03/04/2009 Note: The ABS has reissued the time series spreadsheets for December Quarter 2008 Tourist Accommodation. This corrects an error detected in data previously released on 26 March 2009. December Qtr 2008 employment data was understated for Victoria and Australia. Other states and territories and other data items were not affected.

DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

Accommodation with 15 rooms or more		Sep Qtr 08	Dec Qtr 08	Sep Qtr 08 to Dec Qtr 08	Dec Qtr 07 to Dec Qtr 08
Trend
	Takings from accommodation ($m)	1 979.5	1 965.0	-0.7 %	1.9 %
	Room occupancy rate (%)	64.2	63.7	-0.5 pts	-1.6 pts
Seasonally Adjusted
	Takings from accommodation ($m)	1 962.1	1 961.0	-0.1 %	2.2 %
	Room occupancy rate (%)	63.8	63.7	-0.1 pts	-1.6 pts
Note: Hotels, motels and serviced apartments

ACCOMMODATION TAKINGS, Australia

ROOM OCCUPANCY RATE, Australia

DECEMBER KEY POINTS


ACCOMMODATION TAKINGS

• In the December 2008 quarter, the trend estimate of total accommodation takings for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms decreased by 0.7% to $1,965.0 million compared with the September quarter 2008.
• Over the same period, the seasonally adjusted estimate dropped by 0.1% to $1961.0 million.

ROOM OCCUPANCY RATE

• The December quarter 2008 trend estimate room occupancy rate of 63.7% for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms was 0.5% lower than the trend estimate of 64.2% for the previous quarter.
• This is the sixth consecutive quarterly decline in the trend estimate of room occupancy rates for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms.
• At 63.7%, the seasonally adjusted room occupancy rate was 0.1 percentage points below the September quarter 2008 level.

NOTES

FORTHCOMING ISSUES

ISSUE (QUARTER)	Release Date
March 2009	26 June 2009
June 2009	30 September 2009

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

This issue presents results from the December 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.

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. Comparison between quarters should be made with caution.

Accommodation takings

In the December quarter 2008, accommodation takings were $2,124.7 million for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms, comprising $2,044.1 million for those establishments with 15 or more rooms and $80.6 million for those with 5 to 14 rooms.

Accommodation takings in December quarter 2008 for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms were highest in New South Wales ($649.1 million) and Queensland ($556.3 million).

For Australia, the December quarter 2008 average takings per room night occupied were $151.15 for establishments with 5 or more rooms. This was heavily influenced by hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms which contributed 96.2% of total takings, and had an average takings per room night occupied of $153.96. The average for 5 to 14 room establishments was $103.38.

Room occupancy rate

The room occupancy rate for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was 63.8% in the December quarter 2008. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, the room occupancy rate was 65.1%, while demand for 5 to 14 room hotels, motels and serviced apartments was lower, as reflected by a room occupancy rate of 47.2%.

Room nights occupied

Room nights occupied were 14.1 million in the December 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 December quarter 2008, while for establishments with 5 to 14 rooms, room nights occupied were 0.8 million.

New South Wales contributed the highest proportion (31.0%) of room nights occupied for hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, followed by Queensland at 27.9%.

Average length of stay

The average length of stay in December 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 the December quarter 2008, the room occupancy rate for five-star hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms was 73.3% compared with 32.9% for one-star establishments. For hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 15 or more rooms, the room occupancy rate was 73.6% for five-star establishments compared with 42.3% for five-star establishments with 5 to 14 rooms.

In the 5-14 rooms category, three-star establishments had the highest room occupancy rates in the December quarter 2008 (51.9%), compared with one-star establishments at 33.1%.

In the December quarter 2008, the average takings per room night occupied for five-star hotels, motels and serviced apartments with 5 or more rooms were $248.84 compared with $71.64 for establishments with one star. The corresponding December quarter 2008 average takings for establishments with 15 or more rooms were $248.76 for five-star establishments and $77.44 for one-star establishments.

In comparison, establishments with 5 to 14 rooms had higher average takings per room night occupied for five-star establishments ($265.88), but lower average takings per room night occupied for one-star establishments ($61.40).

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

Accommodation takings

In the December quarter 2008, accommodation takings for caravan parks were $273.2 million. Of this, New South Wales contributed the highest amount with $99.9 million (36.6%) of the Australian total for the quarter.

Short-term caravan park takings were $227.6 million in the December quarter 2008 or 83.3% of total caravan park takings.

Accommodation takings for holiday flats, units and houses were $180.0 million in the December quarter 2008. Real estate takings accounted for 28.2% of total holiday flats, units and houses takings, the rest being for other letting entities.

For visitor hostels, accommodation takings were $63.4 million in the December quarter 2008.

Occupancy rate

The site occupancy rate for all caravan parks in the December quarter 2008 was 52.8%. Short-term caravan park occupancy was 49.3% and long-term caravan park occupancy was 77.0%.

For holiday flats, units and houses, the unit occupancy rate was 48.8% in the December quarter 2008.

The bed occupancy rate for visitor hostels in the December quarter 2008 was 56.5%. New South Wales and Western Australia had the highest bed occupancy rates for visitor hostels in the December quarter 2008 with 67.5% and 64.5% respectively.