Moscow hotels put in the best sales growth in Europe during October but German hotels, at least in Berlin and Hamburg, are showing the best growth for the first 10 months of this year, according to a survey of leading European cities by TRI Hospitality Consulting's European HotStats service.

The Russian capital's hotels showed a 26.9 per cent growth in revenue per available room in the month of October compared to the same month in 2005. But both London and Paris remained ahead of Moscow in absolute terms in October with revpars of €167.30 and €186.79 respectively compared to the €161.62 in Moscow.

"Moscow is clearly a hotspot right now. The tremendous growth in revpar reflects the lack of quality hotel stock in that city and it is currently very much a sellers' market when it comes to hotel rooms," said Jonathan Langston, managing director of TRI Hospitality Consulting.

October was a good month for all but one of the 10 cities in the survey with only Prague reporting negative revpar growth. Amsterdam was the second weakest with just a 0.5 per cent growth although over the first 10 months of the year, Amsterdam shows 8.8 per cent growth.

In fact, all cities, again with the exception of Prague where revpar was down 1.9 per cent, are showing growth in excess of five per cent for the year-to-date.

The strongest cities on a year-to-date basis are Berlin, up 26.3 per cent, and Hamburg, up 19.4 per cent. Both these cities benefited, of course, from the soccer World Cup. Surprisingly Munich is showing the fourth weakest growth year-to-date despite hosting some of the football matches.

Paris lead London in revpar battle

In the race to have the best revpar in absolute terms, Paris has moved ahead of London for the first 10 months of 2006. Growth in October of 17.9 per cent in revpar in the French capital against the 15.6 per cent growth in the UK capital, meant Paris stood at €155.26, just ahead of the €154.71 for London.

"During the year, Paris and London have been battling to see who will top the revpar table. With just two months of figures to go, it is still too soon to call a winner," said Langston.

Despite the impressive October performance, Moscow lies in fourth place in terms of absolute revpar for the 10 cities for the year-to-date, with Paris, London and Amsterdam ahead of it.

The revpar growth in Moscow has been driven mostly by average room rate which has grown 17.4 per cent in the year-to-date, the highest growth of the 10 cities. Paris remains the most expensive city in which to buy a hotel room, however, with an average rate of €201.23, ahead of second placed Moscow where it cost €188.25 on average during the first 10 months of this year.

Occupancy is the weak spot for Moscow. It props up the table of 10 cities with 69.4 per cent for the year-to-date, the only city not to reach at least 70 per cent. The busiest city is London with an occupancy of 84.3 per cent.

"Moscow's relatively poor occupancy levels reflect the under developed tourist industry in Russia. Hoteliers in cities like London, Paris and Amsterdam are able to balance strong weekday demand from business with healthy tourist traffic at weekends," said Langston.

For more information contact Jonathan Langston on +44 (0)20 7486 5191 or email jonathan.langston@trihc.com.