HotelBenchmark launches city survey for Paris

Deloitte has launched its Paris and Ile-de-France edition of the HotelBenchmark Survey. Paris joins London as the second survey dedicated to city performance.

Paris has long been a feature of the Europe edition of the HotelBenchmark Survey, but this is the first time that detailed markets within the city have been available on HotelBenchmark.com. The new survey breaks the Paris hotel market into 19 distinct markets, including key central areas and airport markets. Greater Paris is also broken down by size of hotel, star rating and average rate bands.

Despite a 4.7% increase in revPAR during 2004, hotel performance in Greater Paris still has a long way to go to return to the giddy highs of 2000. At €108 revPAR in Greater Paris is still 16% below that reported in 2000. The main reason for this is the significant fall in occupancy the city has experienced over the last four years. Since 2000 occupancy has fallen from a high of 79% to a low of 64% in 2003 before bouncing back to 67% in 2004. Encouragingly, average room rates have remained relatively steadfast during this period, as the city avoided discounting battles to attract demand.

Hotels in the city of Paris (the 20 arrondissements) achieve a higher level of revPAR than hotels located in Outer Paris, as the central location naturally commands a higher average room rate. During 2004 average room rates for hotels in the city of Paris were nearly 50% higher than that reported by hotels in Outer Paris. Ironically despite improving demand, hotels in Outer Paris reported a 1.8% decline in average room rates during 2004, compared to the 1.6% increase recorded by hotels in the city of Paris. 

Performance in France continues to suffer from the relative strength of the Euro, particularly to the US dollar, which is affecting the price competitiveness of the market. There has been a concerted campaign to win back American tourists following the diplomatic clash with France over the Iraq War in 2003. While returning corporate business means Paris is faring better than a number of regional leisure markets, performance still has a long way to go to return to 2000 levels.

Commenting on the launch of the survey, Julia Felton, Executive Director of HotelBenchmark at Deloitte said, "We are extremely excited to launch a city survey for Paris and to be able to offer such a comprehensive and detailed analysis on the different aspects of the market. As trading conditions in Paris continue to be challenging, we are pleased to respond to the needs of the industry by providing operators with a greater understanding of the market dynamics."

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