4,000 hotel suites in the pipeline for city in next 5 years

Data from the city council has shown that there is now a development "pipeline" of 3,823 new hotel rooms in the city.

The figures relate to hotels that have either been developed in the last year, are currently being developed or have obtained full planning consent.

In 2009, a record number of hotels won planning consent.

The city's tourism sector – which has remained strong despite the global economic downturn – has been credited with keeping demand among occupiers at high levels.

Council chiefs say that the figures make them confident they can achieve the target of creating 4,000 new hotel rooms in Edinburgh by 2015.

Councillor Tom Buchanan, the city's economic development leader, said: "Many international hotel brands have indicated that they want a presence in Edinburgh and it is one of the top cities in the world to locate a hotel brand.

"One of the difficulties is there is a limited number of sites because a number of operators feel they need to be close to the Old or New Town and ideally want a view of the Castle.

"The principal issue now facing the council and our tourism partners is making sure we get a good breadth of hotels; we need high-end operators and mid-range brands."

In 2009, 640 hotel rooms were completed, including the seventh hotel operated in the city by Travelodge. Two further new hotels this year will make it Edinburgh's biggest operator with 900 rooms.

Holiday Inn is the second biggest operator with 802 rooms, followed by Premier Inn at 607 and Apex at 534.

Despite the dominance of the budget operators, more than a third of the hotel rooms completed or under construction in 2009 were in the four or five-star category.

However, property experts say that the lack of finance availability is slowing development.

Charles Guest, a partner at Ryden, said: "There is demand from operators and quite a few of the major international occupiers, but many of them are being somewhat frustrated at the difficulty in getting finances.

"Previously, hotel developers were frozen out by the amount of higher value uses wanting sites but, at the minute, there is very little office or residential development, so it is an opportunity for hotels to get into areas that have not been available to them.

"I would have thought that, assuming there is availability of finance, and assuming that the office and residential markets do not have a sudden resurgence, it seems that (4,000 new rooms] is an achievable target as we're still five years away."

Gavin Anderson, a partner at property firm Montagu Evans, said: "There is definitely demand from hotel groups and they are keen to get more sites. The difficulty is getting funding.

"Edinburgh has been resilient and has so many attractions for tourists, so there will always be demand among hotel occupiers."