1,100 new hotels will open in Europe by 2026, according to the latest report by Lodging Econometrics (LE), “Europe Hotel Construction Pipeline Trend Report Q2 2024”. Analysts report, however, that the region’s total pipeline is 1,680 projects, corresponding to 249,454 rooms at the end of the second quarter of this year, according to a report by Publituris.
The analysis places 114 more new hotels in Portugal to open by 2026, corresponding to 14,247 rooms. These figures make Portugal the fifth country in Europe with the most openings planned by 2026, behind the United Kingdom (306 projects/43,515 rooms), Germany (178 projects/28,637 rooms), France (120 projects/12,831 rooms) and Turkey (117 projects/17,856 rooms).
As for cities, Lisbon stands out, coming in 3rd place, with 36 projects, corresponding to 4,425 rooms. This means that the capital of Portugal is only behind London, United Kingdom (76 projects/14,954 rooms) and Istanbul, Turkey (50 projects/8,397 rooms), but ahead of Dublin, Ireland (26 projects/5,012 rooms) and Düsseldorf, Germany (24 projects/4,448 rooms).
At the end of Q2 2024, there were 755 projects/117,908 rooms under construction in Europe, representing 45% of projects and 47% of rooms in the total pipeline. Projects scheduled to start construction in the next 12 months represent 412 projects/59,850 rooms, or 25% of projects and 24% of rooms. Projects in the early planning phase comprise 513 projects/71,696 rooms, representing 31% of projects and 29% of rooms in the total pipeline. LE data also indicates that in Q2, most of the projects in the pipeline in Europe were concentrated in upper upscale, upscale and upper midscale hotel chains. The upscale segment leads with 358 projects/55,936 rooms, representing 21% of the project pipeline. The upper midscale segment comes next with 335 projects/50,566 rooms, representing 20% of the project pipeline. Projects in the upper upscale segment account for 16% of the total project pipeline, reaching a record 268 projects with 43,417 rooms and representing a 9% increase in projects compared to the previous year. It is worth noting that renovation and conversion projects in Europe reached an all-time high of 825 projects with 95,519 rooms in the second quarter.
Europe also saw significant growth in new hotel openings during the second quarter, with 81 new hotels and 10,569 rooms, an increase of 72% compared to the first quarter. In total, 128 new hotels with 16,829 rooms opened across Europe in the first and second quarters.
LE analysts predict an additional 202 new hotels with 27,106 rooms will open in the third and fourth quarters of this year, bringing the total number of new openings forecast for 2024 to 330 hotels with 43,935 rooms.
As a result of the number of hotel projects currently under construction in Europe, LE’s forecast for new hotel openings will continue to rise in the coming years. As such, continued growth in new hotel openings is expected, with 368 new hotels/52,760 rooms scheduled to open in 2025 and 427 new hotels/59,606 rooms expected to open in 2026.