July 2018: Europe's hotels show timid growth

Compared with July 2017, hotels on the continent recorded a slight 0.9 point increase in occupancy to 78.5%. The same movement was observed for average daily rates, which rose by 3.9% to 102.9 euros. The progression of these two indicators resulted in overall growth by 5.1% in RevPAR, which reached 80.6 euros.

While the positive trend may be observed in all categories, the high-end hotel sector leads the way with a RevPAR up 11.6%. The other segments maintained good growth in RevPAR by 8.4% in the midscale segment and by 6.9% in the economy segment. The increase in the average daily rate alone by +5.1% compensates for the decline in the occupancy rate of the budget segment (-1.5 points), which posted a RevPAR of 3.0%.

At year-to-date, the balance sheet is also favourable with all indicators green. This general dynamic is maintained by the upturn in activity in practically all countries.

Major Western European countries maintained a steady pace with France (+8.7%), the United Kingdom (+5.0%) and Germany (+0.1%), while growth peaks by more than 10% in RevPAR were recorded in Belgium (15.9%) and the Netherlands (11.3%).

In Southern Europe, Italy (+4.7%) continued to shine, Spain (+0.2%) benefited from the success of Madrid  (RevPAR +10.8%) and Valencia (RevPAR +10.7%), while Barcelona's RevPAR fell by -5.6% and Portugal (+6.9%) built on the good results of previous years. The improvement in Greek activity (+8.3%) is reflected in an increase in average daily rates by more than 10%, to reach a RevPAR of 11.6% year-to-date.

Two countries are the exception owing to less intense activity in July: Switzerland (-1.9%) and Poland (-4.1%). In 2017, Hungary posted its strongest RevPAR growth since 2016 (+28.8%), thanks in particular to the World Swimming Championships held in Budapest. At the start of the summer, average daily...