Profit per room at Doha hotels fell by 23.3% in 2016, representing a second consecutive year of significant profit decline for properties in the Qatar capital, according to the latest data from HotStats.
Despite successfully reducing labour (-1.9%) and overhead (-3.8%) costs on a per available room basis, the drop in revenue far exceeded any cost savings and profit per room plummeted in 2016, which was further to the 8.4% decline in profit per room at hotels in Doha in 2015.
2016 has been a particularly tough year of operation for Doha hotels, having achieved only one month of RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room) growth in July, when they recorded an increase of just 0.9%.
Overall, in addition to an 18.2% decline in RevPAR, hotels in Doha suffered declines in ancillary revenues, including F&B (-11.2%) and conference and banqueting (-14.6%). As a result, TrevPAR (Total Revenue per Available Room) fell by 13.5% in 2016, to $297.41.
In an attempt to recover profit, Doha hoteliers have slashed costs in undistributed operating expenses, including admin and general (-15.9%), sales and marketing (-11.7%) and property maintenance (-18.2%).
However, due to the ongoing decline in revenue, profit per room at hotels in Doha has now declined by approximately 30.0% in the 24 months to December 2016.
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