Macau’s hotel room rates take a hit during Chinese New Year as occupancy falls to 42%

Room rates of Macau’s hotels plummeted over the Chinese New Year Golden Week, down 42.1% year-on-year to an average daily rate (ADR) of MOP$1,175.

The decline resulted from a substantial drop in overall visitation due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and a recent outbreak across mainland China that saw authorities issue a “stay in place” order for the usually busy holiday period. As reported by Inside Asian Gaming last week, visitor numbers during Golden Week were down 65.3% year-on-year to 90,615 (a daily average of just 12,945) and around 93% lower than the 1.21 million (daily average 172,857) who entered Macau during the 2019 Spring Festival period.

Occupancy rates of Macau’s hotels, which are usually booked solid during Chinese New Year, were just 48.3% – a year-on-year decrease of 4.6 percentage points – with 5-star hotels reporting occupancy of 50.6% and 4-star hotels 49.8%. The average occupancy rate of 2-Star hotels dropped to 24.6%, down 23.0 percentage points, while guest houses dropped by 13.3 percentage points to 27.3%.

Room rates also took a huge hit. According to figures published by the Macao Government Tourism Office, the average room rates of 5-Star hotels fell by 38.7% to MOP$1,445 while 4-star hotels saw a 52.5% decline to MOP$734. Likewise, the average room rates of 3-Star and 2-Star hotels were MOP$780.0 and MOP$206, a decrease of 47.0% and 79.4% respectively.

The MGTO said it is now working with e-commerce platforms, strengthening its promotional efforts on social media and planning to conduct a number of programs to boost visitation from mainland China now that CNY is over.