Germany has provided clear evidence of the transformational effect of sporting events, according to the latest figures from TRI Hospitality Consulting's European HotStats survey.

The standout performance was in Berlin. Here revenue per available room doubled, rising 101.6 per cent, to bring it up into third place for the month of July out of the 10 cities surveyed. Berlin had the biggest rise in revpar for the year-to-date with a 34.0 per cent hike. Hamburg had second spot, again thanks mostly to the World Cup, with 22.8 per cent. London was third-placed with 13.2 per cent, just ahead of Amsterdam, Moscow and Paris which all also put in double digit rises. "While there were fears among some German hoteliers that the World Cup would not deliver as much as promised, these numbers show that the event has provided a significant uplift in hotel performance," said David Bailey, director of TRI Hospitality Consulting.

Looking at the first seven months of the year for absolute performance makes clear that the German capital still has a long way to go to catch up with hotels in either London or Paris. Berlin came in at sixth place, although revpar did just break through the €100 barrier, achieving an average of €100.93. The other German cities in the survey – Munich and Hamburg – prop up the ranking table just above the worst performer Budapest. Hotels in the Hungarian capital achieved a revpar
less than half that in London with an average of just €67.05. "German hoteliers have long been the poor relations with other major Western European cities when it comes to revpar. The World Cup has helped raise their game this year but it will be tough challenge for such performances to be repeated next year," said Bailey.

London regains revpar crown

London has regained its crown as Europe's leading city for hotel room revenue per available room performance after a strong performance during July.

Revpar at hotels in the UK capital saw revpar soar by just under a third during the month of July (32.2 per cent), an increase only beaten by Germany's capital Berlin. While Parisian hotels, the revpar leaders at the half-year mark, put in a creditable 19.5 per cent increase in revpar in July this was not enough to prevent them being knocked off the top perch for the year-to-date. London's €146.19 average room revpar was just ahead of the €143.86 achieved in Paris. "London and Paris are the top performing cities in Europe in terms of revpar and are having a tremendous battle to pull out in front," said Bailey.

Paris tops for rate

An area where Parisian hotels did take top spot, however, was in average room rate which is now getting close to €200 at €190.23. Moscow, which is widely regarded as having too few hotel rooms, is the second best rate performer in the year to date with €184.44.

If London was third placed on rate, it is not surprising that it took top slot when it comes to occupancy with 81.5 per cent. Only Amsterdam joins it in the 80-plus occupancy bracket with 81.3 per cent for the Dutch city.

In terms of changes over the first seven months it is not surprising that Berlin added the most occupancy, with an increase of 8.1 percentage points. Paris, though, edged ahead of Hamburg. "Revpar is a careful balance of rate and occupancy and while Paris still beats London in terms of rate, it is also working hard to catch up on occupancy," said Bailey.

For more information contact David Bailey on +44 (0)20 7486 5191 or email david.bailey@trihc.com.