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 74.2 percentage-point annual drop in the average occupancy rate in Beirut’s hospitality sector to 3% during the month of June 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 27.4% y-o-y to $170 in June, with the average room yield plunging by 97.2% to $5.

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

On a regional basis, Beirut recorded the lowest average occupancy rate of 13% among the nine covered Middle Eastern capitals during the first half of the year 2020, with Abu Dhabi outperforming its regional peers, recording the highest average occupancy rate of 68%, followed by Doha (56%) and Riyadh (55%). Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels charged the fourth highest average room rate of $130, noting that Kuwait City recorded the highest average room rate of $188, followed by Riyadh ($148) and Manama ($132), only to name a few.