Wales tourism accommodation occupancy surveys: April to June 2023

This Accommodation Occupancy report provides information on the occupancy levels of serviced and self-catering accommodation, as well as hostels and camping/caravan sites y. There is also third-party data from Transparent (short term lets), and STR Global (large hotel chains).

Serviced

• Occupancy has risen steadily throughout 2023.
• Quarter 2 - April, May, and June - show consistently higher occupancy figures than January to March.
• All regions have shown similar increases in occupancy levels.
• Smaller properties (1 to 3 rooms and 4 to 10 rooms) have shown a large increase in occupancy levels.
• Hotels achieved 71% occupancy.

STR

• STR hotels have shown growth from Q1 (73%) to Q2 (78%).
• There is less variation across regions in terms of occupancy levels and prices though North Wales has marginally higher occupancy (86%), while the South East has higher ADR (£82) .

Self catering

• 16% increase in occupancy from Q1 to Q2 (66% occupancy).
• There is wide regional variation in self catering occupancy.
• The South West largely outperform other regions (75%).
• 11 Bed properties or higher outperform smaller properties in this category.
• Businesses which are part of an agency or collective group achieved 69% room occupancy – higher than Independents (54%).

Transparent

• The South East (63%) and South West (60%) continue to be the better performers and by a slightly larger margin than seen in Q1.
• There is little regional difference although of note is how South West has the highest occupancy for Short term lets via the WAOS (75%) and Transparent (63%).

Hostel

• Compared to pre-COVID data reported in the Wales Accommodation Occupancy Survey: 2019 hostel occupancy compares somewhat favorably, with Q1 2019 occupancy the same at 36% but Q2 2019 occupancy at 60%, with Q2 2023 down 9% on 2019. levels at 51%.

Camping and caravan

• Overall the sector appears to be performing strongly in comparison with other sectors (average 76% occupancy).