Industry Benchmark
By Mark Harris
Regional Analysis
Australia
Australia's accommodationdevelopment pipeline is expanding with rooms under construction
Extended stay operators who have
developed serviced apartment product as
a preference over hotels have been more
successful in the Australasian market.
Source: Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels' annual
Top Operator Survey.
This has been the main growth engine
for the Australian accommodation market
over the last seven years but there are
signs that hotels are coming back into
favour.
Australia's accommodation development
pipeline is expanding with rooms under
construction and likely proposed
increasing by 10% in the six month
period since November 2007; 86% of
proposed rooms are now hotels compared
to 77% of rooms under construction
being serviced apartments.
In 2007, Australia's largest hotel operators,
Accor Asia Pacific Corporation (AAPC,
owned by Accor) and Stella Hospitality
Group both increased rooms under
management by concentrating on the
serviced apartment sector - both primarily
in the 4-star arena.
AAPC introduced 12 new Mercure
properties during 2007, many of which
were apartments in regional destinations.
In a number of takeovers during 2007,
Stella has acquired Avalon Riverfront
Apartments and Lumiere Apartments.
Quest Serviced Apartments is Australasia's
largest provider of serviced apartments to
suit the extended-stay corporate traveller,
with 125 properties across Australia,
New Zealand and Fiji.
Quest's average occupancy rate in 2007
was 78% compared to hotels at 70.6%,
and serviced apartments in general, at
69.8%.