According to Ernst & Young Middle East hotel benchmark survey, the occupancy rate in Beirut’s 4- and 5-star hotels reached 43.7 percentage point (pp) by October 2021, up from last year’s registered 20.5% during the same period.
On a monthly performance, Beirut occupancy rate recorded a downtick of 1.9% in October 2021 from October last year, to reach 35.3%. Furthermore, the average room rate has increased by 380.8% from 269,642 Lebanese pounds in October 2020 to reach 1,296,339 Lebanese pounds in October 2021, equivalent to drop of 62.0 % in USD; 180$ in October 2020 to 68$ in October 2021 at the parallel market rate.
As such, RevPAR (Revenue per available room) up surged by 356.3% in LBP during the same period; 100,160 Lebanese pounds in October 2020 to 456,982 Lebanese pounds in October 2021, equivalent to drop of 64.0% in USD from 67$ in October 2020 to 24$ in October 2021.
On a regional level, the occupancy rates in Dubai overall increased by 19.4% year-to-date (YTD) to 61%. By the same token, the Average room rate and Room yields both increased by 19.6% and 75.8% to stand at $231 and $140, respectively by October 2021.
In turn, in KSA, Riyadh’s hotel occupancy rate increased by 4.7% to reach 55.3% by October 2021, and average room rate decreased by 5.5% to $133 by October 2021. However, for Makkah city, the Average room rate increased by 43.1% to $151.
Moreover, in Amman, occupancy rate added 0.7% to reach 30.1% by October 2021, average room rate increased by 24.1% to reach $135 per night; moreover room yield progressed by 27.2% to $41.
It seems that competitive exchange rates are not enough to revive the hospitality sector in Lebanon. In this respect, economic and political stability appear to be crucial and sufficient.
Source: EY, BlomInvest