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 8.8 percentage-point annual increase in the average occupancy rate in Beirut’s hospitality sector to 39.3% during the month of November 2022. The average room rate dropped by 27.9% y-o-y to $49.0 and the revenue per available room (RevPAR) decreased by 7.2% to $19.0.

The following chart captures the monthly evolution in the occupancy rate in Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels over the November 2021 – November 2022 period:

On a regional basis, Beirut recorded the third lowest average occupancy rate (49.6%) among the nine covered Middle Eastern capitals during the first eleven months of 2022. Abu Dhabi outperformed its regional peers, enjoying the highest average occupancy rate of 75.3%, followed by closely by Cairo City (70.9%) and Riyadh (62.3%). Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels charged the lowest average room rate of $46 when priced at the fresh Dollar rate to reflect the sizeable devaluation of the Lebanese Pound against the US Dollar. Kuwait City, on the other hand, recorded the highest average room rate of $224, followed by Riyadh ($176) and Manama ($154), only to name a few.