Roundup: Despite coronavirus, global hotel openings healthy in April

by | 01 Apr 2020 | Hotel Openings, Projects

Despite the coronavirus crisis new hotels are opening worldwide. (Photo from Pexels)

The global hotel industry is experiencing shockwaves due to the blanket threat of Covid-19, but there is still a healthy spate of openings set to happen in April.

It might seem like 2020 is only getting weirder, but numbers pulled from the TOPHOTELCONSTRUCTION database tell us that there are almost 250 new hotels set to open their doors this month, bringing 45,011 rooms to the international market, compared to 298 openings in March.

We take a look inside the global pipeline for April.

North America overtakes China…again

For the second month running, North America has polled top of the leaderboard in terms of hotel openings across the globe’s markets.

The US has been engaged in a tug of war with China on many fronts, and up until recently, China was the hospitality market’s consistent victor. Not anymore. In March, North America welcomed more hotels than China, owing to a bounce in its hotel sector because of a strong economy.

No doubt May’s figures will tell a very different story, as hotels, restaurants and airlines are on lockdown because of the now international coronavirus crisis that is crippling many sectors of the global economy.

But for the moment, things are still looking good for April, unless things change drastically within the next few days, but everything is so uncertain at this point that it is difficult to tell.

North America is set to receive 88 new hotels this month, with Europe (according to the database, but figures may have changed on the ground considering the severity of the crisis on the continent) opening 68 hotels and Asia Pacific opening 54 properties.

As far as individual countries go, the US is in pole position with 75 openings adding a total key count of 14,462 to North America’s hotel stock. Germany hopes to open the doors of 18 hotels this month, but China is dwindling with 15 (down 20 from March), so perhaps this is an indication that the growth in this sector has stalled as China has enforced a lockdown to tackle the spread of Covid-19.

Cities and brands

Boston, New York and Dubai have an equal number of openings in April, with four hotels apiece gearing up to welcome guests this month. It is unusual for New York not to be the busiest city, but again, perhaps coronavirus fears have made hoteliers more cautious than usual.

The biggest brands are a split between midscale brand Hampton by Hilton, extended-stay brand- Home2 Suites and digital nomad lifestyle brand Selina, with 16, 10 and 7 hotels respectively.