Approximately one third of Prague hotels will be fully booked during Christmas and New Year celebrations, according to the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of the Czech Republic (AHRCR). According to them, there is still a higher interest in New Year’s Eve stays, about half of Prague hotels are 50 to 80 percent full during this period. However, rooms are being sold below cost. AHRCR president Václav Stárek says that costs for hoteliers have risen by more than 30 percent this year, while prices are at a similar level to 2019 due to inflation.
Martin Kot’atko, director of the Palace Hotel in Prague, say that the number of reservations for Christmas and New Year’s Eve is approaching the pre-holiday level, while on Christmas Eve rooms are 82 percent full. Guests, according to him, arrive mainly from European countries. “Prices in 2022 are unfortunately not reaching the level of 2019, and this, together with the very increased costs, is not a good combination,” Kotyatko said.
Hotel Emblem in Prague will be about three-quarters full on New Year’s Eve, according to director Helena Valtrová, who said rooms were almost sold out in 2019. By Christmas Eve, occupancy is at 42 percent, and in the last pre-Christmas year it was about 83 percent, Valtrová said. Most year-end guests arrive from the US, Germany, France, Italy or the UK. Overall, however, Valtrová said, there has been a decline in more affluent tourists. She stressed that guests have been making reservations at the last minute lately.
Petr Chábera, a spokesman for the Czech Inn Hotels chain, says that almost all rooms in Prague are sold out for New Year’s Eve, with a few places reserved for Czech tourists. They expect a higher share of foreign guests for Christmas. They should be 90 percent occupied by the end of the year, Chábera said. He added that this year’s autumn and winter season is the most successful in the company’s history.
“We estimate that the accommodation facilities will reach an average occupancy rate of 60 percent this year. In recent months, we have begun to see the gradual impact of reduced consumption in the accommodation sector due to fears about the future economic situation, along with a dramatic rise in costs. Year-end celebrations may be out of the ordinary as people want to enjoy them to the fullest after two years of retrenchment,” Starek said.
In 2019, the average annual occupancy rate at Prague hotels was about 79 percent, and in December of the same year it was about 80 percent. For January to October this year, it stood at about 56 percent, and in the same period in 2019 it was about 76 percent.
Source: CTK
