Business events in many Australian cities have provided a welcome RevPAR boost to the hotel sector, with a stellar month recorded across most Australian cities, according to official industry data released by STR for the month of October.
Positive RevPAR growth was recorded in Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Gold Coast and Hobart, with the South Australian capital witnessing its strongest month for Occupancy and Average Daily Rate (ADR) since 2000. The City of Churches closed its month at an average RevPAR of $155.26 – up 20.4% from $128.90 a year earlier – with only five days across the month not recording a double-digit improvement in RevPAR growth.
The strong performance was attributed to a steady stream of business events, which helped to maximise what has traditionally been an above-average month for the city.
Four other cities also enjoyed strong performances in October, with Brisbane, Gold Coast and Hobart witnessing RevPAR growth despite ongoing, but steady, supply increases as new rooms came online. Perth improved its RevPAR however did not see any new rooms join its city-wide inventory during the month.
STR Regional Manager Pacific, Matthew Burke, said the strong results in many cities had improved the national year-to-date result for Australia despite a string of months where results had been impacted by a dominant supply chain.
“Despite only five of the major centres recording RevPAR growth, nine of the ten major markets saw demand growth of at least 2.5%.
“This therefore reflects the short term impact supply is having on performance but that underlying demand for hotel rooms remains strong,” Burke said.
Sydney and Melbourne reported occupancy levels of 83.8% and 84.9% respectively but again saw supply growth exceed demand, pushing ADR and RevPAR down 3-4% on average for the month.
RevPAR declines were also reported across New Zealand’s four key cities of Auckland, Queenstown, Christchurch and Wellington, however all four saw occupancy levels above 76%, suggesting underlying performance remained strong.