Growing demand for one of the most successful traveller offerings in recent years – lifestyle hotels – has fuelled the accommodation comeback as global occupancy rates in Q1-2023 neared pre-COVID levels, according to FCM Consulting’s latest Global Trends Report.
Innovative insights showed global hotel occupancy for the first quarter of the year was at 60.46 per cent, only four percentage points below the levels of 2019.
“Lifestyle hotels – focused on travellers who want to experience something unique – have taken off in recent times as corporate travellers look for a different offering to what was considered the norm across the globe,” said FCM Consulting General Manager Felicity Burke.
“Hotels that have lobbies to encourage interaction, offer green initiatives, have slick technology, and wellbeing choices are some ingredients of a lifestyle hotel. Newer hotel offerings such as Lyf Collingwood in Melbourne, or a Hoxton in New York are challenging the legacy style hotels.”
Q1-2023 saw all six regions surpass Q4-2022 Average Room Rates by 4-26 per cent, with Asia up 26 per cent, Middle East rising by 22 per cent, Europe up 19 per cent, Latin America increasing by 12 per cent, Australia/New Zealand up 12 per cent, and North America rising four per cent.
“Interestingly, this is actually a strong uptick on the Q4-2022 quarter, where only North America and Australia/New Zealand were the only two regions to have surpassed 2019 levels,” Ms Burke said.
“The Q1-2023 Average Room Rate versus Q1-2022 was up four per cent as season-high demand pushed rates up by $17USD per night when compared to Q4-2022.
“The biggest rises came in Auckland and Wellington that saw increases of 27 per cent and 25 per cent respectively – with Melbourne (up 17 per cent) and Sydney (up 16 per cent) not too far behind.
“This shows that the demand for true value in flights and accommodation remains and the corporate traveller is willing to shop differently based on price and the value of service offering – opening up significant supplier changes in corporate travel programs across the globe.”
