Five-star hotels’ occupancy rate inches up to 62 percent

FIVE-STAR hotels in Nepal achieved a 62.16 percent average room occupancy rate in 2012, up 0.53 percent from before. According to the statistics produced by the Tourism Ministry in coordination with Hotel Association Nepal, these properties recorded the highest occupancy rates of 79.9 percent and 84.67 percent in October and November respectively. While the hotels revelled in their impressive performance during the peak tourist season, they had a hard time keeping

occupancy above 50 percent in January and July. Kathmandu-based hotels saw a significant growth during the off-season with average occupancy rates growing by more than 55 percent. There are 10 five-star properties in Nepal (eight in Kathmandu and two in Pokhara). “A hotel occupancy rate of more than 50 percent during the off-season is normally considered good. However, it also depends on the tariff structure,” said Raj Bikram Shah, sales and marketing manager of the Hotel Annapurna. According to Shah, hoteliers have been offering several packages to attract customers to maintain their occupancy above 50 percent during the lean season. Meanwhile, resident manager of the Hotel Yak and Yeti Bharat Joshi said that in the hospitality sector, an occupancy rate of above 40 percent is considered “survival”, and a rate higher than 50 percent is termed “fair”. An occupancy rate of above 60 percent is “good”, and 70 percent and higher is considered “excellent”. “A growth in Kailash Manasarovar tour packages and flow of Chinese tourists helped five-star hotels to remain busy during the off season last year,” Joshi said. It was almost a round-the-year business for hotels last year although holidaymakers from the European market declined significantly due to an economic recession, he added. Hoteliers said that five-star hotel tariffs also increased 10-15 percent in 2012. According to them, the hike in room rates was prompted by inflation and higher demand. The stats show that 399,959 room nights out of the 643,428 room nights available at the 10 five-star hotels were sold in 2012. The country received 803,092 tourists last year, and their average length of stay was 12.87 days. Nepal has two peak tourist seasons—March-April and October-November. Hotel occupancy figures well reflected this trend. Hotels recorded the highest occupancy in November, followed by October, March, April, March and June with an average occupancy of above 60 percent. Kathmandu-based five-star properties registered a 66.76 percent occupancy in 2012, up 0.65 percent. The eight five-star hotels in Kathmandu produced 539,850 room nights last year out of which 360,407 were sold. The highest room occupancy of 88.50 percent was recorded in November in Kathmandu-based hotels. Similarly, hotels saw the highest sales in October (84.10 percent), March (75.45 percent), April (73.37 percent), June (67.67 percent), September (65.11 percent), December (62.52 percent), February (60.10 percent), May (57.57 percent), July (55.83 percent), August (55. 70 percent) and January (55.69 percent). The two Pokhara-based five-star hotels registered a 38.27 percent occupancy in 2011, a 0.08 percent drop. Out of the 103,578 night rooms available last year, 39,552 room nights were sold. The occupancy rate was the highest in November (64.69 percent) and October (56.80 percent). The figures for February, March, April and June were 39.47 percent, 36.54 percent, 31.54 percent and 38.37 percent respectively. The hotels saw the lowest occupancy of 21.01 percent in July when Pokhara experiences heavy rains.