Hyatt is planning further expansion in Europe as it opened a new landmark hotel next to London’s redeveloped Olympia exhibition and conference venue.
The 204-room Hyatt Regency London Olympia debuted on Tuesday (7 July) as part of a long-awaited £1.3 billion redevelopment of Olympia in West London.
The Olympia property, which has been created through the redevelopment of a historic former multi-storey car park, becomes the fifth Hyatt Regency hotel in London and Hyatt’s 18th location across the UK.
Marc Jacheet, Hyatt’s group president, EMEA, highlighted the hotel firm’s expansion ambitions in Europe, during a press conference to mark the hotel’s opening. He said there were “opportunities” to add more European properties across its Essentials, Classics, Lifestyle and Luxury brand categories.
“We have tremendous opportunities across the world in general, and specifically in Europe, to expand the scale of our operations in Classics and Essentials in the top 10 feeder markets, of which the UK is one,” added Jacheet.
Hyatt Regency is part of the Classics portfolio and its latest London location will soon be joined by the brand’s first property in Italy — Hyatt Regency Rome Central — which is due to open by the end of the third quarter.
“We are expanding our footprint in Luxury and Lifestyle in the top 20 gateway destinations. In Luxury and Lifestyle, we have lots of exciting openings in Thompson Seville and Thompson Rome, and we just opened Andaz Lisbon,” added Jacheet.
Hyatt currently has 170 hotels in Europe across 19 brands, with Italy a major focus for expansion in the coming years.
Alongside the 238-room Hyatt Regency in Rome, Hyatt is also scheduled to unveil Thompson Rome in late 2026, while Park Hyatt Taormina in Sicily is slated to debut in 2028.
Jacheet emphasised that Hyatt was looking for the “right” properties in Europe rather than just aiming for expansion “at scale”.
“We are really looking for the point of relevance: what’s the right timing in the right place with the right guest profile,” he added.
“We are selective. We’re not looking for mass scale — we want to have projects that are relevant to the markets. That’s what matters to us.”
As well as its proximity to Olympia’s venues, Hyatt Regency London Olympia also offers a lounge and bar, “grab and go” hotel market, plus access to the adjoining Idalia restaurant in Olympia’s historic Pillar Hall. Other facilities include three meeting and event spaces, and on-site fitness centre.
The revamped Olympia complex features the new British Airways ARC live entertainment venue, which has capacity for 3,800 people and opened last month. It will be followed by British Airways Theatre at Olympia, which will be able to house up to 1,575 guests, when it debuts in 2027.