According to Ernst & Young Middle East hotel benchmark survey, the occupancy rate in Beirut’s 4- and 5-star hotels reached 37% by June 2021, up from last year’s registered 17% during the same period.
On a monthly performance, Beirut occupancy rate recorded an uptick of 49.8 percentage point (pp) in June 2021, compared to the same period last year, to reach 54% in June 2021. Furthermore, the average room rate has increased by 315.2% from $121 in June 2020 to $502 in June 2021, which led to an upsurge in RevPAR (Revenue per available room) growth of 5,219.9% during the same period; from $5 to $271 in June 2021. Important to mention, that the increase is inflated by valuing the room rates at the official exchange rate of LBP 1,500 for USD.
On a regional level, the occupancy rates in Dubai overall increased by 16.9% year-to-date (YTD) to 60%. By the same token, the Average room rate and Room yields both increased by 11% and 54.1% to stand at $238 and $144, respectively by June 2021.
In turn, in KSA, Riyadh’s hotel occupancy rate decreased by 5.6% and average room rate decreased by 10.2% to $131 by June 2021. Moreover, the Average room rate decreased by 10.2% to $131. However, for Makkah city, the Average room rate increased by 84.2% to $193. To note, Makkah’s hotel industry showed improved performance with the return of Umrah this year strictly for vaccinated or COVID-recovered pilgrims only.
Moreover, in Amman, occupancy rate dropped by 13.7% to 20% by June 2021, average room rate increased by 3.3% to reach $121 per night and room yield decreased by 38.4% to $24.
It is worth mentioning that Beirut average occupancy rate picked up during the month of June by 49% compared to the other nine Middle Eastern capitals studied in the report. This is mainly explained by the high booking rate during the beginning of the summer season, reviving the hospitality sector as a result.
Source: EY, BlomInvest