Chain rate in Dutch hotel market is high
No less than 50 hotel chains with 63 hotel brands are active in The Netherlands, as became apparent from recent research by Horwath HTL. In The Netherlands the chains have almost 560 hotels and more than 57,800 hotel rooms. By dividing the latter number by the approximately 95,000 hotel rooms of the Dutch hotel market, a percentage materializes of the Dutch hotel supply that is chain related. This chain rate of 61% is considerably more than the European chain rate, which was determined to be 35% earlier this year. Furthermore, the recently by Horwath HTL calculated chain rate is much higher than was thought based on older figures: in 2001 a chain rate of 35% in the Dutch hotel market was determined, which means that 65% of the Dutch hotel supply still was independent of a chain.
When choosing a hotel nowadays, in addition to the location, the brand related to a chain often plays an important role. Through a larger appeal on guests, but also through a larger operational efficiency, at chain hotels the room revenues and other revenues are often relatively large and cost patterns are often relatively low. This has caused the number of chains and brands in the Dutch hotel market to have grown at a remarkably fast pace during the last decade or so.
The Dutch chain hotel market still has a reasonably national character The Dutch chain hotel market still has a reasonably national character. No less than 60% of all chains, 58% of all chain hotels and 47% of all chain hotel rooms has a nationale origin and half of the top 10 of hotel chains and of the top 10 of hotel brands in The Netherlands has a national origin, even without designating Golden Tulip as a national brand.
The 30 hotel chains with a national origin have 23 brands which are all present in The Netherlands. The 20 brands with an international origin worldwide have 105 brands. Of these 105 brands ‘only’ 40 brands are present in The Netherlands, which means that the Dutch hotel market is open for easy introduction of at least 65 more brands.
Although an average national hotel chain has almost as much hotels as an average international chain, because of a smaller average hotel size, it has notably less rooms. As such, the market share of national and international chains in the Dutch hotel market is almost equally large. Except for a smaller size, a national hotel chain differentiates itself from an international hotel chain by focusing more on the tourism market and by the absence of a stock notation.
Van der Valk Hotels en Restaurants has by far the largest market share Of all hotel chains Van der Valk Hotels en Restaurants, the oldest Dutch hotel chain, has the largest market share by far. It is remarkable that this hotel chain with no less than 59 hotels and almost 7,800 hotel rooms, spread throughout The Netherlands, in all these years has sticked with the one brand. Both in the top 10 of largest hotel chains as well as in the top 10 of largest hotel brands Van der Valk Hotels en Restaurants is followed by the international NH Hoteles. In the top 10 of the largest hotel chains in The Netherlands the international Accor is a close match for the numbers 1 and 2. The number 3 in the top 10 of the largest hotel brands in The Netherlands, the international Best Western, does have notably less hotel rooms than the number 1 and number 2.
Chain relation in the Dutch hotel markt mostly based on management If only chain relation for both management and marketing of the related hotels is considered, and by definition chain hotels based on franchise contracts are excluded, the chain rate in the Dutch hotel market turns out to be 47% still. This means that for the lion share of the Dutch chain hotels the management is done by the concerning chain.
While in previous times many hotel chains used to be owner of both hotel real estate and hotel operations, nowadays chain relation mostly is established through contracts between the chains and the owners of the hotel real estate. The various contracts can be based on management, lease and/or franchise, each with different conditions concerning responsibilities, fees, risks and control.
In the four main forms of chain relation a second large difference relates to management. In case of chain relation by means of an ownership structure, a management contract and a lease contract the hotel chain manages the hotel, while in case of a franchise contract the hotel chain does not get involved in the management of the hotel and only offers support for marketing the hotel.
