Manchester and Liverpool among top in UK for new hotel pipeline

Thousands of new hotel rooms will become available across Manchester and Liverpool over the next two years, according to data.

In its third UK Hotels Market Index, property services firm Colliers International found that 3,243 rooms will be created as both cities continue to enjoy a boom in hotel provision.

Research indicated that Manchester and Liverpool are among the top six centres in the country for having a strong pipeline of new rooms, alongside London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast.

Colliers found that in Manchester, another 2,073 hotel rooms will be added to 17,894 available as of December 31 2017, an increase of 11.6%.

Liverpool’s existing stock of 8,205 rooms, meanwhile, will grow by 14.3% or 1,170 units.

There were 67 hotels in the development pipeline for Manchester as of Q4 2017, with around 20% due to open between 2017 and 2019. The remainder are either on hold or speculative developments.

Julian Troup, head of UK Hotels agency at Colliers, is based at the company’s Manchester office. He said: “Hotel sector performance in Liverpool and Manchester is expected to stay strong but there is a degree of caution regarding the extent of supply growth with potential future consequences for performance.

“Brexit obviously adds an element of uncertainty to hotel market prospects in Manchester and elsewhere in the UK although current market conditions do not show it having a negative impact.

He continued: “Manchester is one of the most visited cities in the UK, benefitting from its diverse culture, burgeoning services sector, wide range of tourist attractions and of course, the United and City effect while the visitor economy of Liverpool also continues to benefit from its ongoing renaissance.”

The UK Hotels Market Index analyses 34 locations in the UK and ranks them to determine ‘hot spots’ for the hotel sector.