Being the least worst is never a high accolade, but in the face of a very tough market the performance of Germany’s main cities is commendable. The May 2009 edition of the European Hotel Review, published by STR Global, the leading provider of market information to the world’s hotel industry, shows German cities taking the top five positions for annual change in revenue per available room (RevPAR) for the year-to-May 2009. 

The European Hotel Review provides a detailed analysis of hotel performance in terms of occupancy, average daily rate and RevPAR at the global, national and market levels. Of the 40 markets sampled in the report, which represent 2,245 hotels and more than 400,500 guestrooms, the top five performing cities are all German: Cologne, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin.

The next five markets (Salzburg, Austria; Zurich, Switzerland; Glasgow, Scotland; Helsinki, Finland; and Rome, Italy) occupancy decreases range from 14.5 percent to 16.3 percent. Paris shows a fall of 17.2 percent (13th position) and London, England, had a decrease of 20.3 percent (18th position). Moscow, Russia, in 40th place, is the worst of the worst, with a decrease of 41.7 percent. This was almost matched by Dusseldorf, the sixth and last of the German cities in the review, which had a fall of 34.5 percent, in 39th position.

In spite of the poor performance of Dusseldorf, due to a couple of non-annual trade shows in 2008 that do not return to the city until 2011, the picture for Germany at the national level is good. Germany shares a joint top position alongside Israel, with an 11.5-decrease in RevPAR, the lowest decrease in year-to-date RevPAR for 2009 compared with 2008 of the 29 countries reviewed. In what is a series of grim, negative statistics the performance by Germany’s cities indicates not only a commendable level of skill by revenue managers but is also reflective of Germany’s economic performance and a reasonable level of consumer confidence.