The return of business travellers is boosting hotel occupancy in Europe. All countries, without exception, are recording an increase in their occupancy rate compared to 2022. However, they are still lagging behind 2019 levels.
After a positive August for all the European countries on the panel, with the notable exception of Germany, September was even more positive.
European hotels recorded an increase of 1.6 points in occupancy compared with September 2022. However, occupancy performance is still below that of 2019, trailing September pre-pandemic by -2.6 points.
It is the upscale segment that is progressing best, with OR up by 2.4 points. The midscale segment saw its OR increase by 2 points, the economy segment by 1.2 points and the budget segment by 0.1 points compared with September 2022. Overall, European hoteliers filled 78.3% of their rooms, with the economy segment filling the most, at 79.7%.
The budget segment pushed its ADRs up the furthest (+26.3%), benefiting from an upturn in the events calendar. Average daily rates were up 6.6% on September 2022 and 22.6% on 2019. Since the start of the year, the cumulative increase has been 10.5% compared with 2022. This represents an increase of 21.7% compared with the first 9 months of 2019.
Good occupancy and higher prices have enabled hoteliers to generate RevPAR up 8.9% to €108.1 excluding VAT. The budget segment reported RevPAR up 11.2%, while the economy segment was up 10.4%. RevPAR was up 9% for the midscale segment and 7.6% for the premium segment.
European performances all in the green
Hungary and the Czech Republic posted the best performances in terms of occupancy growth, at +8.3 and +8.5 points respectively. The best occupancy rate, however, was achieved by Portuguese hotels, which achieved an OR of 86.5% for the eighth highest RevPAR increase of the panel. Portuguese hoteliers were able to take advantage of a dynamic off-season for leisure customers, with a parallel upturn in corporate travel.
Greece was the next best...
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