Mixed year for European hotels - STR Global
Vienna and Zurich suffered a slump of 40% in revPAR (revenue per available room) in June compared to the same month last year, STR Global reported.
The hotel analysts, who sift information from various sources, said the European hotel industry had a mixed year from last June.
It reported double digit falls in rates, occupancy and revPAR as well as some slight single digit increases.
The fall in the revPAR at the Austrian capital and Swiss city come after the two hosted last year's EURO football championship a year ago.
But Prague, capital of the Czech Republic also suffered a 25% drop in revPAR compared with 12 months ago.
The German cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf endured the biggest drops in occupancy of, respectively, 23.5% to 52.9% and 21.1% to 53.3%.
But four cities, Birmingham and London in the UK and Stockholm and Gothenburg in Sweden enjoyed slight rises in occupancy.
London's went up 0.9% to 84.6%, Birmingham's 2.1& % to 66.6%, Stockholm's 1.3% to 75.1% and Gothenburg's 1.1% to 72.2%.
Four cities suffered drops of more than 40% in average daily rates (ADR): Düsseldorf (-52.1% to €80.26), Salzburg, Austria (-43.2% to €78.16); Vienna (-41.0% €98.83) and Moscow (-40.8% to €163.82).
There were also six cities where revPAR fell by more than 40%: Düsseldorf (-62.2% to €42.80), Salzburg (-51.0% to €46.55), Cologne (-48.9% to €39.79), Vienna (-45.2% to €68.19); and Zurich (-40.7% to €103.49).
Overall STR Global reported that the European industry suffered a fall in occupancy in the 12 months to June of 7.3% to 66.4%.
In Euros, average daily rates were down 13.6% to €99.37 and revPAR down 19.9% to €65.94.
According to the STR Global analysis, the UK fared the best in the last 12 months with the highest occupancy (73.3%), the lowest drop in occupancy (3.6%), the lowest drop in ADR (6.3%) and the lowest fall in revPAR (9.7%).
Russia seemed to fare among the word with an occupancy of 61.5% which fell 17.7% during the year, a falloff 23.3% in its ADR and a slump of 36.9% in its revPAR.
But its ADR of €162 and its revPAR of €99.7 remained the highest in Europe.
James Chappell, STR Global's managing director, said: "The markets in Austria and Switzerland reported expected declines for June, following the EURO Football championship last year.
"Vienna and Zurich reported revPAR declines of more than 40% for the month. Prague, which hosted the EU Presidency in the first half of this year and received a global marketing boost from the visit from President Obama in April, reported revPAR declines of 25% year-to-June in local currency.
"Let's hope Stockholm, which reported a 11%-percent decrease in revPAR year-to-June, benefits from its hosting of the EU Presidency in the second half of 2009".
www.strglobal.com