As with all good races, the hotel world's race for recovery has no shortage of thrills and spills, climbers and strugglers, surprise contenders and predictable favourites.

We are now close to the end of the year; a year where expectations and results have been reconciled to wildly varying degrees. From our extensive interaction with all parties involved in the hotel industry, we are conscious that the economic crisis created an unpredictable 'fog' over the hotel markets that made forecasting and budgeting virtually impossible.

This lack of visibility over the past 18 months appears to have only marginally improved in 2010.

European hotels performance during 2010, HVS has identified the following findings:

• London hotels have been amongst the top performers across Europe this year with a 15% year-on-year increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR)
• The value of London hotels has risen 7% year-on-year, with an average room value now likely to achieve €517,000, second only to Paris hotels with an average room value of €566,000
• RevPAR in London's luxury hotels this year overtook 2007 levels
• Further growth is expected for London's hotels in 2011
• The worst performing European markets this year have been hotels in Athens, Budapest, Bucharest, Bratislava, Copenhagen, Dublin and Prague, all of which have shown further declines in occupancy and/or average rate.

Attached and below is a press release outlining these findings, do contact me if you need any further information.

A full copy of the report can be downloaded at www.hvs.com/article/4958/le-tour-deurope-the-race-for-recovery