Labour costs are rising 7-10% in 2025 while revenues lag behind, forcing hotels to shift from headcount-based planning to strategic workforce optimization models.
The sample of branded full-service hotels in London recorded a healthy increase in profit during the 12-month period ending in May 2025, relative to the same time last year. GOP per available room (GOP PAR) rose by 4.7%, driven by a 2.4% decrease in expenses and a 0.8% revenue increase.
The UK government’s April 2025 increase in the National Living Wage—from £11.44 to £12.21 per hour—isn’t just a regulatory update. It’s a fundamental shift in the economics of hospitality. Labour costs are rising sharply, and profitability is under pressure. But the impact isn’t uniform. Some cities are struggling. Others are adapting. A few are even thriving.
It’s been a buoyant cycle for hotels in Ireland: long, sustained periods of rising demand, and either constrained supply, or new supply that has been easily absorbed. Transactions have also been strong on the back of these favorable dynamics.
What could be safer than a Swiss bank? This article takes a deep dive into what Swiss authorities are doing to restore confidence in the country’s banking system. As discussed in a previous article, the Public Liquidity Backstop (PLB) is a measure implemented by the Swiss government to insulate the country’s banking system from a run on its systemically-important banks. Designed prior to the involuntary merger between Credit Suisse and UBS, the PLB will, at long last, go into effect in 2025. Yet, the measure could have unintended consequences that need to be fully considered. So how did Credit Suisse (CS) collapse in the first place?
On March 16, 2023, the Federal Council of Switzerland declared an emergency order introducing the Public Liquidity Backstop (PLB)1. In doing so, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) granted a CHF 100 billion loan to Credit Suisse (federal default guaranteed)2. In September of the same year, the Federal Council also presented its (provisional) draft bill concerning the PLB for banks of systemic importance3.
Spanish hotel transactions exceeded €1.6Bn in H1 2024, involving 56 properties and over 8,100 rooms. This is about a 3% increase compared to H1 2023 and 56% above the 5-year average (2019-2023). The Balearics, Barcelona, and Madrid were the most active hotel investment markets, supported by healthy operating results. Elevated investment activity is expected going forward, likely exceeding €3.0Bn by the end of 2024.
Driven by more flexible legislation, hotel management leasing in France is attracting a growing number of investors thanks to its excellent risk-benefit ratio.
With a 40% drop in the number of overnight stays in 2020, the Swiss hotel sector is on the verge of suffocation. An exceptional season this summer, however, could limit the damage.
Like many people, I returned to my desk this week after the now-familiar five-second commute between the kitchen and my office at home and pondered what the New Year is likely to bring the UK hotel industry. By the time Boris Johnson started his TV broadcast at 8pm on Monday and Lockdown 3.0 had now commenced, any optimism we might have had was substantially depleted.
Switzerland is a very special country because, thanks to its stability, it has always been considered a safe haven where international investors put their resources when there is economic turmoil and uncertainty in the rest of the world. The combination of these two features - a high degree of openness and a currency which has a tendency to appreciate - makes Switzerland a very interesting case study. Why? Because a strong currency reduces the ability of Switzerland to trade.
The hospitality industry has been one of the sectors most badly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Across the UK, all pubs, bars and restaurants have had to close their doors and shut up shop, in order to abide by the unprecedented measures ordered by the Government.
Off-plan hotel leases are often complex and lengthy contracts to negotiate. The parties involved generally engage in several rounds of negotiations, and both the owner and tenant must bitterly debate the guarantees imposed by the former, whose financial stakes are high.
A proverb states that prudence does not avoid all misfortune, but a lack of prudence never fails to attract it. This is why due diligence is a vital step in buying a hotel. In a hotel acquisition context, the term "due diligence" refers to the investigations carried out by the prospective buyer. These investigations focus both on the hotel assets (i.e. the operating building as a whole) and the company that owns these assets or operates the hotel. Due diligence must also enable the buyer to fully appreciate the hotel's business, understand its structure, environment and market, and analyse the long-term viability of their project.
When heads of state come to visit your hotel they usually make a bit of a show. The Russians are no exception, they even bring their own warship, the KGB and a wad of cash!
This March 28–30, HFTP is producing its newest endeavor, HITEC Amsterdam, a smaller, boutique version of the ongoing, popular 45-year event. Helping to guide the educational component is long-time HFTP member, Carson Booth, vice president of global technology for Marriott International (Starwood). Using his expertise in the European, and international, hotel market, Booth leads a council of advisors to make the program uniquely European, with global appeal.
Success in the hospitality industry is becoming ever more elusive: approximately 27 pubs are closing every week; nearly half of the UK's nightclubs have shut down over the past decade and over 40,000 hotel rooms closed in the ten years up to 2013. But it's not all doom and gloom; for example, PWC predicts that this year will see the highest regional hotel occupancy ever and the highest in London this decade.
Some are calling it the “distressed real estate gold rush in Europe.” Others who have been expecting 1990s-style opportunistic investment opportunities for several years, now are seeing a change in European banks’ willingness to sell distressed loans at discounts to clean up their books. Several significant deals have been announced with big name investors and more are underway. What is happening? And what is the opportunity for investors? Is it too late already?
With an extended version of The GOPPAR Model we have a structured dashboarding tool containing both operational and marketing KPIs, realizing a broad spectrum of information for monitoring and analyzing the hospitality business. The model enriches the basic version with a focus on guests instead of renting customers, and by zooming in on occupancy with the help of the queuing theory.
The hotel industry is doing better than most expected in Europe. But does that mean pessimism was overdramatic in 2009 or has performance surprised everyone? It looks as though it could be a bit of both, according to the facts and figures presented during Deloitte’s European Hotel Investment Conference earlier this month at The Dorchester. The pre-conference delegate survey conducted by TNS Research International showed some pessimistic sentiments a year ago.