Riyadh hotels rebound in May to highest rates in three months – STR

Hotels in Saudi Arabia’s capital city in May rang up their highest room rates in three months, according to hospitality data provider STR.

STR’s preliminary data for May puts the occupancy rate for Riyadh’s hotels at 42.8%, average daily rate at 544.31 riyals ($145.15), and revenue per available room (RevPAR) at 232.85 riyals.

While each of the three metrics were up from April, occupancy and RevPAR came in lower than earlier pandemic-affected months, said STR on Monday (June 14).

“Year-over-year percentage increases are substantial because of the comparison with the months most affected by the pandemic in 2020.”

Saudi Arabia has been slowly lifting outbound and inbound COVID travel restrictions that have been in place since around March last year. It re-opened its borders for outbound travellers on May 17 and in late-May an official said tourist visas would resume soon.

Inbound tourism is an important revenue earner for the Kingdom to reduce its reliance on oil and the government started giving out tourist visas in September 2019.

Saudi Arabia’s hospitality sector has been building in anticipation of increasing foreign visitor numbers.

STR said in April Saudi Arabia has the world’s largest projected hotel supply growth of 67.1% over the next three years and is the highest among the world’s 50 most populated countries.

The company projects 73,057 rooms across the three phases of the hotel pipeline, with a significant portion in Makkah (28,052 rooms under development).

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