Obviously, it was difficult to do worse. The second quarter of 2020, ravaged by the effects of the pandemic, including lockdowns and travel restrictions, had seen hotel group results plunging to abysmal depths. It is therefore hardly surprising to see revenue per room - RevPAR, a key indicator for the hotel industry that combines hotel occupancy with the average room price - recover this year. significantly more hold over the same period.
The improvement is particularly marked for groups...
Obviously, it was difficult to do worse. The second quarter of 2020, ravaged by the effects of the pandemic, including lockdowns and travel restrictions, had seen hotel group results plunging to abysmal depths. It is therefore hardly surprising to see revenue per room - RevPAR, a key indicator for the hotel industry that combines hotel occupancy with the average room price - recover this year. significantly more hold over the same period.
The improvement is particularly marked for groups that are mainly positioned in the most dynamic markets, i.e. the United States and China. Hoteliers who, for the most part, report triple-digit growth in the second quarter of 2021 with +102 % in China for the Huazhu group, +110 % worldwide for the American franchisor Wyndham, +150.9 % for IHG, and up to +233.8 % for Hilton and +262.6 % for Marriott. " Worldwide occupancy continued to improve, reaching 51 % in the quarter. We also saw a strong improvement in the average price, which fell by just 17 % compared with the second quarter of 2019" said Anthony Capuano, CEO of Marriott International, when announcing the group's results. As an example of this renewed dynamism in certain marketsIn the second quarter, Marriott hotels in China posted overall results on a par with 2019. Over the same period, Wyndham's budget hotels even outperformed their 2019 performance in the United States.
"We are leaving behind the most serious crisis in the sector tourism in recent history"Ramon Aragones, CEO of Spain's NH Hotel group, believes that the situation is changing. Vaccination campaigns and the gradual lifting of travel restrictions, the return of domestic tourists and the gradual resumption of some business travel: a number of factors are helping to ensure that this black page is gradually turned. " The recovery has been clear since Maysaid Sébastien Bazin, Chairman and CEO of Accor. With the massive roll-out of vaccination and the gradual reopening of borders, these positive trends will continue over the summer.. " A forecast confirmed by Keith Barr, CEO of another heavyweight in the sector, the British group IHG: "With hotel occupancy and rates continuing to improve, almost 50 % of our hotels reached RevPAR above 2019 levels in July. "
However, the comparison of results with those of the pre-covid era is still largely unfavourable to hoteliers. The Accor group has reported an overall decline of -60% in its RevPAR in the first half of 2021 compared with the same period in 2019. As for IHG, while RevPAR growth for the first half of 2021 was 20 % compared with 2020, it was still down -43 % on the level reached in 2019. In the second half of 2021 alone, IHG's hotel occupancy remained 19 percentage points lower than it had been in the same period in 2019, while average prices are only 87 % away from their pre-covid levels.
While the Chinese and North American markets have regained their momentum, the same cannot be said everywhere, starting with Europe and South-East Asia. While Accor has observed an acceleration in business in Europe over the end of the second quarter of 2021, it has not yet been able to confirm this trend, the Southern Europe region, which includes France, saw RevPAR fall by 63 % compared with 2019. As a result of the lock-in in April, RevPAR for France was down overall by 61 % (and by 76 % if we consider Paris alone, a market that has been penalised far more than the provinces by the absence of international travellers). " However, this figure masks an improvement in RevPAR of 22 percentage points between April and June 2021." The province has supported this growth.
Results still down in Europe and South-East Asia
Even more so than in France, the European hotel leader recorded a -74% decline in RevPAR in Northern Europe, notably -70 % in the United Kingdom and -84 % in Germany, due to the later extension of restrictions and the the absence of professional events. As one of the key hotel players in South America, the French group's results also reflect the difficulties in the subcontinent, with RevPAR down -62 % in the second quarter of 2021 compared with the same period in 2019. " Business improved at the end of the second quarter the acceleration of vaccination and the fall in the number of cases of infection, particularly in Brazil" the French group nevertheless stresses.
Conversely, the India, Middle East, Africa & Turkey region, buoyed in particular by good activity in Dubai, is back on track with RevPAR down by "only" -44 % compared with the second quarter of 2019. Finally, in the Asia-Pacific region, the situation is mixed, with relatively small declines in China (-18 %) and the Pacific region (-19 %), but an South-East Asia, which suffers greatly its dependence on international travel, and saw its RevPAR fall by 69 %.
Variant delta and fourth wave, pace of recovery in business travel and resumption of meetings, whether or not events and trade fairs are held: a number of uncertainties still hang over the coming months. After a generally good summer for leisure tourism, the success of the autumn is essentially based on travel and business tourism. In this respect, and as far as the United States is concerned, the heads of hotel groups were all confident in their comments on the results that business travel would pick up again in the autumn. The recent announcement by several postponing their employees' return to work - on 18 October next by Google and even at the beginning of 2022 by Amazon - could, however, complicate matters.
Given the continuing uncertainties, very few hoteliers are committing themselves to precise targets for the end of the year. " It's still too early to draw up an outlook by the end of the year, but we are confident in our ability to capture the recovery in all zones and deploy a reinvented vision of travel" said Sébastien Bazin on behalf of Accor. Only Wyndham expects RevPAR to rise by 40 % in 2021 compared with 2020, a fall of 16 % compared with 2019.
The fact remains thata new optimism is emerging the cascade of hotel group results. For Anthony Capuano, CEO of Marriott, "Although we are closely monitoring developments in Delta and other variants, we are optimistic that the upward trajectory of the global recovery will continue. We expect the fact that more workers will be returning to the office on a hybrid basis to act as a catalyst for a significant increase in demand for individual and group business in the autumn.. " And he concludes that, although the pace is likely to vary from region to region, ". we are on the road to full global recovery. " Let's accept the omen.
