French hotels enjoyed renewed activity in 2005 and still saw an across the board 3.1% rise in revPAR, MKG Consulting said.
But occupancy rose by only 0.5%, the Paris-based consultancy reported.
MKG said four-star hotels fared the best with a revPAR rise over the year of 4.6%. The increase for other categories was under 2%.
While 2005 was generally good for French hotels, the best month was November when revPAR rose by 11.3%, the biggest monthly increase for five years. The rise was helped by a major conference and exhibition in Paris that month.
MKG said the four-star properties had benefited from the euro/dollar parity which attracted more Americans to the country and the “recovery of the international long haul air traffic.”
It said that the riots in the Paris suburbs in November had little effect on the market and December was a "good month" for four star hotels in Paris.
Amex introduces new meetings tool
American Express Business Travel has introduced what it calls a "groundbreaking" tool for negotiating corporate meeting venues.
The American Express electronic auction tool allows corporates and hoteliers to negotiate together online on a venue.
Amex said its e-auction tool was the “first electronic solution” for venue negotiations.
The tool was developed for Amex by StarCite which specialises in global meetings technology and built the “On Demand Global Meetings Solutions” software.
The new tool will be available for Amex's US clients this month and for global clients later in 2006.
Amex said the tool will help meetings buyers identify hotel partners and negotiate packages in line with company travel policy and preferred suppliers.
Jay Roseman, Amex's vp corporate meeting solutions, said the new, e-auction technology would support the "historically complex event management bidding process."
He said it would help corporate get "greater value from meetings investment and better leverage with preferred suppliers and more closely link meetings purchasing to their overall travel procurement strategy."