Industry Trends

The global hotel industry recorded positive growth in average daily rate and revenue per available room for the month of July 2008, according to data from STR and STR Global. July occupancies fell in all but one world region. Data for the survey was gathered from more than 36,150 hotels comprising 4.93 million guestrooms worldwide.

London hotels saw revenue per available room (RevPAR) drop by 2.24% in the week ending 24 August. Revpar fell to £101.48, up from £103.73 during the equivalent week of 2007. Occupancy decreased by 4.48 percentage points to 81.41% while average room rate increased by 3.22% to £124.66 compared with £120.78 in the corresponding week of 2007.

European hotels sampled showed ADR growth of 14.1 percent for July, due in part to the U.S. Dollar conversion. July ADR in Europe was US$166.81. Occupancies fell 2.3 percent in July to 70.3 percent and RevPAR is up 11.5 percent. RevPAR at European properties averaged US$117.22 for July.

Growth in the Middle East/Africa region ranked first in each of the three performance categories. Regional rates increased by 29.9 percent in July and measured US$149.57 per night. Middle East/Africa was the only region to post occupancy gains in July. Occupancy was up 3.5 percent to 70.7 percent for the month. The region recorded robust RevPAR gains of 34.5 percent in July and RevPAR stands at US$105.75 for the month.

Performance in the Asia Pacific region relied on strong rate growth up 14.8 percent in July to offset declining occupancies. Average Daily Rate in the region was US$136.52. July saw Asia Pacific hotel occupancy fall 7.0 percent to 65.4 percent, the worst decline among the four regions. Nevertheless, Asia Pacific RevPAR gained 6.8 percent in July and stands at US$89.32.

The Americas region lagged in ADR and RevPAR growth. Occupancy fell 1.9 percent in July, buffered by South American gains. Occupancy in the Americas was 69.4 percent for the month. Average daily rate was up 2.9 percent in the Americas to US$108.58. In July, RevPAR in the Americas was the lowest in the STR Global survey at US$75.36 a 0.9 percent increase for July.