January 2015: Europe's hotels are off to a good start

3 min reading time

Published on 24/02/15 - Updated on 29/06/23

Portugal

European hotel performances in January offer hope for another year of growth for the sector, confirming the business recovery observed in 2014.

Although the month of January is traditionally calm for the industry, the occupancy rate at hotels has progressed by 1.2 points in the first month of this year. Thus, the 2.5% increase in average daily rate was sustained and participated in the 4.8% growth in the Revenue per available room (RevPAR) over the same month last year. While more evident in the mid- and upscale segments (with increases in the RevPAR by 5.4% and 5% respectively), the positive trend is nonetheless recorded across all hotel categories, due to higher occupancy rates as well as increases in average daily rates.



Monthly results of european hotel brands January 2015



Generally speaking European destinations have maintained good levels of activity at this beginning of the year 2015 and the main growth engines on the continent remain the same as in the previous months. Thus, Portugal, whose recovery was confirmed several times in 2014, began at high speed with 30.5% growth in its RevPAR. The country symbolizes the recovery for the tourism and hotel industry in Southern Europe, driven by their price appeal and the first signs of renewed economic growth. The same phenomenon may be observed in Greece (+16.5% for the RevPAR) and in Spain (+10.9%), whereas Italy was able to maintain levels of performance (-0.2% for the RevPAR) after organizing the Cross Country Ski Championships in January 2014, which took place in Sweden this year.

Like in Southern Europe, growth on the sector also accelerated in Hungary, with 30.9% growth in the RevPAR driven by the strong (16.2%) increase in average daily rate. France, meanwhile, finally left its negative trend to post growth in its RevPAR by 2.2%, despite the impact of tragic events in its capital.

The drop in hotel results in the Czech Republic (-3.7% in the RevPAR) and in Denmark (-2.3% of the RevPAR) are more due to the absence of events that took place in January 2014 which had boosted their activity last year. The Czech Republic had, in fact, organized the European Biathlon Championships when Denmark hosted the Handball World Championships.



After a year of growth in 2014, Europe's hotel industry has entered 2015 with a positive momentum, forecasting a new year of growth (see our detailed country analysis here), driven by the economic recovery of most of its destinations.

Also read:



  • 2014 in Europe: Recovery in the North and South

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