Read the latest hotel industry news from Europe.

Performance metrics for London hotels showed some slight improvement in April compared with previous months, albeit at overall low levels, according to data from STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm. Occupancy for the month reached 28.6%, average daily rate was 67.13 pounds sterling ($95.05) and revenue per available room was 19.23 pounds sterling.

STR analysts said the “absolute occupancy level was the highest for any month in London since October 2020, while the ADR and RevPAR levels were the highest since December 2020.” More improvements are expected in the next round of data, following the U.K. government decision to allow hotels to reopen on May 17.

British hoteliers celebrated the full reopening of hotels on May 17, the second time hotels have reopened. Scottish hotels reopened three weeks earlier, on April 26. This time around, hoteliers said they feel more confident due to a year’s worth of knowledge and operations and due to increased vaccinations, according to Hotel News Now's Terence Baker.

Peter Hancock, CEO of Pride of Britain Hotels, said he is optimistic hotels will stay open longer, perhaps for good, saying “the great difference this time is more certainty, with all the stats pointing to the lifting of restrictions and no further lockdowns. It means there is a real prospect for hoteliers, and those restaurateurs still in the game, to start to recover the losses made over the last 13 months.”

The next important date is June 21, when all restrictions in the U.K. are due to be lifted.

Hoteliers in Spain are optimistic about the future of their assets, despite the U.K. government still barring U.K. travelers from visiting the country unless they undergo quarantine upon their arrival home. Hotel brands active in Spain are moving ahead with new openings at the same time investors are actively growing their interest in the sector, according to HNN contributor Benjamin Jones.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in mid-May that travelers from anywhere in the world who had been fully vaccinated by the vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization or the European Medicines Agency could enter the country without a negative test or quarantine starting June 7.

In the first quarter of 2021, Europe was the only world region reporting increased hotel construction activity when compared to the end of the first quarter of 2020, according to data from CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm, STR, and HNN’s Terence Baker.

Pipeline data as of March 2021 showed 258,129 hotel rooms in construction in Europe — a year-over-year increase of 26.9% — along with 181,101 rooms in the final planning stage (+23.7%).

Sharon Grob, client development director of hotels for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Tétris Design & Build, said the push is in design-led properties and that it is “country-specific, but every hotel in drive-to destinations are solidly booked. For example, on the Baltic coasts, Andermatt [an alpine resort destination in Switzerland] had had its best year ever. There is fresh air, and people still want holidays.”

With the United Kingdom's fast vaccine rollout and hotels having fully reopened on May 17, the country's hotel industry is in the best shape it has been for a while, according to STR director Thomas Emanuel.

U.K. officials plan to lift all remaining restrictions on June 21, but with COVID-19 transmissions rising, but importantly hospitalizations not following the same trajectory, there remain some nagging doubts.

• Yotel made its debut in Iberia with the May 28 opening of the 150-room Yotel Porto, in Porto, Portugal, owned by United Investments Portugal.

• IHG Hotels & Resorts and owner SGI Invest Ltd. have opened the first Holiday Inn in Armenia with the 191-room Holiday Inn Yerevan-Republic Square that occupies two buildings that were formerly a gymnasium and a library.

• Core Hospitality, the Danish operator part of Zleep Hotels, which is 51% owned by Deutsche Hospitality, has signed an agreement with Marriott International to debut its Fairfield by Marriott brand in Europe. The opening of the 222-room Fairfield by Marriott Copenhagen Nordhavn in Copenhagen is expected in 2023 and will be in a dual-branded building that will also contain another Marriott brand, the Residence Inn Copenhagen Nordhavn.

• Asian hotel firm Banyan Tree will debut in Europe with the 196-key Angsana Corfu Resort & Spa, on the Greek island of Corfu, on June 15;
• Tabamara Ltd. has sold the 215-room Hilton Bracknall to KSL Capital Partners LLC for 17.5 million pounds sterling. Roughly equidistant to Reading and Heathrow Airport, the hotel is expected to be rebranded.

• Accor brand Mama Shelter will open three new assets in Europe before the year is finished. The properties are the 217-room Mama Roma, to open in July; the 130-room Mama Lisboa, to open in November; and the 211-room Mama Paris La Défense, the brand’s third hotel in the French capital, to open also in November.
• Bain Capital Credit and Stoneweg Hospitality acquired the 400-room Andalucía Plaza in Marbella, Spain, and which will, “until the end of 2021,” continue to be managed by owner-operator H10 Hotels.