Revenue per available room per day (RevPAR) in the period from June 1 to September 31 increased by 234% to UAH 3,041 in Bukovel, by 154% to UAH 695 in Odesa, by 102% to UAH 546 in Kyiv, and by 19% to UAH 1,411 in Lviv, Hotel Matrix project manager Olga Mishchenko told Interfax-Ukraine.
“RevPAR is a result calculated by multiplying the average rate by the occupancy. It is an indicator of commercial efficiency from the operation of the room stock. The summer results are really positive. First of all, we see growth in hotels with a resort and sanatorium focus, especially in the Carpathians. Odesa, thanks to the fact that the sea was finally “opened” in August, was also able to significantly improve its performance,” said Mishchenko.
In June-August 2023, hotel occupancy in Bukovel reached 78% (compared to 50% in the summer of 2022), in Lviv it was 54% (50%), in Odesa – 29% (21%), and in Kyiv – 28% (15%).
ADR (average daily rate) for hotels in Bukovel was UAH 3878 (UAH 1810 in summer 2022), in Lviv – UAH 2598 (UAH 2359), in Odesa – UAH 2383 (UAH 1333), in Kyiv – UAH 1956 (UAH 1854).
Hotel Matrix is a web-based hotel analytics product developed by Ukrainian developers. It was launched in May 2020. Currently, 202 hotels in Ukraine, 18 in Poland and two in Kazakhstan are connected to Hotel Matrix.
Hotel operator Reikartz is rebranding its hotel chain in Ukraine, with the new name Optima Hotels & Resorts, the operator’s press service said.
“The Ukrainian owners of Reikartz Hotel Group have reached an agreement on the separation of trademarks and decided to create a new brand for the hotel chain in Ukraine. The new name of our chain is Optima Hotels & Resorts. The chain will include Optima and Optima Collection hotels, Vita Park and Raziotel”, – said the operating director of Optima Hotels & Resorts Nadezhda Romanchuk.
She also said that the work on rebranding of hotels and on a new website optimahotels.com.ua, which will be launched this summer.
The chain unites more than 80 hotels in Ukraine, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Uzbekistan.
The Reikartz chain operated under the brands Raziotel (a chain of three-star economy hotels), Vita, Optima (three-star wellness resorts and hotels), as well as Reikartz Collection and Reikartz Hotels & Resorts (three-star-plus and four-star business and resort hotels).
In July 2022, the Reikartz River Hotel in Nikolaev suffered significant damage due to Russian shelling.
Reikartz Hotel Management LLC was established in 2008. According to Opendatabot data, the company’s participants are Volodymyr Kashutin (Lviv, 99.9%) and Andriy Dema (Kyiv, 0.1%). Kashutin is listed as the ultimate beneficiary. At the same time, until 2019, the beneficiaries were listed as citizens of the Russian Federation Yuri Vasin, Leonid Lavrentiev and Timur Rodionov.
According to the financial results for 2022, the company’s net profit amounted to UAH 10.6 million against a loss in 2021.
The number of bookings in Ukrainian hotels at the end of 2022 decreased by only 13% compared to pre-COVID 2019, despite large-scale attacks on Ukrainian cities by the aggressor country, Russia, according to a study by the Booking.com portal.
“2019 was the best year in Ukraine in terms of the number of both booked and lived nights. We recorded that starting from the third quarter of 2022, the decline in bookings decreased to 27% compared to 2019, while in the second the drop was 70%. And despite the huge number of attacks on our cities, we ended the fourth quarter with a drop of 13%. If it weren’t for the attacks of the aggressor, we might have approached the figure of 2019,” market team manager of the Ukrainian office of Booking.com Iryna Kulish said during the online conference of the Association of Hotels and Resorts of Ukraine on Tuesday.
According to the study, the number of nights spent in Ukrainian hotels in 2022 halved compared to 2021. At the same time, after the collapse in March 2022, the indicator began to grow already in April and in August almost reached the January level, the expert noted.
At the same time, the average cost of a room has not changed significantly: UAH 1,328 in 2021 and UAH 1,319 in 2022.
According to Booking.com, the most frequent stays for guests last year were two-six days (52%), about a third of visitors stayed for one day, 20% of customers stayed for seven days or more.
At the same time, the booking window in 2022 has been significantly reduced. Day-to-day or day-to-date bookings accounted for 35% of total bookings due to the difficulty of planning during the war. About 28% of bookings were made two-seven days before arrival, while 18% were made eight-20 days before arrival.
At the same time, the share of the most advanced bookings (more than 21 days), most often associated with summer holidays, decreased to 19%.
According to portal statistics, last year guests most often stayed in hotels (46%) and apartments (23%), while the share of hostels and apart-hotels was only 7% and 4% respectively.
According to Booking.com, a significant competitive advantage when choosing a location in Ukraine was the provision of information about the availability of a bomb shelter, autonomous power sources, uninterrupted Internet, water and heating.
The most popular destinations in 2022 were Lviv (19.4% of bookings), Kyiv (15.5%), Bukovel (8.7%), while a year earlier Kyiv (23.7%), Odesa (14.1%) and Lviv (11.3%) were in the lead. In general, the top bookings included mainly locations in the west of the country: Yaremche, Uzhgorod, Truskavets, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Chernivtsi. Previously, high rates of bookings were shown mainly by beach destinations, Kulish noted.
Bulgaria is resettling Ukrainian refugees from resort hotels by the sea to buffer centers in the cities of Sarafovo and Elhovo for further placement in other places of temporary accommodation in the interior of the country, according to the Bulgaria for Ukraine portal.
“We are ending the integration plan for the resettlement of refugees in the interior of the country, with which we sought to meet the needs of the people. All persons who are in hotels and say that they have nowhere to go will be temporarily placed in buffer centers in Sarafovo and Elhovo,” the source was quoted as saying. in the message, Deputy Prime Minister for Effective Public Administration of Bulgaria Kalina Konstantinova.
According to the new plan of the National Headquarters, all Ukrainian refugees will be temporarily placed in buffer centers before being resettled in places of temporary accommodation.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, the authorities are currently determining the exact number of Ukrainians who have lost their homes at home and intend to take advantage of temporary asylum in Bulgaria.
“I urge those of you who do not need asylum to declare it now. This is the only way we can immediately take care of people who really need it,” Konstantinova stressed.
At the same time, persons who have refused humanitarian resettlement still have the right to free residence in Bulgaria until February 24, 2023, social benefits, the right to work and treatment.
As reported, Bulgaria’s new humanitarian program provides for the resettlement of refugees in lower-class housing, family hotels and guest houses. According to the certificate in the system of the Ministry of Tourism of Bulgaria, the possibility of accommodation in places 1 and 2 stars is 175 thousand beds.
Source: https://ukraine.gov.bg/
Ukrainian hotels in the Carpathians are expected to be fully loaded for the New Year period; as of the middle of November, up to 50% of rooms have been booked, hotel operators reported.
“The New Year period cannot be taken as a basis in predicting the dynamics of reservations. New Year is a traditional time of travel. All Ukrainian resorts (Bukovel, Drahobrat, Truskavets, etc.) are occupied for New Year. People plan New Year’s holidays in advance, so it is already difficult to find vacant rooms,” Executive Director of Ribas Hotels Group Andriy Marenchuk told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to him, the depth of booking is in line with last year’s indicators, but the number of guaranteed bookings has decreased.
“There was a request from guests for free cancellation of reservations. This is due to COVID-19 restrictions, the political situation and the impossibility of planning,” he said.
According to the hotel operator Reikartz Hotel Group, clients are gradually returning to long-term planning of their holidays: as of mid-November, the occupancy of resort hotels for the New Year and Christmas period is more than 50%. At the same time, the booking period is on average five days or more.
“In Ukrainian Carpathians, they are booked for five or more days. Often such a trip is considered by guests as a full-fledged winter vacation. Hotels for recreation near large cities are more saturated with reservations for 3-4 days,” Head of the resort department at Reikartz Hotels & Resorts Christina Kahuy said.
While hotels in western Ukraine show high occupancy rates, the Black Sea region is facing a difficult period, President of the Ukrainian Hotels and Resorts Association (UHRA) Iryna Sidletska said.
“We are entering a low season, and a difficult period is coming for Black Sea hotels: we predict an average of 25-30% occupancy for the next three months, and only at the expense of a business tourist. At this time, hotels in western Ukraine are gradually recovering due to the New Year holidays and the season of winter holidays,” she told the agency.
As reported by hotel operators, prices for hotel accommodation will rise slightly, based on the increase in utility rates. According to the Reikartz Hotel Group, the price increase for the New Year period averaged 10%.
As reported, the owners of hotels at ski resorts of Ukraine will be fined for the lack of documents confirming the COVID-19 status of tourists (vaccination certificate, negative PCR tests or a certificate of recovery).
Earlier in November, UHRA announced 100% vaccination of employees of most categorized hotels in Ukraine.
The owners of hotels in ski resorts will be fined for the tourists not having documents confirming their COVID status (vaccination certificate, negative PCR tests or a certificate of recovery), Health Minister Viktor Liashko said.
“If visitors or employees do not have the necessary documents, the owner of the establishment may be held liable under the article ‘Violation of the rules of quarantine of people’ of the Code of Administrative Offenses of Ukraine. It regards a fine from UAH 34,000 to 170,000,” he said at a briefing on Thursday.
Liashko said that at ski resorts “only those people who have been checked for the presence of COVID documents are allowed to provide services.”
“Adult visitors and clients on winter vacations must have proof of vaccination against COVID-19 or testing negative or recovery,” he said.
The Minister noted that after consulting with specialized associations, the Ministry of Health recommends checking COVID documents during check-in at a hotel or when buying a ski pass.
Visitors to the resort are advised to assign a unique mark, such as a sticker, to identify that a person’s documents have already been verified. Also, the mark should indicate who exactly issued it.
“This is necessary to avoid repeated checks of documents and to enable the use of related services: cable cars, street fairs and other services,” he said.
