Average room rate performance for Germany’s cities so far this year varies dramatically according to data from STR Global, the leading provider of market information to the world’s hotel industry.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.
——-