STR report finds midscale hotels lead Europe's pipeline

According to STR’s March 2017 Pipeline Report, Europe saw an increase in hotels in construction, but a decrease in hotels under contract. This would indicate solid confidence in short-term demand, but growing wariness about the long term.

The report shows 162,732 rooms in 1,035 hotel projects under contract in Europe. The total represents a 0.7 percent decrease in rooms under contract compared with March 2016. Europe reported 73,370 rooms in 461 projects in construction for the month. Based on number of rooms, that is a 16.2-percent increase in year-over-year comparisons.

Among chain scale segments, the upper midscale segment accounted for the largest portion of rooms under contract (27.8 percent with 45,206 rooms) and in construction (24.0 percent with 17,625 rooms).

Upscale (23.1 percent with 16,927 rooms) was the only other segment to represent 20.0 percent or more of rooms in construction. 

Last month, Europe was facing a 1.3-percent decrease in rooms under contract compared with February 2016, showing that the decrease has slowed month to month. Similarly, February's report saw a 15.9-percent increase in year-over-year comparisons for rooms in construction, meaning that category is also improving. 

Under contract data includes projects in the In construction, Final Planning and Planning stages but does not include projects in the Unconfirmed stage.