Wales tourism accommodation occupancy surveys: 2019

Main points

Consistent with 2018, Welsh hotels achieved impressive occupancy of 66% in 2019 which, although below the UK average, highlights underlying strength and rigidity in the market.

Whilst Welsh hotels continued to achieve solid levels of occupancy, hoteliers struggled to grow average daily rate (ADR) and, hence, revenue per available room (RevPAR), the key hotel performance metric. In particular, there is a sense that hotels outside of the key cities struggled the most to grow rates as North Wales hotels noted a double-digit reduction in RevPAR.

Across Wales as a whole, guesthouses and B&B’s experienced a rise in both room and bedspace occupancy during 2019. 

As with the serviced sector of guesthouse and B&B’s, the Welsh self-catering units (including cottages, bungalows, lodge / chalets, houses and flats) experienced higher unit occupancy than the previous year. As with serviced accommodation, the challenge arising from low-priced rentals has affected some businesses offering self-catering accommodation.

The Static Caravan and Holiday Homes  and the Touring Caravan and Camping markets have maintained the levels achieved in 2018 with the trend of holidaying in the UK continuing to strengthen with more and more UK holidaymakers staying at home in 2019.

Bed occupancy levels for Hostels and Bunkhouses in 2019 rose by a small amount from the previous year.  Across Wales, the upward trend in bed occupancy levels in Hostels and Bunkhouses has continued since 2015.

Revision note

Due to a processing error, data relating to hotels with 51 to 100 rooms for 2018 and 2019 have been revised since this report was published. Please see Wales tourism accommodation occupancy surveys: 2020 for updated figures.