The average term for booking rooms in hotels of the southern region of Ukraine after the summer 2018 season fell to four days from seven a year ago, Ribas Hotels Group Executive Director Andriy Marenchuk has told Interfax-Ukraine. “If we evaluate the overall [summer] season, we can say that it was not easy… The booking period in the southern region was significantly reduced, the early booking period also. The average booking duration for this season is four days, and last year it was seven day. This is one of the main factors for assessing the tourist market,” he said. According to Marenchuk, a decrease in this indicator indicates a low level of the marketing product of most resort hotels in the country.
He said that Karolino-Buhaz, Hrybivka, Ochakiv, Zatoka and Koblevo became resorts of the “last minute,” that is, they are chosen as the last resort if tourists could not go to a foreign resort. “This is the worst marketing product of the existing ones. It is bought last, because other factors did not play: for example, there was not enough time to go to Egypt or Turkey for 10 days, so we went to Zatoka for three days. Why there were queues at the Moldovan border on Thursdays and Fridays? People from Moldova went for a weekend. These are not tourists from Belarus or Ukrainian guests who came for five to seven days,” the expert said.
He also said that in the struggle for a guest who prefers to come to Ukraine for a long time, domestic resorts lose to foreign ones, primarily because of the lack of a developed hotel infrastructure. “If in Turkey a hotel is built on average with 300 rooms, then in our region such a facility is considered very large. And if a hotel has a small number of rooms, then it is unprofitable to build a pool, install water slides and other entertainment infrastructure,” the expert said.
At the same time, Marenchuk reported on increased competition with Carpathian hotels. “We have a rival with rapidly developing tourism like the Carpathians. The mountains are considered not only from the perspective of the winter resort Bukovel. Many Carpathian hotels have begun to use the summer season. Today only the sea saves us [the Ribas Hotels Group],” Marenchuk said.
In turn, the founder of the company Ribas Hotels Group, Artur Lupashko, said that the operator’s hotels showed a consistently high load this year. “Loading of our summer hotels this year has fluctuated at the level of 68%. Traditionally, the most active months [July and August] showed 76%. June sank a little at 58%. For owners or investors of the southern region, this means profitability of resort hotels of six to eight years and the return of 12-16%,” he said.
Ribas Hotels Group (Odesa) LLC was established in 2017. According to the unified public register, Lupashko is the head of the group and holder of a 100% stake in the company’s charter capital.
The occupancy of Kyiv hotels in July-September 2018 was 52.4%, which is 4% more than in the same period of 2017, such statistics are presented in the study by CBRE Ukraine international consulting company (Kyiv).
“The key performance indicators of the hotel market in Kyiv continued to recover in 2018, especially thanks to the results in April, the month of the UEFA Champions League 2018 final. Thanks to a record high figure in April, when the average occupancy in the market reached 59.4%, the average occupancy rate by the end of the third quarter of 2018 amounted to 52.4% (2.1 p.p. more year-on-year),” CBRE Ukraine said in a report.
According to the report, by the end of the third quarter of 2018, the average price of a room was $106, which is 0.3% higher than in 2017. At the same time, the average yield of a room was 55.5%, which is 4.6 percentage points more compared to the same period of 2017.
According to CBRE Ukraine experts, the increase in profitability of rooms in luxury, upper upscale, upscale and upper midscale hotels was due to a rise in the average price, while the growth of profitability in economy and midscale hotels was due to a high occupancy.
CBRE is the largest consulting company in the real estate field with over 450 offices in the world and about 80,000 employees. The company’s shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Ukrainian office of CBRE was opened in January 2008 and is part of the company’s affiliate network.
Six hotels had received the hotel rating certificates issued by the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine as of October 22, 2018. The respective information is outlined in data from the register published by the ministry on October 22. The following hotels were placed to the register: two five-star hotels – Grand Admiral Club (Irpen, Kyiv region) and Kadorr Hotel Resort & Spa (Odesa), four-star Dnipro (Kyiv) and other hotels. The certificates of the hotels will expire on September 27, 2021. Grand Admiral Club was opened in 2002. The hotel has 64 rooms, including rooms in wooden cottages, four conference halls with a total area of 358 square meters and six banquet halls for up to 300 people. Kadorr Hotel Resort & Spa has been operating since 2015. The hotel has 25 rooms, as well as a conference hall with an area of 114 square meters, accommodating up to 90 people. Hotel Dnipro was established in 1994, the number of rooms includes 186 rooms, four banquet and three conference hall with a total area of 192 square meters and a negotiating room for 10 people.
As reported, the assignment of stars to hotels was suspended on January 1, 2018 due to the termination of the certification authority UkrSEPRO.
Occupancy of Kyiv’s hotels in the highest peak of the tourist season (May-August) grew by 1.6 percentage points (p.p.) in the upscale segment, to 47% and by 5 p.p. in the midscale segment, to 56%, the press service of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) in Ukraine has reported. According to JLL, Average Daily Room Rate (ADR) in the upscale hotel segment in Kyiv in May-August 2018 grew to $175, which is 10% more than in May-August 2017, while Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) grew by $13, to $85.
“May was the month when hotels were occupied the most, when the UEFA Champions League final took place. This event… allowed hotels of the upscale segment to reach occupancy of 59% with the increase of ADR by almost 40%, to $230,” Head of the Hotels & Hospitality Department at JLL Tetiana Veller said.
According to the JLL report, in the midscale segment of the Kyiv’s hotels there was a decrease in ADR by an average of 10%, to $80. At the same time, due to the increase in the occupancy to 56%, RevPAR in this segment increased to $45.
According to the consulting company, Kyiv hotels in the eight months ending August 2018 showed an increase in occupancy by 1 p.p. in the upscale segment and by 2 p.p. in the midscale segment, the growth of ADR – by $15 in the upscale and $2 in the midscale.
The occupancy of Kyiv hotels in the first quarter of 2018 increased by 4 percentage points compared to the same period a year earlier and amounted to 43%, the press service of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) consulting company in Ukraine has said. “The operational indicators of the hotel market of the Ukrainian capital are gradually recovering. Even in first quarter, which is not traditionally active, dynamics is visible: the average market occupancy in the period from January to March increased by 4 p.p. compared to the previous year, to 43%, against the backdrop of tariff growth,” the head of the JLL hotel business department, Tetiana Veller, said.
According to JLL, the average tariff for staying in the top segment hotels in January-March increased by 8% compared to the first quarter of 2017 and amounted to $160, while in the middle segment this indicator increased by 18%, to $68. At the same time, the occupancy of expensive hotels remained at the last year’s level of 40%, while occupancy at middle segment hotels rose by 3 p.p., to 50%.
According to JLL’s forecasts, in the second quarter it is worth expecting an increase in the operating indicators of the capital hotels in connection with the Champions League final, as well as other cultural and business events. Jones Lang LaSalle provides financial and comprehensive professional services in the field of real estate. The company’s turnover in 2017 was $7.9 billion. The portfolio in real estate management is 423 million square meters. The company has about 300 corporate offices in more than 80 countries around the world, uniting more than 82,000 employees.
The occupancy of the most popular hotels in Kyiv for the period of the UEFA Champions League final reaches 100%, while prices exceed the usual tariffs by 5-10 times, experts polled by Interfax-Ukraine believe. “Almost all the hotels (more than 90%) have been booked for the period of the UEFA Champions League that will take place in Kyiv on May 26. Most of them have a minimum period of booking for the duration of the match, usually three or five days. The price of rooms depends on the location of the hotel. Prices for rooms in hotels in the center of the city are 5-10 times higher than the standard rate,” Natalia Chistiakova, the director of the valuation and consulting department at Colliers International (Ukraine), said.
According to her, the most popular objects are three-, four- and five-star hotels in the central part of the city. Tariffs for rooms decrease with distance from the Olympiysky sports complex.
In particular, according to Park Inn by Radisson Kyiv Troyitska hotel, located near the sports complex, all the rooms in the object have already been booked. At the same time, the hotel offers guests the option of including in the waiting list and after May 4 receive an answer whether there are any vacant rooms. “Given the mistakes of the previous years when carrying out the events of this level, hoteliers, more often, book rooms on a prepayment of not less than 70%,” the expert said.
