- 📊 Three groups, three paces · IHG at +4.1%, Marriott at +3.4%, Accor at +2.2% revenue per room in the first half
- 💶 The increase comes from rates · in the Americas, +3.3% average rate for only 1 point of occupancy gained
- 📉 A sharp slowdown in the second quarter · the Europe-Africa-Asia zone went from +5.6% to +0.6% quarter-on-quarter
- 🇨🇳 China at +3.1%, driven equally by rate and occupancy
- 🧭 Excluding the Middle East, Accor’s Asia-Pacific zone went from ‑1.1% back to +1.9%: the global average masks a single gap
The major hotel groups have all published their half-year results. From a distance, the picture is reassuring: revenue per available room is growing everywhere, by between 2% and 4% depending on the brand. Up close, this growth is no longer coming from the number of guests, but from what they are being charged.
A tight ranking, but a ranking nonetheless
IHG posted the best performance of the trio with a 4.1% increase over six months. Marriott followed at 3.4%. Accor brought up the rear at 2.2%.
Less than two points separate first and last, which might seem negligible. However, when applied to portfolios of several hundred thousand rooms, the gap runs into hundreds of millions. And it is explained less by the quality of management than by the map: each group absorbs the geography of its portfolio. Accor, highly exposed to Europe and the Middle East, is paying for its regional concentration; IHG, better distributed across the Americas, is benefiting.
Rates do the work, not occupancy
This is the most revealing figure of the half-year, and it goes unnoticed behind the overall percentages. In the Americas, the main driver of global growth, IHG gained 4.8% in revenue per room. In detail: 3.3% came from the increase in the average rate, and occupancy grew by only a single point.
In other words, hotels are hardly filling up any more. They are charging more for the same nights. This is a perfectly real growth, but one that relies on a variable that inflation and purchasing power can quickly reverse.
China is the exception, with a 3.1% increase roughly equally shared between the rate, up 1%, and the occupancy rate, which gained 1.1 points. It is the only major market where occupancy is still growing.
The second quarter broke the momentum
The half-year was cut in two. In the zone comprising Europe, Africa and Asia, revenue per room growth went from 5.6% in the first quarter to 0.6% in the second. A near-standstill in three months.
The slowdown is almost entirely attributable to the conflict in the Middle East, the effects of which were felt from April. The clearest demonstration comes from Accor: its Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific zone posted ‑1.1% over the half-year. Remove the Middle East alone from the calculation, and the same zone goes back to +1.9%.
What these figures do not say
These global averages are convenient for press releases and misleading for analysis. They aggregate markets that no longer have anything in common: the Americas rising on prices, China filling up, Europe slowing down, and a Middle East in freefall.
A group announcing “+3%” today is no longer describing a trend, it is describing an average between opposing trajectories. This is probably the real news of this half-year: the globalisation of the sector no longer protects against regional shocks, it merely dilutes them in the presentation.
The second half of the year will tell if the rate increase holds up against clienteles who are booking later and later, and closer and closer to home.
