Accommodation Australia has released its mid-year hotel room report card for 2025, showing improved occupancy across the board but drops in average daily revenue for major cities.
“The good news is all of Australia’s capital cities experienced an increase in average occupancy rates over the first six months,” said Accommodation Australia CEO James Goodwin.
“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% to 79.3%.
“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%), but from a lower base.
Of all the capital cities, Perth which experienced the highest overall average occupancy rate at 79.9% in the six months to June 25, followed by Hobart and Sydney.
Five major cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Darwin and Canberra – all experienced a fall in the average daily revenue for each booked room over the first half of 2025 compared to last year, the report found.
“But Sydney still holds the status as the city with the highest average revenue per room, followed by Brisbane and then Perth,” Goodwin said.
Weather events also took a toll on hotel room occupancy, with the Gold Coast experiencing a fall in average occupancy for the six months primarily due to the cyclone impact in March.
Goodwin noted the importance of world-class sporting and entertainment events to the hotel industry, pointing to the positive impact of the British and Irish Lions Tour, which saw fans flocking to key cities to watch the games.
“The figures speak for themselves; the first match in Perth saw occupancies up 10% on the previous year,” Goodwin said.
“The first test in Brisbane on 19 July resulted in occupancy rates in the 88-90% range not just for the night, but for the three days leading up to the evening of the test.
“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% on the day of the test – as well as great occupancy levels leading up the event as fans flocked to those capitals to enjoy their favourite sport.”
Goodwin pointed to strong forward hotel bookings for the remainder of the tour.
Accommodation Australia will release its next report card at the end of 2025.