Hoteliers throughout Germany hope the return of the biggest global football tournament next to the FIFA World Cup will provide a significant boost to the country's hotels.
The 17th UEFA European Championship 2024 — colloquially referred to as Euro 2024 — takes place between June 14 and July 14. All told, the tournament comprises more than 50 matches, teams from two dozen European nations and 10 host cities. Berlin, Cologne, Dortmund, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Gelsenkirchen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Munich and Stuttgart will each host Euro 2024 matches, and the final is scheduled for July 14 at Berlin's 71,000-seat Olympiastadion.
So far, hotel demand is up in the earlier stages of the tournament, said Tom Emanuel, senior director of STR, CoStar’s hospitality analytics division. Hotels in Germany are posting some strong business on the books — or hotel room nights booked in advance — for the group stages of the tournament.
“The strongest numbers are coming from Cologne, Stuttgart and Leipzig, where occupancies are already north of 70%. … This is not unusual for a large event, but as always, we will look at the potential for displacements also, which happens when those who would usually visit a market do not because of the event,” he said.
As of May 6, hotel occupancy on the books during the Euro 2024 group stage was highest in Cologne on June 19 for Switzerland vs. Scotland at 81%, in Leipzig on June 21 for The Netherlands vs. France at 77%, in Cologne on June 15 for Hungary vs. Switzerland at 77%, and in Stuttgart on June 19 for Hungary vs. Germany at 76%.
Another hotel demand trend to watch during Euro 2024 is that hotel business on the books is actually weaker for the knockout stages of the competition, Emanuel said.
“Even up to the final, whereas of May 6, only 38% of rooms had been booked for that night in Berlin,” he said. “I am sure that we will see a strong pickup however, once we know which teams will qualify for the knockout stages as fans, dignitaries and the media descend upon these cities for some exciting knockout football.”
On the whole, Europe's biggest hotel markets in major cities are busy all summer long, so it can be difficult to gauge the hotel performance impact of major events such as the Olympics, continent-wide football tournaments or even royal happenings.
London's hotels, for example, saw little uptick when King Charles III was crowned in 2023 due to the immense popularity of the United Kingdom capital as a tourist destination.
Emanuel said the same hotel demand phenomenon could happen in Germany's two largest cities during Euro 2024.
“As you might expect, the impact of the matches is not so evident when looking at Germany’s two largest cities and hotel markets, Berlin and Hamburg,” he said.
David Goodger, managing director for Europe and the Middle East at Tourism Economics, said he expects performance in Germany for Euro 2024 to have a larger impact than Euro 2016, which was held in France.
“We expect the Euros 2024 football tournament … to outperform the 2016 event due to improved connectivity across German cities, excess savings built up over the last few years and the fact that more cities are hosting games in Germany than they did in France,” Goodger said.
The last edition of the tournament was held in 2021, not in its scheduled year of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Lockdown rules caused the hosting of the tournament to be shared by 12 cities in 12 countries. The final, won by Italy, was held in London. It was the first major crowd-attended, international event to be staged across Europe following years of lockdowns across the continent.
It's also early to predict how much football fans are willing to spend on their Euro 2024 trips, Goodger said. One caveat is the effect of inflation and the general cost-of-living crises of recent years, which could shorten trips and lengths of stay at hotels throughout Germany.
“There are, however, questions as to affordability given high inflation across the region, but so far there has been enormous interest and demand for tickets in the tournament. There may just be some trade-off in how long ticket holders stay, whether they plan a day trip instead of an overnight and how much they spend while they are there,” he added.
Germany's hotels could use a lift. The country's hotel industry had a good end of 2023 after a downward trend for a decent portion of the year. Germany's hotel revenue per available room rose year over year in November and December by 9% and 16%, respectively, both months being essentially driven by occupancy increases.
In January, the performance uptick was even greater, with RevPAR increasing 18% in year-over-year terms, with an increase in average daily rate helping as much as an increase in occupancy in percentage terms.
February and March saw some key performance indicators being almost flat or even negative, a similar scenario to what was seen in August, September and October of 2023.