More than 5000 new luxury hotels are being constructed worldwide. The aggressive expansion strategy of leading hotel chains, combined with drastically changing quality awareness of customers is putting large amounts of pressure on significant hotel markets.
Worldwide, the number of new hotel constructions has been increasing for many years. According to calculations made by the international information service for hotel projects and hotel chains, July is seeing 143 new openings alone.
Especially in the upper segment of luxury hotels, the market pressure is rapidly increasing. Recently, Mandarin Oriental announced a new opening for its second 241-room high end hotel in China's capital of Beijing for 2016.
American hotel company Marriott International also bets on new luxury hotels. At the end of May, they opened a JW Marriott Hotel with the only suite house by Ritz-Carlton. The new opening of another JW Marriott Hotel (228 rooms) in the ThejiangAnjoim Yangtze-river delta increased the number of high-end hotels of this luxury brand in China to eleven.
Furthermore, another JW Marriott top hotel (750 rooms) was opened in Washington D.C. The big highlight of this series of JW Marriott Hotels is a resort (191 rooms) on a private island near Venice.
Marriot also expands its hotel brand Ritz Carlton. This summer, the world-renowned hotel re-opened in Cairo. There is also a new Ritz Carlton with 192 rooms going to open in Budapest with only a short distance to St. Stephan Cathedral; the opening is currently planned for 2016. The next Ritz Carlton Hotel scheduled to open this summer is a new house in Jeddah, Saudi-Arabia with 224 rooms.
Starwood is also pushing its top hotel brands. Maldives is to see an opening of St. Regis Resorts (77 private villas on the Vommuli Atoll) in 2016. Other hotels by St. Regis were recently built in Moscow, Mumbai and Dubai.
The previous Conrad Hotel in Chicago (Hilton-group) will be rebuilt and reopened as a house of the exquisite Luxury Collection. The first hotel of Starwood's own Luxury Collection is now opened in Kyoto, Japan.
Top Hotel Chains Expansion
Ritz Carlton |
34 new projects, among others in Muscat, Marrakech, Nanjing, Chongqing, Hainan, Macau and Mumbai |
Four Seasons Hotels |
34 new projects, among others in Agadir, Bangalore, Bahrain, Boston, Goa, Kuwait City, New Delhi and Kuala Lumpur |
St. Regis |
19 new projects, among others in Istanbul, Napa Valley, Jakarta, Nanjing, Dubai and Cairo |
Shangri-La Hotels |
17 new projects, among others in Colombo, Hangzhou, Nanchang and Shaoxing |
Mandarin Oriental Hotels |
14 new projects, among others in Beijing, Milan, Istanbul, Dubai, Moscow, Marrakech and in the Maldives |
Aman Resorts |
8 new projects, among others in Shanghai and Libreville |
One & Only Hotels |
5 new projects, among others in Jeddah, Bahrain and Sanya |
Oberoi Hotels |
3 new projects in Casablanca and Marrakech |