Occupancy rates for April 2017 were higher compared to April last year, up 5.8 percentage points (pp) to 67%. A 5.7% decrease in room rates may have contributed to the lift in occupancy rates. The number of room supply at the end of the month was 5,255.

Now with five consecutive months of positive growth in occupancy rates since supply increased significantly in 2015, the year ending April 2017 results now reflect positive growth from the average annual occupancy rates. These were up 2.0pp to 70% on the same period last year. This result has been driven by the growth in demand as the overall number of room nights increased by 6.9% to 1.3 million.

The increase in demand in April was most likely influenced by the -5.7% drop in the Average Daily Room Rates to $128 compared to April 2016. The positive growth in both demand and occupancy rates extended to the average revenue per available room (RevPAR), which increased by $2.6 (or 3.1%) to $86. The Daily Rate and RevPAR for the year ending April 2017 were $145 (down 6.9%) and $104 (down 4.9%) respectively.

Daily Occupancy Rates during April 2017 were much higher than those from April 2016, and for the weekend period were just as high as rates from the same month in 2014 and higher than 2015. Daily Room Rates and RevPAR remain down througout the weeks of April 2017 compared to other years.

Room demand continues to follow the traditional seasonal pattern with smaller numbers during the off-peak months. Regardless of this yearly pattern, room demand has been growing each year since 2015.

Average Daily Room Rates, while not as high as previous years, have continued to rise since January 2017. Occupancy and demand have both risen each month since the beginning of 2017, however, this trend was not maintained in April with both measures dropping off slightly.

The data in this report is sourced from STR and is collected from a sample of 25 hotels with 10 or more rooms in Darwin. Data is collected daily and collated to represent the industry. This sample represents 58% of the establishments in Darwin and 71% of the room supply.

Note: The total Darwin sample size increased in September 2015. Changes in data since September 2015 means that reports produced before September 2015 should not be compared to reports from September 2015 onwards. All data has been backdated to include the new sample in historic data and the reports are now a broader representation of the accommodation market in Darwin.