Wales tourism accommodation occupancy surveys: 2023

What data is included in this report?

This report includes data from three sources:

1. The Wales Accommodation Occupancy Survey (WAOS) conducted by SRI, a research company based in Wales.
2. CoStar Ltd, a property management systems company that provide data on serviced hotels.
3. Lighthouse, a web-scraping company that provide data on Short Term Lets.

Serviced sector

• In the height of tourism season in August, serviced sector reached 80% room occupancy.
• Where comparisons are possible (last five months), occupancy in 2023 was similar to 2022, except in December.

STR global: hotel data

• When viewed quarterly across all property sizes there is a peak in occupancy levels in Q3 (July to September) at 83% which matches 2021 and 2022 data. 
• An analysis of Average Daily Rate shows a similar seasonal spread to Occupancy, notably that prices peak in August (£89) but unlike with occupancy data prices remained higher in Q4 (£75) compared to Q1 (£71), Q2 at £84 shows a steady rise in prices toward the summer. 

Self catering sector

• Where comparisons can be made (August to December), occupancy in 2023 was significantly higher than 2022, peaking at 90% in August. 
• South West Wales occupancy in 2023 was well ahead of other regions (72%), as was the case where data is available for 2022.
• Businesses which are part of an agency or collective group achieved 74% unit occupancy, significantly higher than independent businesses (50%).

Lighthouse: short term let data

• Analysis by quarter shows an expected pattern of rising occupancy into the summer (Q3) period peaking at 67%. Q1 (50%) and Q4 (53%) perform similarly with a steady rise into Q2 (58%). 

Caravan and camping sector

• Pitch occupancy achieved good levels in May (75%) & June (77%).
• But then occupancy saw no significant increase in key months of July (73%) and August (78%).
• August 2022 was much busier by comparison.

Hostel sector

• Bed occupancy peaked at 71% in August 2023, similar to August 2022.
• Sector experienced strong monthly variation in 2023, with September occupancy (57%) much higher than September 2022 (43%), but then occupancy fell sharply to 24% in October (43% in 2022).