Domestic hotels expect that strong demand in August will help them increase occupancy rates and revenues this summer, but labour shortages pose a big challenge, executives told business news portal Portfolio.hu.

Preliminary bookings at wellness units and at Lake Balaton rose by 5-10% this spring from a year earlier, which already indicated that demand will be stronger this summer, Péter Kerek, strategic director at domestic hotel group Accent Hotels, told Portfolio.hu.

Occupancy rates at the countryside hotels of the group did increase by 4.5-13% so far this summer, while Accent Hotels properties in Budapest saw growth of 3.5-5%, Kerek said. Average guest spending also rose, which means that revenues have increased faster than occupancy rates, the report said.

Danubius Hotels Group expects that average occupancy at its Budapest hotels will exceed 90% in August, while average room rates would increase by at least 5-6%, business development director Zoltán Bogár said. Other units at Lake Balaton are expected to operate with an average occupancy rate of about 93-94% in August, he said.

Labour shortages and increased turnover have remained a big problem for hotel operators this summer, the report said. It was a difficult task at Danubius Hotels Group to fill in all the vacant positions in the spring as the company prepared for the summer peak season, Zsolt Temesvári, training director, said.

Danubius Hotels Group currently has about 80-90 job openings in total. The company mostly needs waiters, cooks, receptionists and housekeeping staff, Temesvári said. He added that there are severel unfilled receptionist positions even at five-star properties.

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