Hoteliers in Prague expect a significantly better Christmas and New Year season than last year
Hotel Occidental Praha Wilson on Wenceslas Square. Photo: archive
Hoteliers in Prague expect a significantly better Christmas and New Year season than last year, when tourism was affected by the coronavirus pandemic and government measures. This follows from the answers of the operators of hotel chains to ČTK’s questions. Last year, in the last quarter, according to the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ), 987,000 tourists came to Prague hotels, guesthouses and campsites, roughly a third of them from abroad. Last December, 250,000 tourists arrived, and in the years before the outbreak of the pandemic, more than 600,000 of them stayed in Prague.
Ave Hotels, which operates a chain of Prague hotels, recorded higher demand than last year, when the hotel industry noted uncertainty regarding anti-pandemic measures. “Thus, occupancy for December is currently comparable to pre-pandemic flights, and I firmly believe that no extraordinary circumstances will occur in the coming weeks that would significantly disrupt this trend,” said Marek Čermák, the company’s sales and marketing director.
He added that Czechs made up 25 percent of guests in hotel chains this year, which is roughly a three percent increase compared to the period before the start of the pandemic, and it can be assumed that the end of the year will be similar. In Prague, however, the share of domestic tourists is lower than in other regions, he noted. According to Čermák, the company already had to raise prices due to inflation.
“However, due to the almost immediate follow-up of the current energy crisis to the pandemic crisis, we are proceeding cautiously this year, as are most of our competitors. We expect higher prices next year,” he added. Now, according to him, it is impossible to estimate how much prices can rise.
The Czech Inn Hotels chain expects their hotels to be full this year. The company’s CEO, Jaroslav Svoboda, said that they are still leaving a few dozen of the 7,000 beds available for domestic visitors, which the company is significantly more focused on due to the coronavirus pandemic. “Compared to last year, we will have double s,” he added.
At Christmas, they mainly expect foreign clientele, as Czechs are used to spending the holidays at home or in the mountains. Since 2018, the company has had the most beds in Prague, which is why the high season for the company starts around April. Svoboda added that the chain does not plan to increase the prices of the Advent and Christmas offer or the prices in the hotel restaurants.
Hotels from the OREA Hotels & Resort network were only about 35 percent occupied. “This year, our hotels in Prague are already about half full at the moment,” said director of business strategy of the hotel chain Jiří Fontana.
He added that the demand is comparable to 2019, due to the restriction of regular flights to Prague, the ratio of nationalities has changed. The chain is also tracking the growing demand for individual guest bookings. The situation is significantly better than last year, according to the manager of the Racek boathouse and the Arkada hotel, Karel Krejčí.
The director of the Slevomat portal, Ladislav Veselý, said that Czechs are eager to travel after two years marked by pandemics. “It is also evident in the sales of stays associated with end-of-year celebrations. The demand for domestic stays increased by 23 percent, and for foreign stays by even 50 percent,” he said.
Among the domestic destinations, Czechs are most interested in the Krkonoše and Šumava mountains. “The average price for one night in the Czech Republic is around 3,000 crowns, which is about 20 percent more expensive than last year. Energy prices play a big role in this,” he added.