A scant majority of European hotel professionals believe M&A activity and RevPAR would be adversely affected if Great Britain left the European Union.
The latest European Hotel Market Survey by international law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner asked 200 hotel professionals from more than 20 countries what they thought about the EU referendum set for June 23 in the U.K., and 54% said Britons should vote against exiting.
London was named the strongest performer in Europe, showing the biggest increase in RevPAR ahead of Berlin, Barcelona and Madrid in 2015. The city is also predicted to see the most M&A activity this year. Berlin is seen as the second best location for value for assets.
New notes of caution are being sounded: Eighty-nine percent of investors increasingly value the benefits of hotels as an attractive real estate asset class—but 72% of respondents believe that hotels are perceived as riskier than other types of commercial property investment. And disruptors like Airbnb are getting more attention, as 53% see them as a concern.