A report published by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has predicted that hotel room rates are set to return to their pre-recession peak.
The prediction, says the report, comes on the back of a spiked demand for rooms in the capital over the next 12 months and a lack of new room suppy.
PwC’s European Hotel Forecast shows that the average paid for a room last year was €95, with this expected to rise to €102 in 2015 and climb as high as €109 the following year - a rate not seen since back to the 2007 peak.
The call comes following recent increased optimism within the Irish hotel industry as it looks to benefit from an upswing in tourist numbers visiting Ireland.
The PwC report also highlighted that the average revenue hotels earn from each room is also heading in the right direction from its recession doldrums. Last year, it was €75, this year it's expected to be €81, while hit €88 in 2016.
Last month the Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) came out and said hoteliers are more optimistic about the outlook for the tourism industry, according to its own research.
The IHF said overall confidence levels are up on last year, with 94 per cent of respondents to a survey indicating a positive outlook for trading conditions for their business over the next 12 months. As a result, seven out of every ten hotels (70 per cent) plan to take on additional staff over the next 12 months.
Nationally, 84 per cent of hoteliers are seeing an increase in business levels compared to this time last year and advance bookings for the remainder of the year are also performing strongly with 75 per cent seeing an increase on 2014.
Of those premises catering for corporate meetings and events, 63 per cent are seeing an increase in this area of their business in line with increased business activity across the general economy.
