Qatar's hospitality sector sees improvement in rooms' yield in May; one two star hotels see fastest expansion

Qatar's hotels saw marginal improvement in rooms' yield on an annualised basis in May this year amidst flat occupancy, according to the data released by the Planning and Statistics Authority

Qatar's hotels saw marginal improvement in rooms' yield on an annualised basis in May this year amidst flat occupancy, according to the official data. Qatar's two- and one-star, three-star and five-star hotels saw higher than average expansion in the rooms' yield on an annualised basis in the review period, said the data released by the Planning and Statistics Authority (PSA). However, the country's hospitality sector witnessed an overall weakness in the room yield in the deluxe hotel apartment segment this May, mainly pulled down by lower occupancy, although there was an 869% year-on-year surge in visitor arrivals to Qatar in the review period. In May 2022, Qatar has seen a total 166,090 visitor arrivals with majority coming in from the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries. The visitor arrivals from the GCC were 90,309 or 54% of the total, followed by other Asia (including Oceania) 29,824 or 18%, Europe 25,294 or 15%, other Arab countries 9,802 or 6%, Americas 8,684 or 5% and other African countries 2,177 or (1%). The properties that have been utilised as quarantine/Covid-19 response facilities have been removed from the full market data set from March 2020, PSA said. The country's overall hospitality sector saw 1.73% year-on-year increase in average revenue per available room to QR294 in May 2022 as the average room rate grew 2.22% to QR507 amidst flat occupancy at 58% in the review period. The two-star and one-star category hotels' average revenue per available room more than doubled year-on-year to QR152 in May this year. The average room rate in two-star and one-star hotels shot up 20.74% on yearly basis to QR163 and occupancy by 43% to 93%. The three-star hotels witnessed a 30.15% year-on-year surge in average revenue per available room to QR177 in May this year. The average room rate was seen rising 24.1% year-on-year to QR206 as occupancy was up 4% to 86%. In the case of five-star hotels, the average revenue per available room gained 17.49% on annualised basis to QR403 in May this year despite 15.62% shrinkage in the average room rate to QR686 even as the occupancy shot up 17% to 59%. The average revenue per available room in the four-star category rose 4.32% on an annualised basis to QR169 in May 2022. The average room rate in the four-star hotels was up 1.12% to QR270 and the occupancy gained 2% to 63% in the review period. In the case of standard hotel apartments, the room yield soared 20.16% year-on-year to QR155 in May 2022. The average room rate plummeted 11.89% year-on-year to QR200 even as the occupancy zoomed 21% to 78% in May 2022. The deluxe hotel apartments nevertheless saw a 30.85% year-on-year plunge in average revenue available per room to QR195 in May 2022. The average room rate in the deluxe hotel apartments was seen gaining 8.95% on an annualised basis to QR414. The occupancy plummeted 27% to 47%.