Accor Group's first-quarter systemwide revenue per available room increased nearly 8 percent year over year, officials said, helped by "good traction" on business travel demand.
"We're seeing good traction on business bookings," Accor CFO Martine Gerow said during Thursday conference call. "Business bookings are actually up in the low teens, in the quarter on a bookings value."
Gerow also said corporate meetings volume picked up during the quarter, perhaps moreso than did large meetings.
"We're also seeing an increase in group meetings," she said. "It's more smaller groups than larger groups. It's obviously very different by region because it depends on what kind of events you have, but overall we're seeing a nice pickup in small meetings."
Accor's systemwide first-quarter RevPAR increased 7.6 percent year over year to €66, while occupancy increased 1.2 percentage points to 60.9 percent and average daily rate increased 5.5 percent to €109. Without delving into specifics, Gerow said the company had noticed "softening" in the United States.
Accor maintained its forecast of a compound annualized RevPAR increase of 3 percent to 4 percent through 2027.
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