The majority of hotel buyers believe that negotiated rates at Marriott/Starwood and IHG will edge up by between 1 and 2% in the year ahead, according to research carried out by AlphaWise and Morgan Stanley.
In the 15th annual Global Hotel Corporate Travel Survey of 234 buyers, the bank forecasts hotel volumes to be 1.5% higher in 2018 than 2017 and rates to be an average of 1.3% higher than this year.
The report predicts room rate growth of one percentage point in both France and Germany and predicts RevPAR in Europe up 4% in 2018. "France in particular has lots of catch-up potential as room rates fell this year despite occupancies growing strongly," the report says.
Source: AlphaWise, Morgan Stanley
For the UK, the bank says that RevPAR has slowed sharply in recent months, particularly in London but still suggests an increase in RevPAR of 1.8% for the country.
Buyers responding to the bank's survey were also positive about travel budgets for 2018, with 63% of corporate travel managers saying they expected budgets (air and hotel) to increase in 2018. In 2017, this figure was 55%. The expected increase in budgets is an average of 2.8%, against 2.4% in 2017.