European hotel pipeline up 19% during Q4 2019

Europe’s total construction pipeline rose to 1,871 projects, around 297,490 rooms, in Q4 of 2019, a 19% increase compared with the previous year, according to the latest Europe hotel construction pipeline trend report from Lodging Econometrics (LE).
The report also found there are 879 projects (140,620 rooms) currently under construction, 531 projects (81,235 rooms) scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months, and 461 projects (75,635 rooms) in early planning.

LE said all stages of the pipeline are at “record highs” and have counts more than double their cyclical lows set earlier in the decade.

However, it added that Europe closed 2019 with a “fragile and waning” economy with growth in the Eurozone expanding by a mere 0.1% in the fourth quarter.

This was partly attributed to last year’s “lengthy negotiations” that resulted in the UK leaving the EU, and the uncertainty of the US-China trade war which had a “significant impact”.

In 2019, 435 new hotels with 58,202 rooms opened throughout Europe, the “highest number of new hotel openings ever recorded”. As a result, the LE forecast for new hotel openings will continue to be strong with 457 new hotels (63,402 rooms) anticipated to open in 2020 and rising to 503 new hotels (72,078 rooms) in 2021.

Europe’s leading countries in the construction pipeline are the United Kingdom with 346 projects (49,651 rooms), and Germany standing at 339 projects (61,836 rooms).

France follows with 171 projects (21,173 rooms), and then Portugal and Poland with 118 projects (12,616 rooms) and 90 projects (14,028 rooms), respectively. With the exception of France and Poland, these markets all have construction pipelines at record highs.

The cities with the largest pipelines are London with 88 projects (15,575 rooms), Dusseldorf at an all-time high of 60 projects (11,443 rooms), Paris with 44 projects (6,896 rooms), Hamburg standing at 34 projects (7,302 rooms), and Lisbon with 34 projects (3,114 rooms). Moscow follows with 31 projects (6,536 rooms), Berlin with 27 projects (6,202 rooms), and then Frankfurt with 27 projects (5,642 rooms).

Franchise companies with the largest construction pipelines are Marriott International with 244 projects (40,679 rooms), and Accor with 241 projects (32,920 rooms). Next is Hilton Worldwide with 191 projects (29,944 rooms), and InterContinental Hotels Group with 156 projects (25,249 rooms).

These four companies were found to be responsible for 45% of the projects in the total pipeline.