The annual Hotel Chain Development Pipeline Survey, from W Hospitality Group, reveals the top 10 hotel brands and number of planned hotels in Africa. A new front-runner takes the first position by knocking back Hilton and Radisson Blue which for years have been locked in a contest for first and second place.
The survey reveals that Ibis Styles leads the top 10 brands list. It has 28 planned hotels, followed by Radisson Blu with 25, Mercure with 24 and Hilton slipping into fourth place with 16. Ibis Styles and Mercure’s first and third positions are due to AccorHotels mega-deal for 50 hotels in Angola.
The W Hospitality Group 2016 survey provides a comprehensive picture of hotel development across the continent – 36 hotel chains and 86 brands with more than 64,000 rooms in 365 hotels. The survey, now in its eighth year, is published ahead of the AHIF Hotel Investment Forum (AHIF), which is organised by Bench Events, and takes place in Togo on June 21-22.
While Ibis Styles leads on the number of planned hotels, the top ten rankings by number of rooms reveal a different picture. Radisson Blu leads this category with 5,693 planned rooms, Hilton is in second place with 4,851 and Ibis Styles comes in third with 3,822.
The hotel pipeline for Hilton’s core brand has reduced slightly but the Hilton Garden Inn brand shows higher growth, now at 14 hotels with 2,556 rooms. Also seeing strong growth, but from a small base, is the Fairmont brand, up 109% with 1,412 planned rooms.
Due to its mega-deal in Angola, AccorHotels leads the table of planned hotels and rooms by hotel chain, rather than by brand. Hilton Worldwide comes in at second place. Carlson Rezidor shows lower growth, just 5.5% on 2015. But it’s worth remembering that it opened the most hotels of any chain in 2015, a total of eight Radisson Blu and Park Inn hotels with 1,460 rooms. The chain continues to make good progress, signing seven new deals in 2015 with 1,400 rooms. Starwood also experienced strong growth, adding 1,142 rooms to its African pipeline and Movenpick moved up a gear, signing deals in Abuja, Abidjan and Nairobi.
