It’s been a boom time for the hotel industry in the United Arab Emirates, as recent news items in Skift’s Daily Lodging Report have recently shown.STR has given preliminary data on Dubai’s hotel results for December.
Dubai’s hotel occupancy was lower than the pre-pandemic comparison level, but the average daily rate pushed revenue per available room, a key industry metric, above 2019 levels.
STR, the benchmarking service owned by CoStar, Occupancy averaged 76.6% while average daily rate (ADR) was about $243 or 892.84 Emirati Dirhams. The occupancy was -2% below December 2019 but ADR was 33.8% and revenue per available room was 31.1% higher.
In its last report for the UAE, STR was tracking more than 200,000 existing rooms with an active pipeline of nearly 50,000 rooms, with a combined total of almost 251,000 rooms expected by 2030.
Ras Al Khaimah was second only to Dubai in the size of its pipeline, which was almost the same amount as Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Fujairah combined.
In the past, the UAE’s growth in hotel rooms has spurred demand as room supply increased, STR said.
Hotel growth in the UAE has several examples. StayWell Holdings will add its luxury brand – The Prince Akatoki, to the UAE, where it already has four hotels. The first hotel under the Park Regis brand banner, Park Regis by Prince Deira Islands, was signed in Dubai, expected to open by the second quarter of 2023.
–Agencies
