Marriott Plans to Double European Hotel Rooms by 2020 | Bloomberg
Marriott International Inc. plans to double the number of hotel rooms it has in Europe within five years to take advantage of growth in tourism and business travel.
The world’s second-largest publicly traded hotel company will have signed or opened 150,000 rooms in the region by 2020, compared with 74,000 now, according to a statement Monday. Most of the growth will come from properties aimed at business and budget travelers through the Moxy Hotels and Courtyard brands.
“Europe is still the most popular destination in the world,” Amy McPherson, European president of Marriott International, said in an interview on the sidelines of the International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin. “London is strong, the U.K. provinces are strong, and in Germany we’ve had a pretty good start to the year.”
Hotel occupancy across the industry grew 2.1 percent in Europe last year, the best performance in a decade, while revenue per available room rose about 6 percent, according to data compiled by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
Marriott has a 1 percent market share in Europe, a more fragmented region than the U.S. where the company operates about 10 percent of hotels, according to Chief Executive Officer Arne Sorenson. By the end of 2016, more than 1,000 rooms will be added in Russia and three Moxy hotels,a boutique budget brand, will open in London.
“A lot of the growth we’re driving is simply about taking
share,” Sorenson said.
