Hotel News Now
Read the latest hotel industry news from around Europe.
Accor has has exceeded the 1 million rooms mark in rooms in operation and in its development pipeline. The French company said it achieved this mark at the end of 2023 but prefers to publicly underline only rooms in operation.
Also in presenting first-quarter 2023 earnings, Jean-Jacques Morin, deputy CEO and CEO of premium, midscale and economy, said the firm is confident enough to raise revenue per available room guidance for 2023 from 5% to 9% to between 10% and 14%.
Two anticipated United Kingdom events, the Royal Coronation of King Charles II on May 6 in London and the hosting of the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool on the following Saturday, May 13, have driven hotel occupancy on the books, according to Forward STAR data from STR, CoStar’s hotel-analytics division.
STR’s Thomas Emanuel, business director, said Eurovision demand has hit high notes.
“Eurovision is an event that always attracts significant demand for hotels and this year is no different. Last year, [2022 host city] Turin hotels reached an occupancy of 83% on the final night, while back in 2019 … Tel Aviv’s occupancy peaked at 84%. Bookings are only projected to grow even more as we get closer to the event period,” he said.
The new head of Whitbread, CEO Dominic Paul in his first earnings call said there is reason to be confident in the budget and economy sector of the U.K. hotel industry and added the firm’s relatively new German portfolio is already showing signs of maturity.
The firm, which owns and operates Premier Inn, the U.K.’s largest hotel company by property number, now has as many hotels open in the U.K. as it did in 2013. Paul said “This is hugely significant, and we think [this] represents a major structural shift in the hotel cycle.”
Geneva, Switzerland-based real estate investment fund Stoneweg Hospitality announced it has acquired two Spanish seaside resorts from Globalia Business Corporation for a total of 83 million euros ($91.6 million).
Operating under brand Be Live Hotels, the hotels are the 226-room La Niña in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and 184-room Palace de Muro in Mallorca, Balearic Islands, with the additions expanding Stoneweg’s hotel portfolio from 1,281 to 1,691 rooms, an increase of approximately 25%.
Dimitris Manikis, president and managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, said the adage that “those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it” is true of the COVID-19 pandemic more than any other event. In a video-interview with Hotel News Now as part of its “Pandemic Reflections” series, he said while he is keen on looking to the future, the best future is only possible if the past is remembered and acknowledged.
“I have to tell you,” he said, “I feel really sick with myself sometimes when I realize how I became the same person I was, and how there are glimpses of opportunity to bring me back and to realize what is going on, but I am really worried that we are going to totally forget.”
For more of his comments, click here.
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