COVID-19 webinar summary: 5 key points on Europe hotel performance, 10 September

Knowing you might not have time to watch our full webinars, we are pleased to continue our series of COVID-19 webinar summaries. In this latest edition, we talk performance in Europe as well as our latest forecast updates.

How does Europe compare to other regions in the recovery cycle?

China hit a 69.4% occupancy level on 18 August, the highest level during the time of the pandemic. Since that date, however, China has started to fall back a bit. During the first weekend of September (4-6 September), the market posted 57.6%, 57.5% and 57.9% occupancy levels, respectively.

Europe saw its lowest occupancy level during the first weeks of March. During August, one of the most important months of the year for hotels on the continent, Europe posted an occupancy level as high as 44.7% on 22 August.

Regional markets are still leading the recovery

Regional markets in Europe are leading the recovery while main cities have lagged. For example, Ireland Provincial posted the country’s highest occupancy level (56%), while Dublin occupancy was 28.2% for the week ending 6 September.

How is the “second wave” affecting hotel performance in Belgium?

Belgium was the first European country to see declines from the end of July. Since that point, Belgium posted its lowest occupancy level on 4 September. Now the focus is whether this second-wave impact will extend into the coming months.

U.K. road to recovery

For the week ending 6 September, following the bank holiday weekend, occupancy fell week-over-week to 46%. Saturday night remains the best-performing night of the week. Channel Islands/Cornwall/ Devon saw the highest occupancy level (85.1%) on 30 August.

What can we expect after summer?

Powered by Forward STAR data, the below image includes occupancy on the books for the next 3 months (as of 7 September) in the key European markets, and further insights are provided in the full webinar recording. Occupancy-on-the-books intelligence will help us all understand recovery and provide much-needed context. Those insights can be accessed for free when you submit your data. If you are interested, please email sales@str.com.

For further insights into COVID-19’s impact on global hotel performance, visit our content hub.