(Read more on the debt and equity markets.)

LONDON-Paced by the United Kingdom, Europe is set for a record run of hotel room openings this coming year, but anyone fearing a stampede of inventory could find comfort in the tightening credit markets, according to a regional overview by Lodging Econometrics. LE president Patrick Ford terms conditions "ideal" for the fresh inventory, which will exceed 45,000 rooms in 2008 alone.

"The capital cities have been experiencing robust hotel occupancies," Ford explains, "and many have enjoyed double-digit, year-over-year room rate increases in 2006 and again in 2007, strong indications of a shortage of guestrooms in many markets." London has seen dramatic price accretion, and developers have responded rapidly. With a total pipeline of 277 projects and just over 40,000 rooms, the UK has 2.5 times as many units planned as the next closest European country, that being Spain. Nearly one-third of the UK rooms are being built in London, says LE, which attributes that to the city's emergence as a global financial powerhouse and international hub of tourism. Other top areas experiencing substantial hotel room growth are Germany, Russia and Italy, with 15 major European cities pursuing between 10 and 20 actual projects.

New hotel openings should peak across Europe in 2008 and 2009, says LE. The UK has 8,500 rooms opening in 2007, compared to Spain's 4,500 and Germany's 3,300, but that rate will be easily eclipsed in 2008 when almost 12,000 rooms will go on line in the UK, followed up by another 14,600 there in 2009. Spain will spike to 6,400 next year before easing to half that rate in 2009. Russia has 45 projects and 10,800 rooms queued up, of which nearly 1,600 will come on in 2007 before that rate surges to 2,600 and nearly 3,400 in 2008 and 2009, respectively.