Milan's full-service branded hotels posted GOPPAR of €118 for the year ending July 2026, up 34.2% year over year, as the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics delivered an exceptional February and revenue growth far outpaced cost inflation.

Total revenue across the sample rose €37.5 per available room, or 17.2%, to €255.9 PAR, while operating expenses climbed just €7.4 PAR (+4.8%). That gap produced a GOP margin of 46.1%, up 5.9 percentage points, and flow-through of 80.2% — roughly €0.80 of every incremental euro of revenue converted to operating profit.

The Olympic effect

The Games ran from 6 to 22 February 2026, but their financial imprint stretched across the first quarter. In February, occupancy rose 18.8 percentage points to 86.7% and ADR jumped 112.2% to €503, lifting RevPAR 171.1% to €436. The uplift bled into adjacent months: RevPAR gained 32.5% in January and 13.5% in March.

February's profit conversion was extraordinary even by event standards. Hotels generated approximately €314 PAR in additional revenue versus February 2025 (+151%) and €279 PAR in additional operating profit (+415%) — flow-through of nearly 89%.

For the full year, RevPAR rose €32 PAR (+18.9%), built on a 9.2% ADR increase to €273 and an 8.9% occupancy gain to 74.4%. F&B added €5.6 PAR in revenue, up 12.9%, with F&B departmental expenses essentially flat at +€0.2 PAR.

Cost discipline beneath the top line

Payroll rose €2.2 PAR to €63.9 PAR (+3.6%), concentrated in Sales & Marketing (+€1.0 PAR) and Rooms (+€1.2 PAR), while F&B staffing costs fell €0.2 PAR. As a share of total revenue, payroll dropped from 28.2% to 25.0%.

Cost of sales increased 6.8% to €18.5 PAR, split almost evenly between Rooms (+€0.7 PAR) and F&B (+€0.8 PAR), yet fell from 8.0% to 7.4% of revenue. Utilities held broadly stable at €10.1 PAR — higher electricity costs (+€0.5 PAR) were offset by cheaper fuel and gases (-€0.4 PAR) and water (-€0.1 PAR) — and declined from 4.6% to 3.9% of revenue.

Other expenses grew fastest in absolute terms, up €4.5 PAR (+12.8%) to €39.4 PAR, led by Sales & Marketing at +€2.3 PAR. Even so, they fell from 16.0% to 15.4% of revenue.

Undistributed expenses rose €4.2 PAR to €58.0 PAR (+7.9%), with Sales & Marketing again the main contributor, but shrank from 24.6% to 22.7% of revenue. Departmental profit improved from 64.9% to 68.8% of revenue, gaining €34.3 PAR.

Supply growth stays modest

Eleven new hotels with 1,036 rooms opened between August 2025 and July 2026, a weighted supply increase of just 1.8% — well below the pace of demand growth. Openings concentrated in Municipio 3, which took 36.1% of new supply across four hotels and 374 rooms, followed by Municipio 1 with four hotels and 260 rooms (25.1%).

By segment, 74.9% of new supply was Upscale, with Luxury at 11.7%, Economy at 10.5% and Upper Upscale at 2.9%. No new Midscale or Upper Midscale rooms came to market.

The pipeline thins sharply from here: only one property, the 38-room J.K. Place Milano conversion, is expected to open in H2 2026, followed by roughly 560 rooms across five hotels in 2027. With supply growth constrained and Olympic-driven rate gains now in the base, Milan operators face the tougher question of how much of February 2026's pricing power carries into a post-Games year.