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 0.7 percentage-point annual decrease in the average occupancy rate in Beirut’s hospitality sector to 40.2% during the month of December 2021. The average room rate dropped by 66.2% y-o-y to $73 in December, with the revenue per available room (RevPAR) concurrently plunging by 66.8% to $29. The aforementioned drops can be explained by the fact that the 2020 figures for Lebanon were based on local Dollar pricing while the more recent figures have been converted to fresh US Dollar rates hence embedding the sizeable dollarization of the pound.

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

On a regional basis, Beirut recorded the fifth lowest average occupancy rate (42.3%) among the nine covered Middle Eastern capitals during the year 2021. Abu Dhabi outperformed its regional peers, enjoying the highest average occupancy rate of 77.8%, followed by Doha (74.2%) and Riyadh (58.7%). Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels charged the lowest average room rate of $39, as a result of the aforementioned devaluation of the pound against the US Dollar, noting that Kuwait City recorded the highest average room rate of $232, followed by Riyadh ($139) and Amman ($135), only to name a few.