Leading business advisory company, Deloitte, recently released figures from Smith Travel Research (STR) Global which cover the hotel sector in Dublin for the first nine months of 2011. STR Global tracks supply and demand data for the hotel industry and provides market share analysis for all major international hotel chains and brands. With tens of thousands of hotels taking part in STR’s hotel performance surveys, the company is one of the world’s leading sources of hotel performance trends. The STR figures show that hotels in Dublin are experiencing improved performance across the main key performance indicators.
Compared to the same period in 2010, occupancy rates across the hotels in Dublin has increased by almost 8 percent, with the average daily rate up over 6 percent. In addition, revenue per available room (RevPAR) has gone up by almost 15 percent. The average daily rate charged by Dublin hotels in the first nine months of 2011 was €82.41, indicating that rates have continued to rise since the beginning of the year. In the same period in 2010, the average daily rate was just €77.51. RevPAR followed a similar trend. In the first nine months of 2010 RevPAR fell by 7% to €52.47, compared to the same period in 2009. In 2011, however, Dublin hotels achieved a RevPAR of €60.16, which is an increase of nearly 15%. Occupancy rates also remain positive. In the first nine months of 2011 occupancy levels rose nearly 8% to 73%, whereas in the same period last year this figure stood at 67.7%.
Kevin Sheehan, Partner in charge of Tourism, Hospitality and Leisure Services at Deloitte, said “The results of these latest figures show that the summer season in 2011 has been considerably stronger than in 2010, which will come as a considerable relief. These figures correspond to recent figures from the CSO, which showed that in the period July to September of this year, the total number of overseas trips to Ireland increased by 6.5% to 2,126,200, compared to the same period twelve months earlier. The picture that is emerging for Dublin hotels in 2011 is one of steady recovery, albeit the margins being achieved are still relatively small. However with all key measurement indicators going in the right direction, it is clear that the careful consideration hoteliers gave to their marketing and pricing strategies have hit the right note with consumers.”