AUSTRALIA | James Goodwin, CEO of Accommodation Australia, said there was improved performance across the national sector.
Australia’s peak accommodation body has released its mid-year hotel room report card for 2025, which shows an improved performance overall, with capitals such as Hobart doing particularly well.
The Accommodation Australia figures also show many cities also benefiting from a ‘kick-start’ from the Lions Tour as fans flock to watch the rugby.
Accommodation Australia CEO James Goodwin said while the news wasn’t all good, there was definite improvement on the same period last year, and hotels were in a solid position moving forward into the remainder of 2025.
“The good news is all of Australia’s capital cities experienced an increase in average occupancy rates over the first six months,” Goodwin said.
“But five of them (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin and Canberra) experienced a fall in the average daily revenue they earn for each booked room over the first half of 2025 compared to last year.”
A look at the figures has shown that Hobart has done particularly well, with hotels in Tassie’s capital experiencing the strongest improvement compared to all other capital cities in their average occupancy rate for the six months, up 5.6 percent to 79.3 percent.
“Hobart also experienced a healthy 3.8% increase in average daily room revenue for the six months. Darwin also saw a strong improvement in occupancy rates (up 5.2 percent), but from a lower base.”
Goodwin said that of all the capital cities, it was Perth which experienced the highest overall average occupancy rate at 79.9 percent in the six months to June 25, followed by Hobart and Sydney.
“But Sydney still holds the status as the city with the highest average revenue per room, followed by Brisbane and then Perth,” he said.
“The AA report card for the six months also reveals the impact of outside events, like tours or weather, on hotel room occupancy. The Gold Coast, for example, saw a fall in average occupancy for the six months primarily due to the cyclone impact in March.”
On the plus side, the current British and Irish Lions Tour is giving hotels in key capitals a much-needed ‘kick start’.
“The figures speak for themselves; the first match in Perth saw occupancies up 10 percent on the previous year. The first test in Brisbane on 19 July resulted in occupancy rates in the 88-90 percent range not just for the night, but for the three days leading up to the evening of the test,” said Goodwin.
For the Saturday of the Brisbane test itself, the average daily rate was up to double the previous year. A great result.
Both Canberra and Adelaide were hosts of other tour fixtures earlier in July, and both games resulted in occupancy rates over 95 percent on the day of the test, as well as great occupancy levels leading up to the event, as fans flocked to those capitals to enjoy their favourite sport.
“Forward hotel bookings for the remainder of the tour are also strong and reinforce the importance of Australia continuing to attract world-class sporting and entertainment events”.
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