The city’s occupancy rate for 3-star to 5-star hotels may decline by around 10 per cent year-on-year in December despite the average room rate being downwardly adjusted because of the heightened competition amongst hotel operators and more hotel room inventory available, the Macau Hoteliers & Innkeepers Association has told Business Daily. Mr. Chan Chi Kit, president of the Association, estimated that the occupancy rate for 3-star to 5-star hotels here for December would fall to 70 to 80 per cent, about 10 per cent less when compared to a year ago. “From December 1 to 20, we saw that the occupancy rate here had declined by about 10 per cent year-on-year,” he said. “And we expect that the occupancy rate for the Christmas holiday will be around 70 to 80 per cent, at a time when we mostly receive Hong Kong clients rather than those from China because in Mainland China there is no Christmas holiday.” Speaking to media on Saturday, Macau Government Tourist Office director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes estimated that the occupancy rate for 5-star hotels here would be maintained at around 80 per cent. She also expected that the city would receive no less than 30 million visitors for the whole of this year, although posting a decline when compared to 2014. Mr. Chan deems the expected occupancy rate to be at a level that is still “healthy” for the hotel operators given that the city has seen an addition of inventory in Cotai of over 3,500 rooms when compared to December last year. The latest addition of inventory comes from the opening of St. Regis Macao, Cotai Central on December 18, which comprises 400 rooms; this year, the city has also seen its room inventory boosted by the opening of Galaxy Phase II and its sister property Broadway Macau in late May (comprising 1,585 rooms in total), and Melco Crown Entertainment Ltd’s 1,600-room Studio City in late October. The Macau Hoteliers & Innkeepers Association head also estimated that the turnover of room rates from the 3-star to five-star hotels here for December may decrease by 20 per cent year-on-year, given that the average room rate has seen a decrease of some 10 per cent. “With more competition amongst the hotel operators now, more room inventory is available while at the same time there’s not much growth in visitor arrivals [thus] it’s definite that the room rate is going down,” Mr. Chan remarked, noting that the casino-hotels here have continuously offered various kinds of promotional packages comprising accommodation, ferry tickets and other entertainment services discounts. “Now even the non-casino hotels are cutting their prices in order to attract more people to stay; the room rate has more room to go down in the near future,” Mr. Chan added. In the first ten months of this year, the number of hotel and guesthouse guests has dropped 4.8 per cent year-on-year to 8.5 million, while the average occupancy rate stood at 79.8 per cent – 6.4 percentage points less when compared to a year ago, the latest available data from the Statistics and Census Service reveals.
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