• The riots in the suburbs of many French cities at the beginning of November 2005 have had only a small impact on hotel activity.

• The business clientele have cancelled few business trips whilst leisure clients, traditionally not present in large numbers at this time of year, do not seem to be reduced. 

• A return to �the norm� should cancel out any effects of the riots. 

The riots in the suburbs have had a limited impact on the hotel activity over the first 15 days of November, including the outskirts of big cities, which one would have thought to be most affected by urban violence. 

The daily analysis of the business of French establishments situated in the areas impacted by the violence but also in zones affected by the violence show little impact on the overall performances of the hotel industry. 

From the 8th to the 12th of November, the hotels would have registered their best performances during the period October 20th to November 20th (whatever the area) due to Batimat, (7-12 November) the international construction show at the south of Paris ("Porte de Versailles"). 

Business clientele have cancelled few business trips. The rate of leisure clients, who are more likely to be affected by important events, is traditionally not very high at this time of year and therefore will only slightly be down. 
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During the weekends of the first half of November, the Occupancy Rate of hotels located in the suburbs affected by the riots seems to have taken a small turn (Occupancy Rate of 68% for the weekends of the 43rd week against 62% and 57% for the weekends of the weeks 45 and 46) but remain above those in other towns within the outskirts of Paris. This slight drop in Occupancy Rate over the weekend period could be explained by the two long bank holiday weekends in France of November 1st and November 11th, 

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Modelled on the towns within the Parisian outskirts, hotel activity in the suburbs affected by the riots recorded only a marginal impact: the Occupancy Rates during the week are slightly down over the first 15days in November but remain above the Occupancy Rates of hotels located in other towns within the Parisian outskirts. 

In fact, for the week 44 and 45, hotels in the suburbs affected by the riots show an Occupancy Rate of 64% and 77% respectively whilst over the same period, the hotels of the other towns in the Parisian outskirts present an occupancy rate of 50% and 68% respectively. 

For the weekend periods, the Occupancy Rate of the hotel establishments located in the suburbs affected by the riots dropped slightly (for the weekends of the weeks 45 and 46, the Occupancy Rate are respectively 46% and 56% against 71% for the weekend of week 43) This slight drop in Occupancy Rate over the weekend period could be explained by the two long bank holiday weekends in France of November 1st and November 11^th.

It is important to note that the Occupancy Rate of hotels located in the suburbs affected by the riots remains above the occupancy rate of other establishments within the Parisian outskirts. This could, in part, be explained by an over-representation of �economy hotels� located in the suburbs affected by the riots. 

Thus, the hotels located within the suburbs of Paris and other large cities in France have only been slightly affected. One should be able to rely on a steady period in December if the situation comes to halt, as seems to be the case. 

Images of the riots, which have been published around the world, could affect the level of reservations over the celebration period at the end of year.

Methodology

MKG Worldwide is the leader in Hotel, Tourism and Catering consulting, and has the largest database in the world, outside the USA, with a good representation of all hotel segments. The database of MKG contains a sample of 10,000 corporate chain hotels, representing 1,000,000 rooms. 

Since September 2004, the MKG Database offers a programme that allows the daily monitoring of hotel indicators for each hotel of a sample that in July 2005 already included 1,000 hotels.