ROOM TO GROW
Confident UK hoteliers are opening more hotels as demand and room rates remain buoyant, but there may be trouble ahead
WHEN THE 453-ROOM INTERCONTINENTAL HOTEL adjacent to the O2 centre on London’s Greenwich peninsula opened in late January, it not only made avail- able one of the largest (3,100sqm) pillar-free ballrooms in Europe, but also highlighted the current confidence and strength throughout the UK hotel sector ahead of its continental rivals. At the turn of the year the UK led the way
in Europe for the most hotels and rooms currently under construction – some 181 hotels and 14,121 rooms out of a Europe-
80 BBT MARCH/APRIL 2016
wide total of 458 hotels and 60,787 rooms. Germany, according to data from the STR Global hotels consultancy, had the second largest construction pipeline in Europe: 8,369 rooms from 40 hotels being built. Moreover, the net number of extra
hotel rooms actually coming on stream this year (rather than under construction) in the UK is calculated by business consultants PWC to be around 16,500 – some 7,000 in London and 9,500 in the rest of the country, representing an increase of 4.9 per cent and 2 per cent respectively on last year.
PWC remains generally bullish about
prospects for the UK hotel sector, forecast- ing London hotel occupancy this year up 0.3 per cent to 84 per cent – the highest level so far this decade. But in the prov- inces it could be the “highest level ever” for occupancy with 0.6 per cent growth to 77 per cent. And investors from around the world
are buying into this buoyancy: investment in UK hotels reached a nine-year high in 2015 of £8.1 billion – almost a third higher than the previous year, according to figures from property agents Savills.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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