Europe’s hotel industry continues along the route towards recovery - MKG Reports

The return of a stronger demand is leading to 1.9 points of improvement for occupancy rates at properties, where the OR is almost 60%. Such properties were able to resume increasing their average daily rates, which grew by 0.5% across the month. February thus closes with 3.9% growth in Revenue per available room at hotels on the Old Continent, where it is close to 50 euros. The rise in hotel performances concerns almost all categories, except for the Budget category that struggles to reverse the trend and remains stable with respect to last year (-0.1% of the RevPAR).

The upscale segment confirms its position as a driver for the industry on the period,

with 4.6% improvement of its Revenue per available room, which reflects in particular a renewal of corporate spending that has been forecasted by the Global Business Travel Association for the whole of the year 2014. 

In terms of geographic zoning, Southern Europe's hotel industry pursues the way to

recovery. This month Portugal joined this route with improvement in its RevPAR by 2.5%, thanks to a 1.4 point increase in its occupancy rates. The carnival season played in favor of hotel activity in the region, particularly in Venice whose festivities are legion. Corteges also wound their way through German cities where, combined with traditionally strong business activity, they boosted the Revenue per available room by 7.6% in February.

Moreover, two countries stand out for the remarkable evolution of their hotel results.

Business in the Netherlands, particularly in Amsterdam, benefited from the organization of the World Biomass Power Market, which took place in May last year. The RevPAR on the destination thus progressed by 17.1% across the month.

Nonetheless, mention for the biggest change goes to Hungary for improvement by

26.1% of its Revenue per available room. As Hospitality-On anticipated in these columns last month (see our article), Budapest in particular should be a dynamic hotel destination this year, for both structural and economic reasons. Austria, meanwhile, continues to follow a downtrend (-3.6% for its RevPAR), as do France (-3.5%) and Sweden (-0.7%), while Poland (+0.3%) continues to be slowed by the rebalancing of its hotel supply following a strong wave of growth in construction for the UEFA European Championship in 2012.

Created in 2011, the Hospitality ON magazine and hospitaltiy-on.com website are the direct extension of HTR (Hotel, Tourism & Restaurant), which was created in 1994, and the Hôtel Restau Hebdo newspaper created in 2000, and their respective sites.

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Hospitality ON is the only multi-media source for a comprehensive overview and real time assessment of international hotel news, and a series of documents to understand the challenges associated with a global industry. The different topics reflect the news and the outlook for hotel development, investment and trading, commercial distribution, brand marketing, human resources and innovation.