Analysis by William Anns
With the summer months fast approaching, sports fans are looking at the 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, which kicks off on Friday, 14 June. Set to take place across multiple locations in Germany, the annual football tournament is expected to affect hotel performance just as much as football fans across the continent. Utilizing Forward STAR data, the markets are already showing spikes in hotel bookings on and around the match dates.
Looking at the first two weeks of the championship, Cologne is showing the most significant hotel bookings thus far. As of 13 May, the highest occupancy on the books is on the night of the match between Switzerland and Scotland (Wednesday, 19 June; 82.3%) with the night before showing booking levels as high as 81.5%. The second-highest match day bookings are seen on Saturday, 15 June (79.6%), the night of Switzerland vs. Hungary. The market will host two more matches on Saturday, 22 June (Belgium vs. Romania), and Tuesday, 25 June (England vs. Slovenia), with booking levels currently at 61.4% and 58.0%, respectively.
Coming close to Cologne, Leipzig’s booking levels spike on Friday, 21 June, at 79.3% – the night of Netherlands vs. France. Stuttgart’s highest occupancy on the books is currently seen on the nights of two Hungary matches – one with Germany (Wednesday, 19 June; 76.2%) and one with Scotland (Sunday, 23 June; 72.5%).
Looking at Dusseldorf’s occupancy on the books, the market’s hotel bookings are led by the match between Austria and France, taking place on Monday, 17 June (74.7%). In Munich, the highest booking levels are seen on Wednesday, 19 June, at 80.1% - the night before the match between Serbia and Slovenia (75.4%). The market will also host a match between Germany and Scotland on 14 June, which currently shows booking levels at 67%. Looking at Frankfurt, the highest occupancy on the books is currently seen on Thursday, 20 June, at 64.0% (Denmark vs England).
On the opposite side of the scale are Berlin and Hamburg, where the impact of the is not as visible compared to the rest of the markets just yet. Berlin hotels currently show the highest occupancy on the books on the night of the match between the Netherlands and Austria (Tuesday, 25 June: 54.5%). The market is set to host the championship game on 14 July, and hotel bookings are expected to jump once the final two teams are announced.
Hamburg shows the highest match day hotel bookings on Saturday, 22 June, at 57.7% (Georgia vs. Czechia), and on Sunday, 16 June, at 53.2% (Poland vs. Netherlands). The night before the match between Poland and the Netherlands, however, shows a surprising jump in bookings (at 72.3%).
The last championship took place in London at Wembley Stadium from 1-15 July 2021. Due to the pandemic, the impact on hotels wasn’t as visible on the market as a whole, but looking at the Wembley area, spikes in performance were seen on the nights of semi-finals and finals in each of the three key performance metrics. The highest occupancy levels were seen on the second night of the semi-finals (Wednesday, 7 July 2021; 84.1%), with the average daily rate (ADR) recorded at GBP143.79 on the same night. The night of the finals (Sunday, 11 July 2021) posted the highest ADR levels – GBP154.13, with occupancy coming up to 83.0%.
Going back even further, during the 2016 Championship in Paris, hotel performance peaked on Wednesday, 10 July – the night of the finals. On that night, occupancy levels were seen at 86.3%, with ADR and revenue per available room (RevPAR) levels climbing as high as EUR581.96 and EUR502.40, respectively.