The UK holds first place in Europe
Savills published its UK Hotels Report 2026 with the UK in first place among European hotel investment markets. The firm reports that the UK has ranked first in seven of the last ten years. Spain took the top place in 2022 and 2023 on the post-pandemic leisure rebound.
The share line carries the claim. The UK took 30 per cent of European hotel transaction volumes in 2024, and 24 per cent in both 2025 and the first half of 2026.
Half-year volume reached GBP2.1 billion
UK hotel transactions reached about GBP2.1 billion in the first half of 2026, an increase of almost GBP500 million on the same half of 2025. Savills reports UK volumes above GBP5 billion in both 2024 and 2025.
London carried GBP1.4 billion of the half-year total, which Savills puts at 69 per cent of it. Single-asset deals accounted for about GBP1.3 billion of that. Regional UK volumes reached GBP0.7 billion in the first half and GBP2.0 billion in 2025. Across the 18 months to June 2026 the average regional deal size was GBP12.3 million, at an average of GBP114,000 per key. On Savills’ own figures, regional UK volume in the first half exceeded the whole of either Italy or Germany.
What a revenue desk takes from it
Supply grew 0.6 per cent in the 12 months to June 2026, and rooms under construction represented 2.6 per cent of existing stock. London opened 11,286 rooms since 2019, a 7 per cent increase in stock.
The rate line moved with it. UK ADR growth slowed from 8.5 per cent in 2023 to 1 per cent in 2025, then improved to 2.1 per cent in the first half of 2026. London real RevPAR sat 5 per cent below its 2019 level in 2025, and its 0.6 per cent growth in the first half of 2026 came from ADR alone with occupancy unchanged.
Demand held across the sample. VisitBritain forecasts 44.2 million inbound visits and GBP33.9 billion of visitor spending in 2026, a 2 per cent increase on 2025 in both visits and nominal spending. Twenty-three of the 32 markets Savills analyses recorded year-on-year RevPAR growth in the first half of 2026, and 22 of the 32 stayed below 2019 in real terms across full-year 2025.
Costs move against the rate line
Payroll rose from 28 to 30 per cent of revenue across the UK, and from 27 to 29 per cent in London. Rateable values for four-star hotels and above rose by an average of 96 per cent in the revaluation effective 1 April 2026, against 37 per cent for three-star hotels and below. Transitional relief unwinds by 2029. The 20 per cent business-rate reduction from 2027/28 covers pubs, social clubs and smaller live music venues, and it excludes hotels.
Savills reports hotel insolvencies at an elevated level in 2025, with moderation during the first half of 2026.
A second measure from a second firm
Cushman & Wakefield publishes its own half-year measure in MarketBeat Europe Hospitality. That firm records UK hotel transactions at EUR3.22 billion for the first half of 2026, an increase of 74 per cent on the same half of 2025, which places the UK first in its country table ahead of Spain at EUR2.66 billion. It puts total European hotel investment at EUR11.7 billion, a 9.5 per cent decline on the prior-year half and just under 20 per cent above the ten-year average. The average European price per room rose 9 per cent year on year to EUR228,416, and European supply grew 2.9 per cent against the first half of 2025.
Each figure carries the scope of the firm that published it. Savills measures its own UK transaction set in sterling and reports one total for the half. Cushman & Wakefield measures a pan-European set and reports its country table in euros.
What the figures leave open
Savills describes the half-year totals as estimates and publishes no transaction register behind them. Its values by segment, region and ownership structure sit in the report body, which the firm sells as a separate download.
Two numbers govern a 2027 budget: supply growth of 0.6 per cent and ADR growth of 2.1 per cent. Price the year against the cost base rather than against the transaction headline.