The city’s hotel room rates will be further dragged down by the new openings of gaming projects, Wells Fargo Securities said in its weekly note, released yesterday. ‘Our proprietary survey shows forward Macau hotel rates down two per cent year-on-year in September, and down 13 per cent in October or November,’ wrote the firm’s analysts led by Cameron McKnight. In particular, the brokerage said that the average room rates of Sands China’s hotels will fall by 28 per cent and 22 per cent year-on-year in October and November, respectively. Sands China is to unveil its new casino-resort, The Parisian Macao today. The property, featuring a half-size replica of the Eiffel Tower, will add 3,000 new hotel rooms to the Cotai Strip. Including the 1,700 rooms at Wynn Palace that opened on August 22, the city has seen nearly 5,000 new hotel rooms added in less than one-month. ‘We note that [Sands China] and Galaxy [Entertainment Group] are the only Macau operators who generate material cash contribution from hotels and food and beverages,’ the analysts stated. For the first seven months of the year, the city’s average hotel room rate dropped by 14.3 per cent year-on-year to MOP1,312 (US$164) per night, while that of 5-star hotels fell by 12.4 per cent year-on-year to MOP1,673 per night on average, according to data released by the Macao Government Tourism Office.
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