London’s Luxury Hotel Market Risks Oversupply After New Openings

The Waldorf Astoria at London’s Admiralty Arch is set to open in a few months, after a decade of false starts. It’s going to add to a long list of high-end hotels in the city, at a time when it’s far from certain that demand will keep up.

London has one of the largest offerings of rooms costing more than $1,000 a night in Europe, and the total has increased 182% since 2019, according to figures compiled by property data provider CoStar Group Inc. It’s enough to absorb the jump in visitors with pandemic-era savings to spend, but as the growth in rooms continues, any slowdown in customers would push hotels to give way on price to compete.