April 2019: After the rain, fine skies for French hoteliers

For starters, hoteliers have gained clientele: the overall OR is up +2.8 points compared to April 2018, and +0.2 points since January. The RevPAR is also up: +4.1% (63.40€ ex-VAT) in April, +1.8% (56.10€ ex-VAT) since January and even +5.7% (64.10€ ex-VAT) on the last twelve months. The average daily rate remains stable, meanwhile, (+0.0%) for 88.7€ ex-VAT. This trend is the inverse of the last three months when the RevPAR was maintained by an increase in prices, hoteliers prefer to remain prudent in April to stimulate leisure clientele to visit the destination during this holiday period.

The budget segment experienced strong growth in its RevPAR: +8.5% (32.6€ ex-VAT) driven at once by a positive ADR of +3.1% and an OR that grew by 3.5 additional points to reach an average of 70.6%. This growth  i all the more impressive on a regional scale: in Paris and IDF the RevPAR is up +11.4% (42.50€ ex-VAT) and in the Provinces by +7.3% (29.50€ ex-VAT).

The trend is also supported by economy and midscale segments, whose RevPAR increased by around 5% (respectively +5.7% and +5.5%) thanks to occupancy rates up by +3.0 (70.7%) and +3.3 points (71.8%), while the ADR increased only weakly: +1.3% for one and +0.7% for the other.

Upscale hoteliers on the other hand are experiencing a slump. While their occupancy rate continues to grow by +2.8 points to reach 74.0% (the highest OR in the panel) but their prices are down (-1.0%), from an average of 188.00 to 186.20€ ex-VAT, leading to a RevPAR down by -0.6%, to 137.90€ ex-VAT.

On a national scale, growth is driven by the provinces where the RevPAR is up +5.3% and the OR is up +3.1% compared to April 2018. Some cities outperformed, starting with Montpellier. The 7^th largest city in France produced the only...