Benchmarks

In a similar vein to 2015 and January 2016, the Côte d’Azur and Regional France confirmed or even improved on January’s good results.

Late 2015 was heavily impacted by November’s tragic events, and Parisian hoteliers were hopeful that January would signal a return to normality. However, they will have to wait, since 2016 began in the same way as November and December 2015 ended.

As unfortunately feared, the month of December failed to reverse the trend observed throughout 2015, which ended on a mixed note. Occupancy dropped sharply in all categories in Paris and the Ile-de-France region as a whole, as the impacts of the terrorist attacks were strongly felt.

Paris and the Ile de France region were dramatically hit by two terrorist attacks in 2015. The impact on hotel activity is evidently substantial and hotels in this area will finish the year on a lower note. November saw a fall in occupancy in Parisian hotels of all categories compared to the same period 2014. Although the impact appears to have been less strong in regional France, intermediary categories nonetheless recorded lower performances in November 2015, particularly on the Côte d’Azur.

As the months go by, the pattern observed thus far is becoming stronger. Although year-to-date performances at the end of October were more or less balanced, October marked a strong decline in almost all categories, compared (true) to a good October 2014. The sharp drop in Ile-de-France hotel performances was decidedly the most striking feature and dragged down average performance in France as a whole.

September was encouraging for hotels on the Côte d’Azur and in regional France as they continued to post growth in occupancy and average rates. On the other hand, having stagnated, or even declined, in recent months, Parisian hotels struggled. Although year-to-date performances at the end of September are slightly higher than last year, the final trimester is important in determining 2015’s end result.