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. In details, Lebanon is still feeling the pinch of the Gaza war which extended its ramifications to the southern part of Lebanon, with hotel occupancy dropping by 20.8 percentage points y-o-y in December 2023 to 21.4%, and by 40.8 percentage points from September 2023’s reading of 62.2% before the onset of the war in Gaza. It is worth noting also that hotel occupancy stood at 12.5% in November, its lowest level since the Covid-19 era level of 11% that was registered in July 2020.  Conversely, the average room rate more than tripled y-o-y in December to read $167.0. As a result, the revenue per available room (RevPAR), which is the product of the occupancy and average room rate, rose by 57.2% y-o-y to $36.0.

The following chart captures the monthly evolution in the occupancy rate in Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels over the December 2022 – December 2023 period:

On a regional basis, Beirut recorded the lowest average occupancy rate (41.4%) in the hospitality sector among the nine covered Middle Eastern capitals during the full year 2023. Abu Dhabi, on the other hand, outperformed its regional peers, enjoying the highest average occupancy rate of 80.0%, followed by Cairo City (71.5%) and Riyadh (66.1%) only to name a few. Beirut’s 4 and 5 star hotels charged the fourth highest average room rate of $149, followed by Cairo City ($145), Amman ($142) and Muscat ($132) among others. Riyadh, on the other hand, recorded the highest average room rate of $209, followed by Kuwait City ($173) and Manama ($150).