Paris and London in the lead: the traditional powerhouses of the European hotel industry have regained their full appeal to travellers, whether they are tourists passing through or business travellers on the move. In these two cities, as elsewhere in France and Europe, the combination of these two customer groups is driving up occupancy levels in hotels identified by CDS Groupe as business hotels for its 3rd business hotel barometerin partnership with MKG Consulting. These are establishments identified by the two partners as having a mix of corporate and leisure customers.
If the occupancy of business hotels is close to or exceeds 80% in the British and French capitals, it is also rising sharply in Amsterdam, Barcelona and Lisbon, with average passenger numbers in all these cities exceeding 75% in 2023. London Heathrow, Paris CDG, Amsterdam Schiphol, Madrid Barajas: the major gateways to all these cities are taking full advantage of this trend.
This rise in occupancy rates can also be seen, albeit to a lesser degree, in Germany. Dependent on trade fairs, penalised by a sluggish economy and lower tourist appeal, German cities are not benefiting from the same dynamic. Much less, for example, than the French metropolises such as Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nice and Strasbourg, most of which have occupancy rates in excess of 70%, while apart from Berlin and Munich, occupancy rates on the other side of the Rhine are around 60%.
As a result, rate rises are lower in Germany than elsewhere in Europe, and virtually non-existent in Frankfurt and Munich. And that's the other lesson from the barometer: tariff growth continued in 2023This is driven as much by higher costs for hoteliers as by the knock-on effect of leisure tourism. " The dynamism of leisure customers is affecting the availability of rooms and inevitably having an impact on corporate prices." notes the CDS Groupe study.
With the exception of German cities, the increase in the average corporate price, including breakfast, is noticeable in most major cities, ranging from 8% to 15%. As far as France is concerned, the average price of a corporate overnight stay, at €130, has risen by 8 % in 2023compared with +19 % in 2022. Although the rate of increase is tending to slow, companies should still be feeling this pricing pressure in 2024, at least in France with the Olympic Games in Paris in the summer.
The Olympic Games, a headache for travel managers
" Hoteliers may be delighted, but business travellers could suffer" stresses the study, for which the JO effect is like squaring the circle for travel managers, between teleworking instructions and possible postponement of travel in July, June and autumn, periods which are usually already very busy.
Traffic jam in sight? Risk of exploding prices? According to Ziad Minkara, CEO of CDS Groupe, " 2024 should see a split in corporate hotel prices, with slight inflation stabilising (2-3 1Q3T) in the first half of the year and a more uncertain second half which will depend on the tariff negotiations launched by companies in the first half of the year" .
According to CDS Groupe, corporate price growth should be in the range of 5% to 6 % in France in 2024. but with strong local contrasts" . This is a sensitive issue that the business hotel reservation specialist will be monitoring closely by adding to its monthly observatory a study dedicated to the evolution of booking rates during the Olympic period.
