Investment in European hotels has nearly doubled in so far this year, with the UK a hotspot for sales.
According to the latest report from Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, more than 51,000 hotel bedrooms have changed hands for a total cost of €6.4b (£4.2b).
This marks a steep rise from the €3.8b (£2.5b) reported for the first half of 2004.
Most of the sales took place in the first quarter of the year, when hotel assets worth €5.9b (£3.9b) changed hands.
The UK accounted for 58% of single hotel sales and 75% of package deals.
The biggest portfolio deal was the £1b sale of 73 hotels by InterContinental Hotels Group to a consortium headed by Lehman Brothers.
The largest single hotel deal was the £225m sale of London’s Savoy hotel to a joint venture between Bank of Scotland, Kingdom Holdings and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts.
“Considering the weight of capital in the market, the continued availability of debt and the number of assets, we anticipate an increase [during the rest of the year] of at least 10% in portfolio transaction volume and a more moderate 5% on the single asset side,” said Mark Wynne-Smith, European chief executive officer at JLLH.