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 5.5 percentage-point annual increase in the average occupancy rate in Beirut’s hospitality sector to 30.5% during the month of November 2021. The average room rate dropped by 71.3% y-o-y to $62 in November, with the revenue per available room (RevPAR) concurrently plunging by 65.1% to $19. The aforementioned drops can be explained by the fact that the November 2020 figures for Lebanon were based on local Dollar pricing while the more recent November 2021 figures have been converted to fresh US Dollar rates.

The following chart captures the monthly evolution in the occupancy rate in Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels over the November 2020 – November 2021 period:

On a regional basis, Beirut recorded the fifth lowest average occupancy rate (42.5%) among the nine covered Middle Eastern capitals during the first eleven months of 2021 in part owing to the lockdown between the first and second month of the year. Abu Dhabi outperformed its regional peers, enjoying the highest average occupancy rate of 77.0%, followed by Doha (74.2%) and Riyadh (56.9%). Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels charged the lowest average room rate of $40, as a result of the devaluation of the pound as explained earlier, noting that Kuwait City recorded the highest average room rate of $228, followed by Riyadh ($136) and Amman ($135), only to name a few.