Flooding in Thailand Impacts Hotels in Capital City

According to daily performance data from STR Global, Bangkok's hotel industry didn't experience major declines in terms of occupancy and rate during the first few weeks of historic flooding across Thailand.

In fact, until the beginning of the week when the flood waters reached the capital, daily occupancy levels remained around the 65% mark and ADR held fairly close to the same level as the previous year, with a month-to-27 October ADR of THB 2,980 (compared to THB 2,977 month-to-date in 2010).

The unrelenting waters have since negatively impacted seven of 50 Bangkok districts. The capital's Don Muang airport - which is used primarily for domestic, military and cargo flights - has closed, and several governments have warned its citizens against all but essential travel to the country.

Occupancy levels started to decline from Sunday, 23 October onwards and were followed soon after by a decline in ADR.

2011 up to this point had been characterised by recovery as hotel performance bounced back from last year's political protests.

"As our thoughts go with those affected directly by the flooding in Bangkok and the region, we also recognise it will be important that visitors return as quickly as possible to the region as a way to support the recovery efforts," said Elizabeth Randall, managing director at STR Global.

While much of Bangkok has thus far managed to remain dry, many of the suburbs to the north, east and west of the capital city are still under a lot of water, some areas more than 2 metres in depth.

See recent travel news from: Travel News Asia, Bangkok, STR, Floods