Average room rate performance for Germany's cities so far this year varies dramatically according to data from STR Global.
Of the 17 city markets in the Federal Republic covered by STR Global, only four show positive, albeit modest, year-on-year ADR growth for the first four months this year: Rostock, Leipzig, Cologne and Dortmund. (See chart below.) Rostock leads the way with a 3.3-percent increase.
In this difficult trading environment this is commendable, especially when compared with the problems faced by Düsseldorf and Essen. These two neighbouring cities have ADR declines of 23.6 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. A large portion of the problems experienced by Düsseldorf reflects the fact that early 2008 was a good trade fair year for the city with two trade fairs, in February and April, which only occur every three years. This impacted Essen to a lesser degree.
Key facts (January to April 2009):
• Hamburg achieved the highest occupancy (65.1 percent), keeping its top spot from last year despite a 3.4-percent decline.
• All cities reported occupancy declines.
• Frankfurt achieved the highest ADR (€117.17), keeping its top spot from last year despite a 7.4-percent decline.
• Only four cities grew their ADR: Rostock, Leipzig, Cologne and Dortmund.
• Frankfurt's high ADR helped the city achieve the highest RevPAR (€66.23), keeping its top spot despite a 16.9-percent decline
• Only Rostock grew its RevPAR through the increase in ADR and only a slight drop in occupancy.
Top four and bottom four performers in average room rate growth January-to-April 2009 vs. January-to-April 2008
Source: STR Global/Fairmas
About STR & STR Global
For more than 20 years, Smith Travel Research has been the recognized leader for lodging industry benchmarking and research. Smith Travel Research and STR Global offer monthly, weekly, and daily STAR benchmarking reports to more than 36,000 hotel clients, representing nearly 5 million rooms worldwide. STR is headquartered in Hendersonville, Tenn., and STR Global is based in London. For more information, visit www.smithtravelresearch.com or www.strglobal.com.
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