The Table Bay is a key component of Sun International's Hotels and Resorts division, which racked up revenue of R1,3bn in the six months to end December 2012.
The Table Bay managed to increase revenues by 12% to R77m, and swing encouragingly from a R1m loss last year to a gross profit of R6m.
But the Table Bay still reported an operating loss of R3m – even though this loss has been much diminished from last year's R10m loss.
The performance of the Table Bay should be seen in context of a highly competitive – perhaps even over-traded - luxury hotel sector in Cape Town since the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The industry has been characterised by strenuous room rate discounting as operators try desperately to lift occupancy rates. Some operators, like Quantum Property (which owned the 15-on-Orange hotel,) have fallen by the wayside.
Newly appointed Sun International CEO Graeme Stephens confirms as much. He said the Table Bay Hotel improved its performance in the context of another difficult six months as a result of the oversupply of inventory in the Cape Town market.
He said the Table Bay's ADR (average daily rate) stretched to R2,082 (from R1,988) as a result of additional international traveller room nights sold and the growth in the local corporate market. This may mean the Table Bay can push its full year revenues past last year's R153m, and post a more meaningful gross profit figure.
Occupancy at the Table Bay was also up from 41,7% to 44,5%, which (due to the nature of the Table Bay's upmarket offering) is well below the Hotel and Resort division's 62% occupancy average.
Sun International can, though, take some comfort from the performance of its flagship Cape asset, the GrandWest casino. The Goodwood-based GrandWest produced revenue of R928m, and posted R333m at operating profit level.
The Golden Valley casino in Worcester also continued to roll along with revenue of R66m translating into operating profits of R6m.
Source: CBN