On January 1^st 2006, the hotel chains supply in Europe has increased by 3,7%, a real push on the accelerator that is felt even more strongly amongst the top ten hotel groups, which are especially dynamic. Whereas at the beginning of 2005, their supply had only increased by 0,5%, this year, the growth is of 4,9%, hence 32 819 rooms.

5 groups have exceeded an increase of 4000 rooms: Accor, Best Western, InterContinental, Rezidor SAS and especially Starwood Hotels, which integrates the European supply of Le Meridien in its perimeter and makes its appearance in the top ten of European hotel groups.

This new acceleration seems to mark a trend reversal : after having reached the bottom of a cycle, the growth of demand is today an established fact that encourages the openings of establishments.

The Group Accor, 1st European group, relies on the development of Etap Hotel

The Accor group, the unchallenged European leader, totalizes through all of its brands, three times more rooms than its two immediate followers, Best Western and InterContinental Hotels Group, and four times more than its French rival, Louvre Hotels. 

If its Leading brands, Ibis, Mercure, Formule 1 and Novotel, record modest growths, even a slight decrease for Novotel, the growth of Etap Hotel (+ 7,6%) demonstrates the dynamism of budget hotels. 

The year 2005 will especially be remembered by the number and the importance of the financial transactions on the industry with two series of operations: massive transfers of assets and changes of shareholding.

Besides the billion euros brought under the from of convertible bonds by Colony Capital, the Accor Group has mobilized a second billion euros, by selling the ownership of 128 hotels to the Foncière des Murs. The groups Hilton International, InterContinental and Whitbread have also sold for several million euros the assets of part of their supply, sometimes losing the management of the hotel such as the InterContitnental in Paris.

Furthermore whole groups have changed hands, such as B&B sold by Duke Street to Eurazeo or the Taittinger group leaving the bosom of the family to the American Starwood Capital. Other operations have taken place at the beginning of the year such as the takeover of Hilton International by Hilton Corporation or are taking place such as the transfer of Travelodge by the Permira funds, the sale of the property of Macdonald hotels. 

Only in 2005, more than 10 billion euros in financial transactions have taken place in the hotel industry, in a very vast majority because of the investment funds that are on the look for investments.

Methodology

MKG Consulting is the European leader in consulting for the Hotel, Tourism and Catering sector, and has the largest hotel database in the world outside the USA, with a good representation of all the hotel segments. The monthly program of MKG database is based on a sample of 10 000 corporate chain hotels, representing 1 000 000 rooms.

Since September 2004, the MKG Consulting database proposes a program that allows the daily monitoring of activity indicators for each hotel. This program counts 1 500 hotels and 125 000 rooms in France which makes it the most developed daily program in Europe.