million) per key.
- Domestic hotel chain Azimut opened the Azimut Hotel Vladivostok—in Russia but farther east than almost all of China—on 15 May, with 378 keys and a banquet hall for up to 300 persons.
- KKR, an investment company, has bought from Elbit Imaging two sibling properties in Antwerp, Belgium, for €48 million ($54.7 million), the 247-room Radisson Blu and 59-room Park Inn by Radisson.
- Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group on 1 June will open its fourth hotel in Estonia, the 465-room Park Inn by Radisson Meriton, which is owned by Meriton Hotels AS and located in capital Tallinn.
- Leonardo Hotels will open its first Spanish hotel, the 110-room, 4-star Leonardo Hotel Las Ramblas Barcelona, which will welcome guests in February 2016. Before then, Leonardo will run the property as the 3-star Hotel Principal from 1 July to November, after which it will close for three months for a renovation.
- Meliá Hotels International will rebrand the existing Hotel Vora Fira in June to the Tryp Valencia Vora Fira. The 127-key property in Valencia, Spain, will operate as a franchise agreement.
- InterContinental Hotels Group on 5 May opened the 256-room Crowne Plaza Berlin Potsdamer Platz, formerly Wyndham Grand Berlin Potsdamer Platz, in a management agreement with All Stars Hotel Development & Management Company.
- FRHI Hotels & Resorts will open the 160-key Swissôtel KozaPark Istanbul in 2019 in an agreement with Turkish developer Garanti Koza.
Compiled by Terence Baker.