Phuket Hotels Missing Summer Season

While July and August are typically high season, this year Australians are continuing to visit in droves given the strength of the Aussie dollar.
But the success story doesn't end there, as Europeans in the midst of traditional holiday time, and the rising tide of regional visitors. Never mind the surge of Singaporeans taking a break for National Day.
Looking at room rates in the market this week on the OTA (online travel agencies) most international managed and even local four star and above properties are north of USD200.
Taking a spin on Phuket's OTA's rates fall short of the mark. For hotels early in the last decade as demand was surging Phuket was able to impose a shoulder or second season during the summer months.
All that has not disappeared and excluding peak periods like Christmas, Chinese New Year etc…we have high and a very long low season.
Many GM's and Director's of Sales and Marketing have raised this with the growing set of influential wholesalers who now dominate the market and the response has been a door in the face.
So the effect in August is that as hotel occupancy has hit good numbers, average room rates remain flat.
Rate management continues to be Phuket's biggest challenge and requires some type of consolidated response by hotels to the market. As it is not the end result remains volume trading at the expense of increasing yields.