Busiest week of the year?

The end of year peak corporate travel season in Australia essentially runs from the end of September school holidays until early December. We have been flat out every day since Melbourne Cup (Nov 1) and this week was the ultimate for Australian hotels.

Here is what happened:

* Adelaide - filled last night
* Brisbane - filled Tuesday, Wednesday and almost Thursday
* Canberra - filled Tuesday, Wednesday
* Melbourne - filled Wednesday, Thursday
* Perth - filled Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
* Sydney - filled Tuesday, Wednesday and almost Thursday

It got so busy, the cities so full and we ran out of our allotments so early (especially for Perth) that we had to give up on this week enquiries on Tuesday and focus on the week after.

There looks to be another 2 or 3 weeks left before things quieten down so if you have any travel to do in that time and need to book accommodation, make sure you organise your hotel before you book your flights!

Australian travel market

I found a couple of articles about the state of the Australian travel market this morning. Hopefully the first one is on the money and relief is indeed on the way for Australian hotels.

Click on the titles below to read the full stories.

It's been hard for hotels, but relief is on the way

Carolyn Cummins
July 18, 2009

IT'S been a tough 18 months for the hotel sector with sharp declines in tourism, but the latest figures for the March quarter show businesses have weathered the decline.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the accommodation sector continued to perform steadily, even though hotel occupancy levels eased.

Michael Thomson, the national director for hotels and leisure at Colliers International, said the best performing markets were Perth and Canberra, which showed strong room rate and growth in revenue per available rooms. He said most Australian cities experienced moderate room rate growth in the 12 months to March this year. While the Sydney hotel market was comparatively weak with lower room rates and declining occupancy, the Melbourne market remained resilient with slight improvements in average room rates in a period of weakening demand.

'In the first quarter of 2009, the deterioration in the global economy translated into cutbacks and fewer bookings in the corporate and leisure markets, and this was felt across most accommodation markets,' Mr Thomson said.


Business travellers benefit from bargains

Airfare wars and room-rate promotions are usually aimed at recreational travellers, but airlines and hotels are using similar tactics to entice their traditional cash cow - the business traveller.

Corporate travellers, who pay more to sit in the front cabins of planes or book close to the date of travel, are flying coach more often, or not travelling at all during the recession.

Employers are booking fewer banquet halls and blocks of rooms, leaving many hotels pining for the sizeable and reliable revenue that business meetings used to generate.