Beijing hotels rebound strongly after earlier lull

18 August 2008

The Beijing hotel market has performed strongly for the opening days of the 2008 Beijing Games, rebounding strongly from a pre-Olympics lull according to data compiled by STR Global.

(Pictured left: The Westin Beijing Financial Street is riding high on Olympic fever)During the early days of August, the market was recording average occupancy levels below 60%. However, as expected, market performance began to recover from 6 August, and recorded a dramatic improvement on the day prior to the Opening Ceremony (7 August) and largely held this performance level of the opening weekend and into the first week of the Games.

Damien Little, Director of Horwath HTL’s Beijing office, said that a number of issues had affected the Beijing hotel market in the lead up to the Olympics and that this had exacerbated the traditional pre-Olympic lull typically faced by the host city.

“By 7 August, all seemed well in the host city with average room rates across the market hitting an average of RMB 3,700 and occupancy levels at 76%,” Little said. “These performance levels have largely held since, and room rate performance is higher than we expected to see.”

Little said the improved performance had been driven by the leading hotels in the market with room rates one and a half to two times higher than average. “Occupancy performance on the other hand, below 80%, is a little lower than what may have been hoped for in the lead up to the Games,” he said.

Connie Yan, Country Manager China for STR Global said, “It is really a tale of two cities with some hotels recording clearly outstanding performance levels, while other hotels seem to be missing out. Hotels located in the CBD, Downtown and Yansha areas are typically performing strongly,” Yan said.

Beijing’s new financial district is particularly buoyant, in particular the Westin Beijing Financial Street, with reports of record occupancy rates.