Four years is a lot of time for anticipation, and hotel demand, to build for sports fans such as those who attended the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France — and those who plan to attend the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
The last time the Rugby World Cup was played was in Japan in 2019. The winner of that tournament, South Africa, also defeated New Zealand in this year's final match to take the trophy. But the South Africa Springboks were not the only winners this year. Hoteliers also celebrated the international rugby tournament's success.
Games were played from Sept. 8 to Oct. 28 in the French cities of Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Nice, Paris, Saint-Étienne and Toulouse, and 20 national teams took part in 48 games. The final was held in Paris’ Stade de France stadium, which has a capacity of more than 80,000.
Christophe Decloux, CEO of Comité Régional du Tourisme Paris Ile-de-France — or Paris Region Tourism Board — said the games were held in eight cities, “but much was in Paris, which had an excellent world cup.”
Patrick Mendes, CEO for Europe & North Africa at France and Europe’s largest hotel company Accor, said the firm was “very pleased” with its hotels' performance during the Rugby World Cup.
The event “had an overall positive impact on our reservations during the period, with Lille and Marseille observing the highest demand. Our brands outperformed the competition in most host cities such as Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes, Nice and Toulouse,” he said.
Now hoteliers’ and France’s attention turns to the 2024 Olympic Games, which are scheduled for July 26 through Aug. 11.
“These are all great learnings that we’ll carry on with us to anticipate the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Mendes said.
Rugby Lessons
Data from STR, CoStar’s hotel analytics firm, shows that hoteliers, particularly in Paris, had great pricing power on match days for the Rugby World Cup.
On Sept. 9, the first Saturday of the competition, Paris hotel occupancy was up 11% from from the previous Saturday to 74.2%, which pushed up average daily rates by 9% to €279.62 ($298.74) and revenue per available room by 21% to €208.95.
France's rugby team played New Zealand on Sept. 8, the World Cup’s opening game, while on Saturday, Sept. 9 there were games in Bordeaux between Ireland and Romania; in Marseille between Argentina and England; in Paris between Australia and Georgia; and in Saint-Étienne between Italy and Namibia.
The biggest rolling seven-day increase in Saturday performance in Paris was on Sept. 30, a date in which there were no games in the French capital. On that date, occupancy increased 9% to 87.9%, ADR increased 23% to €533.58 and RevPAR increased 34% to €469.
What did take place on that day was part of Paris Fashion Week and also construction trade fairs MetalExpo, Idéobain and Interclima, all of which were at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles.
For the Sept. 9 game between Argentina and England, Marseille’s hotels posted the highest increases in ADR and RevPAR on a Saturday night during the tournament. Compared to the previous Saturday, occupancy on that date increased 15% to 70.65%, ADR increased 68% to €223.83 and RevPAR increased 93% to €181.17.
Between the Posts
On Sept. 23, eventual winners South Africa and Ireland faced off in Paris, and hotel performance on that day also was up over the seven-day period, but modestly compared to other dates.
Occupancy for the period rose by 6% to 80.5%, ADR was up 7% to €494.35 and RevPAR up 13% to €349.88.
Hotels in Lyon — France’s third-largest city — had their best Saturday ADR and RevPAR performance on Sept. 16, up 34% to €158.41 and 49% to €134.70, respectively, on a rolling seven-day basis.
Accor's Mendes said incremental demand for the company's hotels in France derived mostly from European nationalities, and demand increased for tourism destinations outside of the games’ host cities.
“In terms of performance, Province showed great results, attracting guests for full weekends, [such places] having less room options and also thanks to the strong presence of European teams over the groups phase,” he said.
The teams taking part in the Rugby World Cup each had a training and living base in France for the duration of the games.
“We also noticed that strong performance was observed in hotels that secured group business in advance and then filled their remaining inventory with individual demand,” he said.
There was one hiccup, Mendes said. France was knocked out of its own World Cup in the quarterfinals, losing to South Africa in Paris.
“France’s elimination in the quarterfinals did result in a high cancellation rate on the semifinals and finals weekends that wasn’t really compensated by last-minute pickup,” he said.