Hong Kong hotels are finding 2015 to be a challenging market with the outlook for the rest of the year also looking tough. Even upscale Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels which operates The Peninsula Hong Kong, saw its average room rate slump 15 percent in the second quarter to a four-year low.
The average room rate at the Peninsula Hong Kong fell to HK$4,436 from HK$5,242 a year ago, the hotel operator said yesterday. Its occupancy rate slid one percentage point to 69 percent, the lowest since the third quarter of 2013. Revenue per room dropped 16 percent to HK$3,051.
Chief executive Clement Kwok King-man said tourists around the world are attracted by the weak yen, causing Hong Kong to have fewer Japanese and mainland visitors.
Since peaking in 2013, local hotel rates have slumped to HK$560 and HK$780 for a three- or four-star hotel room.
In 2013, tourists had to pay up to HK$2,000 for a room in a three-star hotel amid limited supply.
Sixty-seven more hotels have been built in the SAR since 2010, taking the total number of hotel rooms to 72,700, up 20 percent. In the first six months of this year, the occupancy rate of Hong Kong hotels has dropped by an average of 5 percent while room prices per day have fallen by an average of HK$127 from a year earlier, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
"Hotels targeting European and American tourists also suffered because economies and the investment market in these places are not performing well," said Michael Li Hon-shing, executive director of the Federation of Hong Kong Hotel Owners.
