Characteristics of Accommodation Establishments

A total of 103 establishments were covered during the 2007 quarterly surveys, whereby 62.1 percent constituted Other¹ type of accommodation establishments, 20.4 percent were Lodges while 17.5 percent were Hotels. Analysis of number and type of accommodation establishments by district indicates that majority (35 percent) of establishments were located in the Maseru district while the rest of the other district had a total share that was less than 10 percent each; however Berea and Mafeteng had the least accommodation establishments i.e. only 3.9 percent per district.

Table 2: Number and Type of Accommodation Establishments

by District 2007

Since Maseru had the largest percentage share of accommodation establishments the expectation would be for the same district to have the largest share of the number of rooms as depicted in Table 3 below. Likewise, there were fewer Hotels (18) in the country compared to Lodges and Other types of establishments, however since hotels are usually bigger in terms of capacity that translated to them having more rooms, beds and bed spaces available. Although Maseru once again had the largest share in this regard, analysis on the occupancy rate revealed that Mafeteng had the highest rate of 38.8 percent, followed by Mokhotlong and Leribe with 23.9 percent and 20.8 percent respectively. The highest occupancy rate was simply an indication that the accommodation establishments in the Mafeteng district had visitors who actually stayed overnight while the reverse was true in cases where the occupancy rates were lower such as ThabaTseka with only 4.8%. On average, 16.75 percent of accommodation was utilized in 2007. This can be reported as low demand for accommodation for the year.

Table 3: Number of Rooms and Beds Available and Demand for Accommodation

Total Revenue Accrued

Accommodation

Closely related to the above analysis on the bed occupancy rate is revenue accrued by establishments through accommodation alone. Although Maseru did not have the highest occupancy rate, it had the largest share (53.1%) of revenue collected from accommodation that was availed in 2007. This could be attributed to the difference in prices that were being charged, length of stay, etc. Generally, Hotels accumulated the highest revenue of M46.5m while Lodges and Other type of accommodation establishments recorded M10.7m and M14.3m respectively. Total revenue amounting to M71.5m was accrued from accommodation alone in 2007.

Table 4: Revenue Accrued within Accommodation Establishments, 2007

¹ Other included type of establishments such as Houses (home-stay), Bed &Breakfast and Institutions that offered accommodation services.

² Total revenue accrued by accommodation establishment for services such as accommodation, food & beverages, conference facilities and other goods and    services

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