March 2021: one year later, the European hotel industry is still waiting for better days

Results for the European hotel industry stagnated in March 2021, even though springtime is generally favorable to business and leisure travel in Europe.

In most countries, the situation remains almost unchanged. While RevPAR levels are generally only slightly up from February marks, some countries such as Italy, Belgium and Switzerland even see their situation worsen. Portugal and the Czech Republic continue to post weak results, with drops in RevPAR exceeding 90% compared to the pre-crisis period. Since the beginning of the pandemic, these two countries have been very affected by the crisis, notably due to the small size of their domestic markets.

In Germany, the United Kingdom (still in lockdown in March), Latvia, the situation also remains unchanged, keeping these countries at low levels, especially as sanitary restrictions have been extended. The situation in France did not improve between February and March and it is not expected to change much in April due to the implementation of a third territorial lockdown at the end of March. However, compared to its European peers, France still maintains the most favorable position. But even there the results remain weak with a fall of 68.5% of its RevPAR compared to March 2019. In fact, its occupancy rate has lost 36.3 points and its average price decreased by 28.3% compared to 2019.

Conversely, the situation in the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Italy is deteriorating. Italy posted a 53% drop in occupancy and a 31% drop in average price compared to the pre-crisis period, while the Netherlands posted a 65-point drop in OR and a 38.1% drop in ADR.

Only Spain, Austria and Hungary recorded slightly higher results compared to February levels, providing some hope for the coming months.  

Will the acceleration of the vaccination campaign and the end of sanitary restrictions on a European scale eventually offer better days to the hotel industry before the summer season?