The Dutch hotel market is continuing to show increases in occupancy and ADR rates over the past year, but its neighbor, Belgium, is struggling after terrorist attacks in its capital in March, according to Horwath HTL.
The consultancy’s HOSTA 2016 report says total revenues per hotel room and profit per hotel room in the Netherlands increased despite an increase in supply. Forcoming years, influenced by Brexit and the threat of terror attacks, a lower growth in both occupancy and average room rates is expected.
Netherlands
Average occupancy increased in 2015 from 69.5% to 71.4%, the highest since 2007. Occupancy is up for the third year in a row. Average room rates in 2015 increased by 6%, from €96 to €102. Following the similar increase in 2014, the average
room rates are now at the highest level since 2008. Total RevPAR increased by 13% in 2015, to € 129. The profits, expressed as a percentage of total revenues, decreased slightly, from 38.1% to 35.1%.
The forecast for 2016 shows that average room rates will increase by 1.9 percentage points. For 2017, however, average occupancy is expected to increase by only 0.3 percentage points. Average room rates are expected to increase by approximately 2% in both years.
Belgium
The occupancy in the Belgian hotels decreased from 74.3% to 72.8%. This is the first time since 2009 that the annual occupancy has decreased. The average room rates increased in 2015, from €90 to €92. RevPAR remained stable at €67. In the first months of 2016 occupancy also decreased slightly, while the average room rates continued to increase.
After the terrorist attacks on March 22, demand for hotel rooms decreased significantly. In the April-June, STR data shows that the occupancies of the Belgium hotels was approximately 15 percentage points below the level of 2015.
In Brussels, the decrease in these months was over 20 percentage points. The average room rates remained stable directly after the attacks, but are showing a decrease as well in June and July.