KPMG Release Hotel Benchmarking Surveys
KPMG’s Travel, Leisure and Tourism group released the results of KPMG’s 2014 Caribbean Hotel Benchmarking Survey together with the Benchmarking Survey produced exclusively for Bermuda.
The Surveys have been designed to provide owners, operators, lenders and investors with a better understanding of the profile and performance of hotels in the Caribbean and Bermuda.
KPMG’s Travel, Leisure & Tourism practice conducted benchmark surveys into the hospitality industries in Bermuda and the wider Caribbean. Financial information for 2012 and 2013 was collected from hotel properties in Bermuda and across the Caribbean.
The Surveys are based on the survey data collected. Financial information was analysed on a consolidated basis and is based on a non-weighted average [mean] of the number of properties.
KPMG 2014 Caribbean Hotel Benchmarking Survey:
The Caribbean Survey results corroborate the findings of our 2013 Caribbean Hotel Benchmarking Survey which identified encouraging signs of growth returning to our regional hotels. The key performance indicators [KPIs] of Occupancy, Average Daily Rate [ADR] and Revenue per Available Room [RevPAR] are all up this year and hoteliers are more confident about the future than at any time since 2010 when we first started this initiative.
Some key findings of the survey include:
- Nearly half of respondents believe 2014’s operational performance will be better than 2013 and most expect meaningful growth to return in 2015 or 2016;
- The number of Caribbean stop-over arrivals has increased, although admittedly not in every Caribbean country;
- Cost saving measures, hard-won during the downturn, appear to now be embedded as both departmental and undistributed costs have increased by less than revenue, leading to welcome increases in gross operating profit;
- Almost 75% of survey respondents have expansion plans for the next 18 months, with over half indicating energy efficiency is high on their list of priorities;
- The ability to raise financing for new projects and operations remains difficult with twice as many respondents finding it “very difficult” to raise funding compared to those wh o found it “very easy” to do so; and
- Concerns about the stability of the global economic recovery, together with increasing local costs, feature highly on the list of challenges for the industry over the next year.
KPMG 2014 Bermuda Hotel Benchmarking Survey:
“When comparing Bermuda’s results to the rest of the Caribbean region, Bermuda has a significantly lower average occupancy, but Bermuda’s average rack rates were higher than the regional average,” KPMG said.
“RevPAR is lower than the rest of the Caribbean as a result of the lower occupancy Bermuda experiences.
“Overall, the results give Bermuda hoteliers sufficient encouragement to believe that brighter days may be ahead, especially with recent positive news for the island that Bermuda will host the 2017 America’s Cup.
Some key findings of the Bermuda survey include:
- The increase in the major KPIs in Bermuda, together with good control of departmental expenses, led to a modest increase in departmental profit in 2013;
- The KPI increases were achieved in spite of the number of tourist stop-over arrivals in Bermuda declining slightly between 2008 and 2013;
- A third of Bermuda respondents believe 2014’s operational performance will be better than 2013 and over three-quarters expect meaningful growth to return in 2016 or 2017;
- Operating and destination costs, together with concern over a fragile global economic recovery were identified as the main challenges to growth;
- The US continues to be the major feeder market, providing 51% of Bermuda’s guests, supporting the Bermuda Tourism Authority’s [BTA’s] efforts to concentrate on Bermuda’s key tourist markets; and
- Two-thirds of Bermuda respondents had expansion plans for the next 18 months, although substantially more of our Bermuda respondents considered fund raising for new projects and operations to be “very difficult”, more so than respondents in the wider Caribbean.
KPMG added, “We take this opportunity to say a special thank you to our Survey participants [who will also receive a more detailed analysis of the financial results].”
You can access the reports via the links below:
- KPMG 2014 Caribbean Hotel Benchmarking Survey [PDF]
- KPMG 2014 Bermuda Hotel Benchmarking Survey [PDF]
