Hilton Heads Hotel Development Boom in Africa

The findings of this year’s Hotel Chain Development Pipeline Survey, produced by Lagos-based consultancy W Hospitality Group, show that Hilton is leading the race to develop new hotels in Africa with 7,250 rooms in its pipeline, spread over 29 new properties, 18% up on the previous year. Hot on its heels is Carlson Rezidor, with 6,953 new rooms in development spread across 32 hotels. Marriott is in third place with 6,412 rooms in its pipeline spread over 36 new properties, 22% up on 2014. 

If one creates a ranking not by number of rooms but instead by the number of hotels, Marriott would take the top spot with 36 in their pipeline, followed by Carlson Rezidor with 32 and Hilton with 29.

Trevor Ward, Managing Director,
W Hospitality Group

Best Western has 12 new hotels in its pipeline, but the average size of hotel is lower, at 93 rooms, and therefore drops out of the top ten when the pipeline is analysed by number of rooms.  Both Kempinski and Fairmont focus on large, luxury hotels (Kempinski with their single brand, and Fairmont developing Raffles, Fairmont and Swissotel) and have the largest average number of rooms in the survey. 

Mangalis is a new chain, launched in 2013, with its first hotel openings expected in 2015, in Conakry and Dakar.  It is of note that Mangalis is achieving its very rapid growth by adopting an “asset-heavy” strategy, funding the development of nearly all of its hotels.  This is in contrast with virtually every other chain in the survey, who are “asset-light”, seeking management agreements or, exceptionally, franchises and leases.

If, instead of looking at the chains, one looks at individual brands, Carlson Rezidor’s Radisson Blu brand occupies first position in terms of the number of hotels and rooms in its development pipeline.  Its sister brand, Park Inn by Radisson, is also in the top 10, whilst the Hilton brand and its “little brother”, Hilton Garden Inn, occupy second and fifth positions respectively.  Marriott and Starwood each have two brands in the top ten, with Starwood achieving particularly strong growth for both brands, Sheraton and Four Points. 

Marriott leads in presenting a multi-brand offer, with 10 brands available to developers, including four brands included for the first time since its acquisition of Protea last year.  This multi-brand approach has become more commonplace as Africa’s markets continue to develop and become mature enough for multiple brands, catering to markets across a broad spectrum.  Having led their market entry with their flagship brands, typically at the upscale level, several of the chains are now introducing their midscale and budget brands. 

Kempinski has been signing the biggest deals, with an average 324 rooms per hotel, double that of Park Inn, and of all the chains in the survey has the largest hotel project in sub-Saharan Africa, the 451-room Grand Hotel Oyala Kempinski in Equatorial Guinea's future new capital, Oyala. 

Hyatt and Kempinski are set to double their African presence through new deals signed, but in percentage terms it is the smaller chains (in terms of African presence) including those focusing purely on Africa, such as City Blue, Onomo and Azalaї, that have the highest percentage increase.  Rotana, the Abu-Dhabi based chain, are making rapid inroads into the continent, with eight new hotels in the pipeline, as is Swiss International, with 16 new franchise deals, of which more than half are in Nigeria.

Deals signed and properties under construction are two very different things. Carlson Rezidor, with 5,250 rooms on site, has more rooms actually under construction than Hilton Worldwide, which has 4,730, and therefore takes the top slot.  Best Western enters the top ten, with 94 per cent of its pipeline rooms on site.

The chart below shows the evolution of the number of rooms in the top five brands’ development pipelines from 2013 to 2015.  Although from a small basis, Hilton Garden Inn has seen the largest absolute growth, from two hotels in 2013 to nine hotels in 2015.