Hotel occupancy for those open in April falls to 12.6%

Room rates for guests in Dublin hotels down more than 30%

Occupancy in the few hotels in the Republic that remained open in April was running at 12.6 per cent.

Data from travel research group STR lays bare the extent of the hit to hotels from the coronavirus lockdown, with occupancy in Dublin declining 85 per cent in April compared to the same month in 2019, and occupancy in regional Ireland down by 80 per cent.

In Dublin, actual occupancy of the few hotels that remained open was 16.2 per cent in the month.

Revenue per available room (RevPar), a key metric in the hotel business, also declined sharply, slipping almost 90 per cent in Dublin to just €11.54.

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For any guests who were staying in a hotel prices were considerably cheaper than this time last year, with the average daily room rate falling more than 30 per cent in Dublin to €91.83.

Goodbody Stockbrokers on Wednesday noted that April “was always going to be an exceptionally difficult period for Irish hotels given that they are only allowed to accept bookings for essential workers, and the majority of hotels are closed”.

Under the Government’s plan to reopen the economy, hotels in the State will be allowed to open from July 20th.

For regional Ireland the picture on RevPar was broadly similar in April, with the average daily room rate dropping 31 per cent to €83.28.

Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton

Peter Hamilton is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in business