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29 March 2024

UAE hotels run tempting campaigns to entice visitors

IHG currently operates 18 hotels in the UAE, with another 10 hotels due to open in the next three to five years. (File)

Published
By Staff

Local hotels including Atlantis, Madinat Jumeirah, Bab Al Shams Desert & Resort, Jumeirah Creekside Hotel and others have been running aggressive promotions to attract guests to give fillip to sagging occupancy level.

Increased supply, lower occupancy and the summer effect have taken a toll on the UAE hotel room rates, which dipped below Dh800 in April, according to STR Global’s monthly data.

Average one night hotel room rate in the UAE declined 7.9 per cent to Dh798 while occupancy fell 3 per cent to 78.9 per cent, says STR. On a year-on-year basis, room rates have dropped 9.7 per cent from Dh883.6 in April 2014 to Dh798 in April this year.

Hotels’ revenue per available room also saw double-digit drop, falling 10.6 per cent to Dh629.77.

STR said in its March update that Dubai reported the largest number of rooms under construction in the Middle East with 14,385 rooms in 49 hotels.

Among other countries, Doha posted the only double-digit increase in ADR, up 12.3 per cent to $201.08 (Dh738.56). Doha saw an influx of visitor arrivals for the first quarter of 2015 related to Gulf Cooperation Council events in the market.

Muscat in Oman saw the largest drop in ADR, down 14.4 per cent to $232.64 (Dh854.48).

Overall, the Middle East and Africa region reported negative year-over-year results in the three major performance metrics during April 2015 when reported in US dollars, according to data compiled by STR Global.

The region reported a 0.4-per cent decrease in occupancy to 66.2 per cent, a 4.6-per cent drop in average daily rate to $168.47 and a 5-per cent fall in revenue per available room to $111.45.

When looking at the three Middle East and Africa sub-regions, Northern Africa posted the only increases for any of the three performance metrics when reported in US dollars.

The sub-region experienced an 11.4-per cent increase in occupancy to 57.6 per cent and a 10.2-per cent increase in RevPAR to $51.34. ADR in Northern Africa was down 1.1 per cent to $89.11 for the month.

Amongst the key countries in the region, Egypt experienced the highest increases in all three key performance measurements. Occupancy in the country was up 16.0 per cent to 59.8 per cent; ADR rose 14.5 per cent to $80.46; and RevPAR increased 32.8 per cent to $48.14.

The performance increases in Egypt can be attributed to low year-over-year comparables and the country’s continued economic recovery.