STR Reports Performance Of Luxury Hotel Spas For Year-End 2009
Luxury hotel spas showed mixed operating results for the full year 2009. The summary Spa STAR data shows that the Average Treatment Rate (ATR) was reported at US$135.39, a 4.5 percent decline compared with full-year 2008. For full-year 2009, Average Treatment Room Utilization (ATRU) increased 3.5 percent to 31.1 percent.
The results were helped by a relatively strong fourth quarter, benefitting from the positive comparison against the fourth quarter of 2008, which was the beginning of the global recession.
The trend of luxury hotel spas 'buying' utilization or occupancy by sacrificing rate and revenue is mirroring the performance of the U.S. luxury hotel industry. For that segment, Average Daily Rate (ADR) declined 16.3 percent in 2009 to US$243. For the same period, demand declined 0.6 percent, but the unprecedented influx of almost 8,000 new rooms, or 8.9 percent of existing supply, caused occupancy to fall 8.7 percent.
'The positive growth in the treatment room utilization (+3.5 percent) is more robust than the decrease in guestroom occupancy (-8.7 percent), which seems to be an indicator of the spa
