At the dawn of the summer of 2022, the European hotel industry is turning the page on the Covid years, ready to enter a new chapter: many countries have finished recovering from the health crisis, while others are finishing off their backlog.
With the first holidays starting, the European hotel industry is doing well with RevPAR 5.4% above its pre-Covid level. This performance is driven by an increase in the average price (+12.2% compared to June 2019), while the occupancy rate, which is only 4.9 points below its pre-crisis level, is recovering more slowly but surely. This trend of RevPAR driven by average price despite occupancy rates still slightly or moderately below 2019 levels is a trend that concerns all European countries.
Southern Europe is once again in the spotlight this month, with Italy and Greece posting RevPAR increases of over 20% compared to 2019. Portugal is also ahead of the game with a RevPAR 6.5% higher than June 2019. For its part, Northern Europe is finally experiencing sunnier days with, in particular, a return of Germany, which is gaining 9.0% ahead of its 2019 RevPAR. The United Kingdom maintains its growth with a RevPAR of 3.6% above its 2019 level, supported by the return of American customers, and the Netherlands continues to get closer to its pre-crisis level.
Eastern Europe remains impacted by the conflict in Ukraine, which is reflected in the difficulties that persist (-29.2% in Latvia, -19.1% in the Czech Republic and -3.5% in Hungary). These are the only three European countries that have not seen their prices increase compared to 2019.
In addition, all European hotel ranges are now benefiting from growth in their RevPAR. As with the geographic criterion, this growth is being driven by price increases while occupancy is still lagging slightly. The top and mid-range segments are more exposed to this difference in occupancy rates, but the top segment, thanks to a 17.2% increase in the average price, manages to post the most sustained growth (+7.4% compared to its 2019 level). The budget and economy segments are less affected by the occupancy lag (-3.1 and -3.2 points), but their average price increases of 7.8% and 9.2% enable them to post RevPAR growth of 3.7% and 5.0%.
It is now clear that the heavyweights of European tourism (France (+4.5%), Spain (+0.9%), Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy) have turned the page on the health crisis. These countries can look to the future and the new trends, those born of the Covid years, which will structure the hotel industry of tomorrow.