According to the new data published by STR Global, May 2014 brought mixed results to European hotel industry. While some destinations like Athens (Greece) posted incredible increase of occupancy of 36.6% to 83.0% in total, the situation was not so glorious across the region.
Greece was the best performer in May. The occupancy here added 31% to 70.3% in total for the country. That’s very good news after quite a long period of poor results. The hotel industry of the country shows definite signs of recovery. Portugal was another strong performer, mostly thanks to the UEFA Champions League Final that took place in Lisbon. The ADR of the city also added 14.8% to 87.78 euro in total. The occupancy of another popular European capital, London, fell by 1.8% to 84.5%, causing the decrease of RevPAR of 2.1 to GBP119.27. However, there’s a reason for that in May 2013 London hosted the final of Champions League, so, naturally, the city’s occupancy grew above normal level, and in May 2014 results were weaker comparing to the same month a year before. Moreover, the hotel supply of the city added 1.8 percent, while the demand remained flat throughout the year.
Other notable performers include hotels in Bucharest, Romania, the occupancy of which added 24.5% to 72.3% in May 2014, reaching the second highest result for the region. The largest decrease of occupancy was posted by hotels in Istanbul, Turkey, - minus 12.3% to 71.3% in total. Hotels in Tallinn (Estonia), Brussels (Belgium), and Manchester (England) showed notable growth of ADR - +20.5%, +15.8%, and +15% respectively. The markets with highest growth of RevPAR in May 2014 were Athens (+46.2%), Tallinn (+28.2%), Lisbon (+25.4%), Bucharest (+22.6%), Brussels (+21.7%), and Manchester (+20%).