WITH THE UK FOOTBALL season well under way, the FIFA World Cup finals are all but forgotten - but not by South Africa's hoteliers. Hospitality industry analysts STR Global monitored the performance of 50-plus hotels during the month-long tournament to discover, unsurprisingly, that free-spending fans pushed revenues through the roof.
FIFA watchdogs ensured that rates were not overly-inflated, and even on match days hotels were far from full, but as supporters celebrated - or drowned their sorrows - revenues per available room (revPAR) soared.
Sandton's hoteliers made the biggest gains, with revPAR up 259 per cent to nearly ZAR4,000 (£348) for the period. On Johannesburg's 15 match days, revPAR was up 296 per cent at more than ZAR4,300 (£374).
By comparison, London hotels normally achieve average revPAR of little more than £100.
Hoteliers across the entire Gauteng Province, which encompassed Pretoria's Loftus Versveld stadium as well as the two Jo'burg venues, achieved average revPAR of £207, while those in Cape Town and Durban managed £156 and £112 respectively.