February was another strong month in Budapest with demand shooting up by 5.6 percentage points and average room rate (ARR) climbing by 9.2%; revenue per available room (RevPAR) grew by 19.9% to €52.59.

A closer look at the segmentation for the month demonstrates that all segment rates increased, with Residential Conference rate taking the lead (accounting for 17.5% of the business mix) and rising by 17.3%.

Similar performances were registered in non-rooms departments and total revenue per available room (TRevPAR) went up by 19.4%. Astute operating cost control and a noteworthy decrease in payroll (-5.1 percentage points) resulted in departmental operating profit per available room (DOPPAR) surging by 26.1% and GOPPAR by 78.5% compared to the same period last year.

Warsaw also forged ahead recording a 19.3% uplift in RevPAR thanks to a 7.1 percentage point increase in occupancy combined with a 7.9% growth in ARR, most notably fuelled by a 10.3% surge in the B.A.R segment rate.

Additional revenue per available room from meeting room hire (+34.1%), beverage (+30.5%) and food (+30.0%) enhanced TRevPAR levels by 21.6% to €110.66.

Despite overheads per available room climbing by 8.7%, a 4.6 percentage point decrease in payroll combined with efficient operating cost control helped to deliver a DOPPAR and GOPPAR growth of 31.1% and 54.1% respectively.

Challenging month for Dusseldorf and Istanbul

Dusseldorf hotels registered negative year-on-year comparisons across all key performance indicators for the month of February.

Both occupancy and ARR declined by 6.1 percentage points and 16.4% respectively to deliver a RevPAR drop of 23.5%. A closer look into the rooms department shows a 7.0% increase in travel agency commission per occupied room compared to the same period last year.

Similar movements were recorded in non-rooms revenues with the exception of meeting room hire per available room surging by 26.5%, thus TRevPAR decreased by 18.7% to €147.11. With payroll going up by a 6.3 percentage points, DOPPAR fell by 27.1% to €80.83 thereby contributing to a GOPPAR decline of 39.9% to €43.56.

On the other hand, Istanbul hoteliers experienced growth in demand (+4.3 percentage points) at the expense of ARR going down by -11.7% in the month of February, resulting in a RevPAR drop of 5.4%.

However, positive movements in non-rooms departments softened the TRevPAR decline to 0.5%. With payroll rising by 2.5 percentage points, DOPPAR decreased by 3.5% to €62.97, and GOPPAR fell sharply by 20.5% to €21.44, representing a profit conversion of 18.8% down from 23.5% compared to the same period last year.

Baffling indicators in Frankfurt

In February, Frankfurt hoteliers boosted ARR by 5.6% thus occupancy only went up marginally, which resulted in a RevPAR uplift of 5.7% to €117.51.

However, a general decrease in non-rooms revenue per available room from meeting room hire (-31.7%), beverage (-6.2%) and food (-5.4%) led to a TRevPAR drop of 0.5% to €164.53.

Nevertheless, a 1.0 percentage point increase in payroll combined with a 2.9% surge in overheads per available room did not dilute the top-line gains from the rooms department, and GOPPAR grew by 5.8% to €56.48 compared to February 2014.

Notes:

The hotels profiled in this report are drawn from the HotStats database and reflect the portfolios and distribution of the hotel chains that we survey and which operate primarily in the four and five-star sectors.

Please note: The data samples are reviewed and rebased each year to reflect the changes in the HotStats survey base. As a result, performance ratios published last year may differ from those contained within this report.