Ibis has become Europe’s outright number one hotel brand in 2013, with 1,277 hotels and 121,882 rooms across the continent.“This represents a major move in the rankings, as it positions owning group Accor – already the number one hotel group in Europe – as also having the leading brand in the market with Ibis,” comments CEO, MKG Group, Georges Panayotis.
Part of the growth represents new property developments, whilst the bulk is a result of a major repositioning strategy by Accor to amalgamate and uniform the Ibis product with former brands Etap Hotels and All Seasons. Ibis now has the largest number of rooms in Europe, significantly more than any other chain.
“The complete renewal of our Economy supply through the ibis mega brand project, which concerns more than 1,600 hotels in the world, has been implemented by Accor at an unprecedented speed in history of the hospitality industry. It is a response to the evolution of consumer needs and supports our accelerated international development. I am very happy that this first place in the European brand ranking rewards the exceptional mobilisation of Accor’s staff at every level, as well as of all our franchisees,” states President & CEO Accor Group, Denis Hennequin.
The change in ranking pushes former number one American brand Best Western to second spot, now with 90,738 rooms, a small increase over last year. With five new properties and a total of almost 57,000 rooms, Accor’s other brand Mercure makes up the top three.
In another year of very limited organic growth in new hotel constructions, UK brands Premier Inn and Travelodge also showed good movement in supply, spurred by new openings for the London Olympic Games. Premier Inn injected over 5,000 new rooms to reach a total of 50,744, and cement its fourth position in the European hotel brand rankings. Travelodge added over 3,300 new rooms to current stock, allowing the brand to move up two spots in the rankings. Both brands however, continue to maintain the majority of their supply in the UK only.
Other significant brand movers with increasing supply in 2013 are B&B, Holiday Inn Express, Ramada and Premiere Classe.
Meanwhile, Hilton International and Novotel both record a decrease in room supply, however this does not affect any of their standings in the top ten.
“The rest of the year should remain more or less stagnant throughout much of Europe. Although some new supply will enter the market, particularly in Eastern Europe, whilst some properties will abolish their agreement with a brand, overall rankings should not be overly impacted,” concludes Panayotis.
