Russia’s capital has ranked first in Europe in terms of hotel occupancy rate since November 2020, the country’s Vedomosti newspaper announced on Wednesday referring to the Cushman & Wakefield international consulting company’s report, TASS writes.
According to the newspaper, Moscow hotels were filled by 39% in November, while in Istanbul, which topped the ranking a month earlier, this figure plunged to 37.3%. In December, Moscow’s hotel occupancy rate climbed to 43.3%, which is over 1.5 times higher than in Turkey’s largest city. In the first month of 2021, this figure in Moscow remained virtually unchanged at 43.6%.
The data of the Cushman & Wakefield report on Moscow are confirmed by other consultants, as well as hoteliers. The company’s partner Marina Usenko noted that Europe had not overcome another COVID-19 wave yet, which brought about the restrictive measures on people’s mobility and shutdown of infrastructural facilities, including hotels.
The possibility of people’s free movement within the country and almost complete lifting of restrictions allowed Moscow’s hotel market to recover faster than European capitals, Head of the Hospitality Industry Division of CBRE’s Strategic Consulting Department Tatyana Belova stated.
However, Moscow hotels are regaining their lost profits slowly due to a decrease in the average room price, according to CEO of Azimut Hotels chain Maxim Brodovsky. This price tag in some hotels previously fell by 30-40%.
