Ernst & Young (EY) published its “Middle East Hotel Benchmark Survey Report” on the performance of 4 and 5 star hotels in the Middle East region, conveying an 83.5 percentage-point annual drop in the average occupancy rate in Beirut’s hospitality sector to 2% during the month of April 2020. This comes on the back of the strained local political and economic conditions and the lockdown that was imposed to tame the COVID-19 pandemic. Similarly, the average room rate fell by 38.9% y-o-y to $124, with the average room yield plunging by 98.6% to $2.

The following chart captures the monthly evolution in the occupancy rate in Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels over the April 2019 – April 2020 period:

On a regional basis, Beirut recorded the lowest average occupancy rate of 17% among the nine covered Middle Eastern capitals during the first four months of 2020, with Abu Dhabi outperforming its regional peers, recording the highest average occupancy rate of 69%, followed by Doha (60%) and Kuwait City (58%). Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels charged the fifth lowest average room rate of $130, noting that Kuwait City recorded the highest average room rate of $176, followed by Riyadh ($163) and Manama ($134), only to name a few.