Singapore's hotel RevPar hits $185 in H1

The luxury segment drove most of the half-year gains.

The overall revenue per room (RevPar) for hotels in Singapore remained flat in the first six months of 2019 at $185 as the respective revenue decline in the upscale, mid-tier and economy segments of 1.8%, 0.1% and 0.6% more than offset the resilient performance of the luxury segment which rose 3.3% YoY, according to a report from CBRE.

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In a show of strength, occupancy rates for the luxury segment edged up 1.6% to 87.7% and the mid-tier segment’s occupancy rate also climbed 0.6% to 87.2%. On the other hand, occupancy levels for the upscale and the economy segment fell 0.2% and 0.5% respectively.

The luxury segment also drove gains in the average daily rate (ADR) as of May which rose 0.6% YoY. ADR of the posh segment rose 1.5% during H1 and 3.9% in H2 2018, outpacing the 1.6% and 1% decline for the upscale and mid-tier segments.

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The first five months of 2019 saw the number of room nights sold (RNS) climb 1.8% YoY whilst room nights available (RNA) edged up 2.4%. As a result, the hotel investment market has totalled $828.3m in H1 2019, which is double the amount shown in H1 2018.

The decent half-year performance of the hotel sector can be attributed to a robust tourism sector with Singapore seeing a total of 7.76 million visitors during the first five months of 2019, up 1.5% from H1 2018. Chinese tourists continue to dominate the number of visitors, accounting for 19.4% of the market share or 1.54 million of the overall tourist count and the number is tipped to further rise on the back of Singapore Tourism Board’s partnership with Alibaba.

On the other hand, visitor numbers from the other two top feeder markets, Indonesia and India, fell 2.4% and 1.8% respectively. CBRE forecasted that 19.1 million visitors will visit Singapore in 2019.