In Germany we can clearly see the early impact of the World Cup already. RevPAR was up 35.8% in May with an occupancy increase of 18.1% and average rates up 15.0%.

Amongst the cities which are included in this report, Frankfurt achieved the highest RevPAR growth in May (57.6%) followed by Brussels (44.9%), Oslo (30.6%) and Amsterdam (25.0%).

James Chappell, Managing Director of The Bench said “May has been a good month for European hotels. Western Europe as a whole grew 16.3% in RevPAR, with the key cities in those countries combining to produce over 18% growth. Germany is responsible for much of this as things started to gear up for the World Cup in June, although cities like Vienna and Brussels have had solid growth for the second month in a row. Oslo leads the year to date growth chart with slightly over 20%, followed by Amsterdam on 14.3%. Early indications are that some economies are concerned about inflation, for example the UK where there is the possibility of an interest rate increase in June. The medium term effects of European governments trying to put the brake on unsustainable growth might lead to a cut in consumer spending and that will impact hotels during the traditional leisure month of August. For the time being, June and July look strong”