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LONDON-Paced by the United Kingdom, Europe is set for a recordrun of hotel room openings this coming year, but anyone fearing astampede of inventory could find comfort in the tightening creditmarkets, according to a regional overview by Lodging Econometrics.LE president Patrick Ford terms conditions “ideal” for the freshinventory, which will exceed 45,000 rooms in 2008 alone.

“The capital cities have been experiencing robust hoteloccupancies,” Ford explains, “and many have enjoyed double-digit,year-over-year room rate increases in 2006 and again in 2007,strong indications of a shortage of guestrooms in many markets.”London has seen dramatic price accretion, and developers haveresponded rapidly. With a total pipeline of 277 projects and justover 40,000 rooms, the UK has 2.5 times as many units planned asthe next closest European country, that being Spain. Nearlyone-third of the UK rooms are being built in London, says LE, whichattributes that to the city's emergence as a global financialpowerhouse and international hub of tourism. Other top areasexperiencing substantial hotel room growth are Germany, Russia andItaly, with 15 major European cities pursuing between 10 and 20actual projects.