Knight Frank has reported that the total volume of hotel investment transactions in the UK increased by 90% in 2014, reaching an impressive eight year high of £4.3bn. This coincides with the record year of total UK property investment volumes reaching £62.5bn.

In 2014, the highest number of hotel investment transactions involved Travelodge hotels with over 30 traded, which was significantly higher than two other leading budget hotel operators in the UK; Whitbread (Premier Inn) and Accor (Ibis) which involved less than 15 transactions in total. 

Looking ahead, budget hotel assets in the Central and Greater London areas will continue to out price the rest of the UK, and investor demand will be strong. Regional hotels however, are not to be overlooked, with transaction levels set to increase as the weight of equity will encourage a wide range of potential investor types who are looking to acquire high quality properties in the top regional cities where pricing has already contracted significantly. This is forecasted to continue in 2015 and pricing for the more secondary regional budget hotels in smaller towns is expected to begin to increase as the year progresses.