The spring quarter is a popular business events period, with winter tending to be quieter, so hoteliers are upbeat when they can still attract higher yielding corporate guests in the coolest months of the year.
On the three metrics measured by Accommodation Australia and its research partners, Sydney topped performance, with the highest average occupancy at 83.1 per cent, the highest average daily rate (ADR) of $294.43 and the highest revenue per available room (RevPAR) of $244.65.
As far as hotel occupancy went across other Australian cities, Perth sat at 82.1 per cent, Darwin at 80.7 per cent, Brisbane at 79.6 per cent, Melbourne at 74.6 per cent, Adelaide at 72.4 per cent, the Gold Coast at 69.4 per cent and Hobart at 68.5 per cent.
ADR results in major cities had Darwin at $282.25, the Gold Coast at $264.15, Brisbane at $254.29, Perth at $238.47, Melbourne at $201.34, Adelaide at $192.20 and Hobart at $183.24.
Taking account of hotel rooms that were out of order, RevPAR revealed a similar city ranking with actual revenues achieved under this metric being approximately $50 to $60 less per night than ADR figures.
Football finals across the various codes are not reflected in the August figures, but September will show the added boost major events can give a city.
Melbourne will be keenly looking at not only the AFL finals numbers, but also the local economic impact of the imported NFL game that saw a 100,021-pax crowd sell out the MCG clash between the Los Angeles Rams and the San Francisco 49-ers.
August figures do reveal the importance of business events for the midweek market, with hotel occupancies typically dropping off Sunday but returning by mid-week.
Fo example: Brisbane hosted the AHRI National Convention & Exhibition at Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre from August 4 to 6, attracting around 2,000 HR professionals, with Accommodation Australia describing it as a “notable midweek demand generator”.
According to Accommodation Australia’s report, “occupancy rose from 78.2 per cent on Monday August 3 to 86.7 per cent on Tuesday before reaching 90 per cent on Wednesday August 5, one of the highest occupancy results of the month”.
Brisbane was also buoyed by the 150th anniversary of its agricultural show, Ekka, bringing rural communities to the city for the nine-day event.
Major business events held across Australian capital cities in August 2026 included the Future of Events Summit 2026 in Sydney, DigiMarCon Australia 2026 in Melbourne and the start of Melbourne Global Exchange on August 31, continuing into September. Meanwhile the AuSAE ACE Conference Breakfast was held in Brisbane on August 27, the Small Business Week Welcome & Expo was held on 17 August at the Adelaide Convention Centre and Perth hosted Supply Nation’s Connect 2026 from August 11 to 12 at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre.
