The first exact numbers of what happens in hotels. Cursed Prague, merciful Giant Mountains
Occupancy of hotels and facilities in the country add another location from 45 to 31 percent, according to data from the reservation system Preo, which received the editorial staff of SZ Business. The image consists of a sample of more than a thousand hotels with a capacity of up to a hundred rooms.
The decline is not robust at first glance, because entrepreneurs in the field were partly saved by a relaxed summer.
“If the regions dependent on foreign tourists and business clients are deducted, such as Prague, the Central Bohemian Region, the Karlovy Vary Region and the city of Pilsen, the year 2020 was not as bad as it seems at first glance. January and February were above average and saved three accommodation providers from bankruptcy for three months in the summer, ”says Pavel Kotas, CEO of Previo.
According to him, the average pensions in Lipno or Krkonoše, which with all possible state aid, should definitely not have existential problems. “The contribution of 300 crowns per room and night is higher than the usual off-season profit of boarding houses,” he claims.
Although everyone went down without exception last year, some tourist sites were almost “on their own” for a successful summer. Accommodation facilities in the Jeseníky Mountains, in the Moravian Karst and its surroundings and in the Orlické Mountains had the lowest decline of 10 percent for the whole year. In the Giant Mountains, attendance was lower by 12 percent.
Large differences in the occupancy of its hotels according to locations are confirmed by the hotel group Orea. City hotels were only 30 percent full in times of higher diseases, but the mountains were almost full in the summer. “Some hotels even had a small year-on-year increase (Krkonoše, Šumava and Vysočina). Occupancy exceeded 90 percent, “described director Gorjan Lazarov, adding:” Of course, the year-on-year decline in the number of guests and revenues is drastic. “
Visually, they worsen the overall situation, especially in Prague, where booking books have emptied faster. In normal times, metropolitan hotels are among the most complete and cost-effective for higher occupancy than elsewhere. In 2019, when conference and recreational tourism were still in full swing, Prague’s accommodation facilities were 62 percent full. Last year, however, due to Covid-19, occupancy fell to 36 percent, the most of any region.
“Prague is cursed, as is the help of the city. Last year, we have a decline of as much as 82 percent compared to 2019, which means a loss in sales of about 150 million crowns, “wrote Viliam Sivek, director of the family company Sivek Hotels, which has hotels in the historic center of the metropolis in Mala Strana and the Old Town.
According to Sivka, about a fifth of Prague hotels are for sale and some developers plan to convert them into apartments. “I get five to seven offers a day to sell or rent our hotels,” the hotelier added. For example, the Liberec hotelier Lukáš Pytloun is now shopping, who also loves to join his group via billboards by the Prague roads.
In Prague, the business was hurt mainly by the decrease in foreign tourists and the cancellation of corporate events. “Conference hotels in Prague suffered the worst. The summer has helped other regions significantly, but conferences are not held in the summer. In addition, 85 percent of Prague lives from a foreign clientele that did not come in large even in the summer, “said Kotas.
After the capital covid-19, he took the most hoteliers in the Central Bohemian Region, the Pilsen Region, the Pardubice Region and the Karlovy Vary Region. Although Karlovy Vary does not have as much conference tourism as Prague, the abandonment of tourists was ensured by the cancellation of the film festival and the lockdown of Germany.
“For us, the foreign market and especially Germany is crucial,” says Jindřich Kraus, head of Karlovy Vary’s Puppa competition at the Grandhotel, which turned out better in the city. “We had a traffic of 40 percent, thanks to the focus on Czech clients and the offer of off-season prices. I hope to open at least in April, when the season begins for us. but to have information in advance, we must open a canned hotel in 14 days, “he added.
The owners of accommodation facilities in the Hradec Králové and Olomouc regions were relatively best off in national statistics, where occupancy fell by 16 and 17 percent, respectively, in the first year.
They improved their mood in the summer, when many Czechs preferred the domestic mountains, Šumava and South Moravia to the sea. In July, even hoteliers from eight of the 14 regions recorded higher attendance than the year before. Coronavirus encouraged travel passion, especially in the Moravian-Silesian region, where occupancy increased by 19 percent. The hosts in the neighboring Olomouc region were also 13 percent better off.
However, Prague did not spare even the summer holidays. With the Central Bohemian Region, it is the only region with a double-digit decline. Occupancy fell 37 percent in July and 32 percent in August.
Prague is also the only region where hotel and boarding house operators have significantly raised prices to attract at least part of the domestic clientele. The price of a room at night will fall by an average of 415 crowns to 1,359 crowns. Even the wild maneuvers with the price, when Prague suddenly ranked among the cheapest regions, but did not help to significantly increase attendance, and some hoteliers therefore complained about low prices, which they had to adapt to high competition in the metropolis.