GGRAsia – July occupancy 94pct at Macau 5-star hotels: govt

July occupancy 94pct at Macau 5-star hotels: govt

Aug 24, 2023 Newsdesk Latest News, Macau, Top of the deck

The average occupancy rate in July for the just-over 25,000 five-star hotel rooms said to be in the Macau market reached “93.7 percent”, stated Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) in an emailed response to a GGRAsia enquiry. Many of the city’s five-star hotels are located within casino resorts.

The city’s overall July hotel occupancy rate was 92.2 percent, the tourism bureau had mentioned separately in a Wednesday press release.

In its email to GGRAsia, MGTO clarified that the city-wide occupancy percentage was calculated from “over 40,000” hotel rooms in operation in the market, citing provisional numbers supplied by the local hotel industry.

What Macau hotel occupany rates actually mean for the health of the city’s general tourism market is a subject of debate among some commentators.

A number has told GGRAsia that casino resort operators commonly reserve a portion of their five-star hotel room stock – sometimes on a complimentary basis – for high-value gambling customers. Rooms block booked for gaming patrons – whether or not the patrons actually occupy those reserved rooms – might also be considered as rooms ‘sold’, said the commentators.

According to some information recently released by the Macau Hotel Association, the average five-star room rate in July was MOP1,618.4 (US$200.5), representing a 171.3 percent year-on-year increase. The July average room rate in that category was also almost level with the pre-pandemic period of July 2019, when the average daily rate was MOP1,631.2, show association data.

The latest association data cover 45 member-hotels across the three-star, four-star and five-star tiers. Of the tally, 27 were five-star hotels in casino resort complexes either in Cotai or on Macau peninsula.

The average occupancy rate of the association’s five-star hotels in July was 92.9 percent, while the overall occupancy rate across the three tiers that month was 93 percent.

The summer months of July and August are traditionally a busy period for the city’s hospitality sector.