November 2023: the European Hotel Industry is Not Afraid of the Cold

While Southern Europe posted the best hotel performances in October, the trend seems to be reversing in November. The first signs of the end-of-year festivities are benefiting the countries of Northern and Eastern Europe, which are world-famous for their ambience, while the warmer countries continue to attract sun-starved tourists.

The European hospitality industry turned in a fine performance in November, with an occupancy rate of 67.8%, up 1.9 points on 2022. Although the country is still 4 points behind 2019, the rise in the average daily rate (+18.2% vs. 2019) has enabled it to post a RevPAR of 78.7 euros, representing an increase of 8.2% compared to 2022 and 11.5% compared to 2019.

Only the low-cost segment is still lagging behind its 2022 level of activity (-1.3 pts), while the upscale segment is recording the strongest increase (+3.6 pts). Compared with 2019, these are the two segments lagging furthest behind (-4.6 pts for low-cost and -5 pts for upscale).

With the exception of upscale (+2.8%), all segments will see their average daily rate rise by more than 5% compared with November 2022.

All European countries are still below their pre-Covid occupancy levels, with the exception of Greece, which is up 1.7 points on November 2019. The United Kingdom and Spain also put in a notable performance, trailing 2019 by just -0.7 points.

Looking ahead to 2022, the results are more than encouraging. With the exception of Luxembourg (-1.3 pts), Poland (-0.8 pts) and France (-0.2 pts), all countries show positive growth compared to the previous month of November. The Eastern European countries continue to catch up, particularly the Czech Republic (+4.4 pts) and Latvia (+3.2 pts).

The countries of Northern Europe are also showing remarkable dynamism, with the United Kingdom, Luxembourg and the Netherlands recording occupancy rates of 79.1%, 72.7% and 72.6% respectively.

In terms of prices, Spain stands out with double-digit growth (+12.7%) compared to 2022, followed by the Czech Republic (+9.9%). Once again, Eastern European countries are in the limelight, with the highest increases, such as Latvia (+7.7%) and Hungary (+7%). Southern Europe is not to be outdone, however, with equally remarkable increases in the average daily rate, including Italy (+6.3%), Portugal (+5.5%) and Greece (+4.9%).

Compared with 2019, Hungary is coming out on top, with the biggest increase at +49.7%. Portugal saw the second biggest increase (+33.4%), followed by Spain (+27.2%), Poland (+26.2%) and Italy (+24.7%). Conversely, Switzerland and Luxembourg are showing the most restrained trends, with growth of +6.8% and +3.7% respectively.

Southern and Eastern Europe are once again neck and neck in terms of RevPAR growth compared with 2019. Spain posted an increase of 26.1%, followed by Hungary, Portugal and Greece with rises of 25.3%, 25.2% and 20.1% respectively.

Compared with 2022, Spain again stands out with growth of 19.3%, followed by the Czech Republic, whose RevPAR is up by 17.5%. Austria (+14.2%), Latvia (+14.1%) and Italy (+13.4%) have also posted significant increases, driven by a sharp rise in their occupancy rates and average prices.

Performances Europe octobre 2023
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This article originally appeared on HSMAI Europe.