SEPTEMBER KEY FIGURES

Accommodation with 15 rooms or more		Jun Qtr 08	Sep Qtr 08	Jun Qtr 08 to Sep Qtr 08	Sep Qtr 07 to Sep Qtr 08
Trend
	Takings from accommodation ($m)	1 986.1	1 996.1	0.5 %	6.3 %
	Room occupancy rate (%)	64.7	64.4	-0.3 pts	-1.1 pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Takings from accommodation ($m)	2 019.1	1 964.8	-2.7 %	3.7 %
	Room occupancy rate (%)	65.4	63.9	-1.5 pts	-2.1 pts
Note: Hotels, motels and serviced apartments

ACCOMMODATION TAKINGS, Australia

ROOM OCCUPANCY RATE, Australia

SEPTEMBER KEY POINTS


ACCOMMODATION TAKINGS

• In September quarter 2008, the trend estimate of total accommodation takings for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms increased by 0.5% to $1,996.1 million compared with June quarter 2008.
• Over the same period, the seasonally adjusted estimate dropped by 2.7% to $1964.8 million. This is the first decline in seasonally adjusted takings since March quarter 2004.

ROOM OCCUPANCY RATE

• The trend estimate of a 64.4% room occupancy rate for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms for September quarter 2008 was slightly lower than the trend estimate of 64.7% for the previous quarter.
• This is the fifth consecutive quarterly decline in the trend estimate of room occupancy rates for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms.
• At 63.9%, the seasonally adjusted room occupancy rate was 1.5 percentage points below the June quarter 2008 level.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
December 2008	26 March 2009
March 2009	26 June 2009

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

This issue presents results from the September quarter 2008 Survey of Tourist Accommodation (STA) for the following categories of establishments:

• licensed hotels and resorts with facilities and 5 or more rooms
• motels, private hotels and guest houses with facilities and 5 or more rooms
• serviced apartments with 5 or more units
• caravan parks with 40 or more powered sites
• holiday flats, units and houses of letting entities with 15 or more rooms or units
• visitor hostels with 25 or more bed spaces.

DATA NOTES

As advised in the December quarter 2007 issue of this publication, Autoregressive Integrated Moving Averages (ARIMA) modelling has been incorporated into the seasonal adjustment process for the majority of the tourist accommodation series and all series have a changed treatment of the trading day component. As a result of these changes the seasonally adjusted and, to a lesser extent, the trend series have been revised. For further information, see paragraphs 22 and 23 of the Seasonal Adjustment section of the Explanatory Notes.


INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070.


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


ORIGINAL

Hotels, motels and serviced apartments

This summary contains key findings for original estimates. While trend and seasonally adjusted data are only available for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, original estimates have two additional data series comprising hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 to 14 rooms and 5 or more rooms.

Original series are impacted by seasonal variations and irregular or non-seasonal influences and comparisons between quarters should be made with caution.

Accommodation takings

In September quarter 2008, accommodation takings were $2,091.6 million for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms, comprising $2,014.8 million for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms and $76.9 million for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 to 14 rooms.

Accommodation takings in September quarter 2008 for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms were highest in New South Wales ($626.1 million) and Queensland ($565.6 million).

The September quarter 2008 average takings per room night occupied were $149.10 for establishments with 5 or more rooms. This was heavily influenced by hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms which contribute 96.3% to total takings, and had an average takings per room night occupied of $151.79. The average for 5 to 14 room establishments was $101.89.

Room occupancy rate

The room occupancy rate for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was 63.4% in September quarter 2008. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, the room occupancy rate was 65.0%, while demand for 5 to 14 room hotels, motels and serviced apartments was lower, as reflected by a room occupancy rate of 44.9%.

Room nights occupied

Room nights occupied were 14.0 million in September quarter 2008 for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, room nights occupied were 13.3 million in September quarter 2008, while for establishments with 5 to 14 rooms, room nights occupied were 0.8 million.

New South Wales contributed the highest proportion (30.5%) of occupied rooms for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, followed by Queensland at 29.2%.

Average length of stay

The average length of stay in September quarter 2008 for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was 2.2 days. In establishments with 15 or more rooms, the average length of stay was 2.3 days. For establishments with 5 to 14 rooms, the average length of stay was 1.8 days.

Queensland (2.7 days) reported the longest average length of stay for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, followed by Western Australia (2.4 days). The shortest average length of stay was in Tasmania (1.9 days).

Star grading

In September quarter 2008, the room occupancy rate for five-star hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was 72.6% compared with 37.7% for one-star. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, the room occupancy rate was 72.9% for five-star establishments compared with 40.7% for one-star establishments.

In the 5-14 rooms category, three-star establishments had the highest room occupancy rates in September quarter 2008 (48.8%), compared with one-star establishments at 31.6%.

In September quarter 2008, the average takings per room night occupied for five-star hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was $238.09 compared with $84.71 for two-star. In the 15 or more rooms category, the average takings was $238.06 for five-star establishments compared with $88.08 for two-star establishments.

For establishments with 5 to 14 rooms, five-star establishments had the highest average takings per room nights occupied of $245.39, compared with one-star establishments at $55.84.

Caravan parks, holiday flats, units and houses, and visitor hostels

Accommodation takings

In September quarter 2008, accommodation takings for caravan parks were $254.9 million. New South Wales ($74.3 million) had the highest accommodation takings for all caravan parks for September quarter 2008, contributing 29.1% of the total.

Short-term caravan park takings were $212.0 million in September quarter 2008 which was 83.2% of total caravan park takings.

Accommodation takings for holiday flats, units and houses were $151.2 million in September quarter 2008. Real estate takings accounted for 22.5% of total holiday flats, units and houses takings, the rest being for other letting entities.

For visitor hostels, accommodation takings were $59.8 million in September quarter 2008.

Occupancy rate

The site occupancy rate for all caravan parks in September quarter 2008 was 53.0%. Short-term caravan park occupancy was 49.7% and long-term caravan park occupancy was 75.8%.

For holiday flats, units and houses, the unit occupancy rate was 46.3% in September quarter 2008.

The bed occupancy rate for visitor hostels in September quarter 2008 was 52.2%. Northern Territory, Queensland and Australian Capital Territory had the highest bed occupancy rates for visitor hostels in September quarter 2008 with 69.0%, 60.8% and 60.0% respectively.