Bucharest, Romania’s capital and the seat of its government, is undoubtedly the country’s main communications and industrial centre, with many multinational companies represented in the city. Key sectors within the city are oil, automotive, IT, and banking and finance. Over the last few years, the city has enjoyed a construction and infrastructure boom, with numerous new residential and retail developments taking place. The expansion of the IT sector has helped Bucharest develop into a high-tech and telecommunications services hotspot, underpinning Romania’s position as one of the fastest-growing IT markets in Central and Eastern Europe. Amongst the main IT employers in the capital are companies such as Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, Meta, Honeywell, Dell Technologies, Adobe, Luxoft, Endava, and Hewlett Packard.

Bucharest experienced a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in visitation of around 5% from 2015 to 2019. The growth was driven by both domestic and international visitation, with domestic tourism accounting for around 65% of total visitation. The most important international markets for Bucharest in 2023 were Italy, the UK, Germany, Spain and France, a mix of visitation which has not changed much post-pandemic. Whilst the corporate segment remains dominant, leisure tourism is rising, supported by Danube River cruises. Over the last decade, this market had seen a gradual but relentless improvement in occupancy levels which reached the mid-70s in the couple of years prior to the pandemic. The decline in average rate, in euro terms, experienced during the global financial crisis had also started to reverse. These movements translated into solid year-on-year RevPAR growth for this market since 2014. Following the pandemic-induced low activity in 2020 and 2021, the city achieved good RevPAR growth in 2022, as the Bucharest hotel market saw an increase in both occupancy and average rate compared to the previous year; however, RevPAR remained below the 2019 level in real terms. 2023 followed the same trend, with double-digit increases in both occupancy and average rate. RevPAR still remained, however, over 15% below the 2019 level in real terms.

Over the next few years, Bucharest is expecting to see an increase in supply of around 1,900 rooms, with 75% of the rooms in the pipeline falling into categories from upscale to luxury. Notable new openings include the luxury 171-room The Academy Hotel by the Crest Collection, expected to enter the market in July 2025, and the 123-room Mama Shelter Bucharest, already under construction and expected to open in December 2026.

No hotel transactions took place in Bucharest in 2022. In 2023, the investment landscape did not see much more activity, with only one hotel transaction occurring: the sale of the 67-room PeakTure Hotel Elisabeta (the price of which was not disclosed). There was also the acquisition of an abandoned building for conversion into a five-star lifestyle hotel (the One Plaza Athenee). No further details were available at the time of writing.

Overall, our HVI analysis indicates a value increase of 1.4% (2.0% in Romanian lei) in Bucharest in 2023 compared to 2022. We note that the value per room is still 14% below the 2019 level.

Legend