Openings keep growing in Europe: LE

INTERNATIONAL REPORT — The European hotel construction pipeline is surging through the first half of 2024, according to data from Lodging Econometrics.

At the end of the second quarter, Europe’s pipeline was 1,680 projects and 249,454 rooms. Hotel projects currently under construction stood at 755 projects and 117,908 rooms, representing 45% of the projects and 47% of the rooms in the pipeline. Projects planned to start construction in the next 12 months account for 412 projects and 59,850 rooms, making up 25% of the projects and 24% of the rooms, while projects in the early planning stage stood at 513 projects and 71,696 rooms.

As a result of the surging number of hotel projects currently under construction in Europe, LE analysts are forecasting even more new hotel openings in the coming years with 368 hotels and 52,760 rooms to open in 2025 and 427 new hotels and 59,606 rooms to open in 2026.

Most pipeline projects in Europe are concentrated in the upper upscale, upscale, and upper midscale chain scales, according to LE, with the upscale chain leading with 358 projects and 55,936 rooms, which is 21% of the pipeline. The upper midscale segment represented 335 projects and 50,566 rooms, 20% of the pipeline. Upper upscale projects reached a record high of 268 projects and 43,417 rooms, which represented a 9% increase in projects year over year.

Renovation and conversion projects in Europe reached an all-time high of 825 projects and 95,519 rooms in the second quarter.

Europe experienced significant growth in new hotel openings in the second quarter, with 81 hotels and 10,569 rooms opening, a 72% increase from the first quarter. Through the year's first half, 128 new hotels and 16,829 rooms opened in Europe. LE analysts are forecasting an additional 202 new hotels and 27,106 rooms to open in the second half of the year, bringing the total forecast for new openings to 330 hotels and 43,935 rooms in 2024.

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