Full House: Hotel occupancy up to 86 % as rooms average $212 a night

Average occupancy rate increased 9.8 percent while average room rates hiked 12.2 percent.

According to DBS, RevPAR rose 26.6 percent to $182/night. AOR and ARR increased to 86 percent and $212/night respectively.

In the past year, occupancy ramped up pretty fast early in the year, held steady above 85 percent as we head into 2H of 2010, while room rates crept up slowly.

Looking ahead, DBS anticipates a further 12 percent hike in RevPAR as hoteliers continue to enjoy pricing power. Hoteliers expect to maintain the relatively high average occupancy of c85% on sustained strong demand coupled with improving weekend leisure business.

DBS continues to remain positive on the hospitality sector and players like CDL HT and ART, which are projected to deliver stronger than average growth in distributions on the back of robust tourism outlook in Singapore in the next 2 years. Hoteliers are still in vogue, said DBS.