Resort hotels in the south of Ukraine early finished the summer tourist season in 2019 at once after holidays on the Independence Day, which is several weeks earlier than in 2018, Director General of Ribas Hotels Group Managing Company Artur Lupashko has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“This year, resort hotels closed the season early. It ended after the weekend, when was the Independence Day, since the hotels in the south were almost completely empty as early as August 26. Nobody believes in September. Many teams are simply tired and decided not to take risks, although last year we “held on” until September 14-16. We counted on the weekends and gained. Odesa residents finally decided to relax by the sea for the weekends. Therefore, we had full occupancy in the first two weeks of September at the weekends,” he said.
According to preliminary data, this year, the occupancy rate in the hotels of the Ribas Hotels Group increased by an average of 5%. The highest occupancy was observed in August (91%), followed by July (81%), and the lowest rate was seen in June (46%).
“The results of the summer tourist season of 2019 were influenced by many factors. This is cool weather in the beginning of summer, then fluctuations in high temperatures, algae blooms in the sea, elections and much more. We would say that before the election, guests carefully planned their holidays,” Lupashko said.
According to him, about 60% of guests booked rooms a week before arrival, about 15% – two weeks, and only 5% – a month before the planned date of rest.
“People began to save on everything during their holidays. According to the tourist portal Booking.com, 60% of users use the room price slider as the first filter. The most popular price range for guests on the Ukrainian coast is from UAH 500 to UAH 1,500 per night for a room,” Lupashko said, adding that while doing this, guests take into account what is included in this price: breakfast, lunch, spa treatments, and other things.
In this regard, the Ribas Hotels Group is considering a proposal to remove services such as breakfast, extra cleaning, SPA treatments for guests of resort hotels. Thus, the average guest check will be significantly reduced and will correspond to the budget of the guest for the trip.
Ribas Hotels Group provides integrated management services, exclusive booking, franchising and design.
The total number of rooms in the network as of July 2019 was 1,424 rooms.
Ribas Hotels Group LLC (Odesa) was established in 2017.
According to the unified public register, Lupashko is the head and owner of a 100% stake in the charter capital of the company.
