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 a 41.8 percentage-point annual drop in the average occupancy rate in Beirut’s hospitality sector to 3% during the month of May 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 41.9% y-o-y to $108, with the average room yield plunging by 96.2% to $3.

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

On a regional basis, Beirut recorded the lowest average occupancy rate of 14% among the nine covered Middle Eastern capitals during the first five months of 2020, with Abu Dhabi outperforming its regional peers, recording the highest average occupancy rate of 68%, followed by Riyadh (58%) and Doha (57%). Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels charged the fourth highest average room rate of $129, noting that Kuwait City recorded the highest average room rate of $177, followed by Riyadh ($152) and Manama ($133), only to name a few.