Hostels in Ghana recorded significantly higher occupancy rates than several hotel categories between November 2024 and February 2025, highlighting major differences in how accommodation facilities are being utilised across the country, the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) has reported.
According to the Service’s Accommodation Unit Survey (AUS), the first nationally representative longitudinal survey of short-stay accommodation activity, hostels recorded room occupancy rates of about 91% to 95% during the period, with standard hostels recording particularly high room occupancy of approximately 96% to 99%.
This compares with significantly lower utilisation among some hotel categories. In February 2025, for instance, 1-star hotels recorded a room occupancy rate of just 28%, with bed occupancy at 24%. The figures reveal a wide performance gap within Ghana’s accommodation industry, despite hotels accounting for about 70% of available room capacity and roughly 55% to 60% of occupied rooms each month.
A Market of Contrasts
The strong performance of hostels came against a backdrop of overall national room occupancy remaining below 50% during the four-month period. National room occupancy stood at 44.7% in November 2024, peaked at 46.6% in December, declined to 44.1% in January 2025 and returned to 44.7% in February.
Available room capacity was about 5.03 million room-nights in November 2024 and rose to approximately 5.21 million by January 2025 before falling to around 4.69 million in February. Occupied rooms increased from about 2.25 million in November to a peak of around 2.42 million in December before declining to 2.30 million in January and 2.10 million in February.
At the national level, Ghana had an average of about 168,000 accommodation rooms available each night across hotels, guest houses, hostels and unlicensed lodging facilities. Yet more than half — roughly 55% — of those rooms remained empty on the average night, according to the GSS data.
Size Matters More Than Category
The survey revealed a striking divide based on establishment size. Facilities with 100 rooms or more recorded room occupancy rates of between 83% and 86%, while establishments with 90 to 99 rooms recorded room occupancy of just 10.2% in February 2025. The difference means that while some operators were selling most of their available rooms, others were leaving a large share of their capacity unused during the same period.
The GSS says the differences demonstrate why national accommodation averages can conceal important variations between different types of establishments. The Service notes that the particularly high utilisation of hostels, alongside lower occupancy in some hotel categories, demonstrates why accommodation establishments should not assess performance based on capacity or room rates alone.
Regional Disparities Tell a Sharper Story
The survey also exposed significant regional disparities in accommodation demand. The Savannah Region recorded the highest room occupancy rate at 63.7% in January 2025, while the Central Region maintained bed occupancy above 70% throughout the four months — recording 70.6% in November, 72.3% in December, 71.7% in January, and 73.8% in February. The Western Region also showed strong performance with a peak of 77.2% in December before dropping to 70.5% in February.
By contrast, the Eastern, Bono East, and Volta regions recorded room occupancy rates below 28% throughout the period, meaning approximately three out of every four rooms remained unsold. Greater Accra, which has the largest accommodation capacity, recorded room occupancy between 41% and 48%. The GSS states that these regional differences indicate national averages may not fully represent Ghana’s tourism accommodation market.
Domestic Travellers Carry the Market
Domestic visitors formed the backbone of accommodation demand during the reference period, substantially outnumbering foreign guests. Domestic guest numbers ranged from about 1.87 million to 2.17 million per month, compared with fewer than 40,000 foreign guests per month.
Hostels were particularly dependent on domestic travellers, with domestic hostel guests exceeding 934,000 in January 2025. Standard hostels recorded 729,392 domestic guests during the month, the highest volume among the hotel and hostel categories. Hotels, however, recorded the largest number of foreign guests, with 34,144 foreign guests in November 2024 and 119,195 foreign guest nights.
Foreign visitors generally stayed longer than domestic guests in hotels, with foreign guests typically staying between three and four nights compared with approximately two nights for domestic hotel guests. The findings suggest that measuring tourism performance solely by the number of visitors may not fully capture the sector’s economic potential, as the duration of a visitor’s stay influences the broader economic benefits generated.
Revenue Decline Signals Deeper Challenges
The uneven occupancy picture came as national accommodation revenue performance weakened towards January. Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) fell from GH¢603 in November 2024 to GH¢490 in January 2025, before recovering to GH¢524 in February. Average Daily Rate (ADR) also fell from GH¢1,351 in November to GH¢1,112 in January, before increasing slightly in February.
The average daily rate for an occupied room fell from GH¢1,351 in November to GH¢1,112 in January. Revenue per available room dropped about 19% over the same period. Greater Accra recorded the highest rates of any region, with RevPAR declining from GH¢1,165 in November to GH¢852 by January before recovering slightly to GH¢935 by February.
For businesses with low occupancy, the challenge is not simply having rooms available but generating enough demand to turn that capacity into revenue.
An Affordability Gap, Not a Capacity Gap
Policy and data analyst Alfred Appiah argues that the GSS figures point to a structural problem that should force both policymakers and industry players to rethink how they view Ghana’s accommodation market. For him, the issue is not simply about building more rooms — it is about making available accommodation affordable enough for the people who need it.
Appiah proposes partnerships with owners of underused guest houses and budget hotels to offer long-stay rooms to students, National Service personnel and young workers, as a faster and cheaper step than building new affordable housing. The same survey shows the idea runs into a mismatch: the empty rooms are mostly in hotels charging well over GH¢1,000 a night, while hostels — the type of lodging students actually use — are nearly full.
Falling revenue could, however, make some owners willing to negotiate. A hotel losing money on empty rooms may prefer a guaranteed long-stay tenant at a lower rate to no guest at all.
Background: A Sector Under Transformation
The survey, which ran from November 2024 to October 2025, is the first national dataset of its kind. The survey coordinator, Dr Ebenezer Kojo Ocran, said at its launch that the service had identified 9,602 accommodation units and would sample 1,077 of them, from large establishments to micro-sized ones. It covers short-stay commercial accommodation in all 261 districts and 16 regions.
The findings come as Ghana’s tourism sector continues to expand. The country generated an estimated US$4.34 billion in tourism revenue from international tourist arrivals in 2025, with arrivals increasing from 1,288,804 in 2024 to 1,306,962 in 2025. Domestic tourism also recorded growth, with domestic visits increasing from 1.68 million in 2024 to 1.79 million in 2025, representing a seven per cent increase.
Licensed tourism enterprises grew from 6,702 in 2024 to 7,109 in 2025, with accommodation establishments increasing from 5,210 to 5,424. When the survey was announced in October 2024, officials cited a tourism ministry projection that the sector would become Ghana’s third-largest foreign exchange earner by 2027, with accommodation making up 30% of tourist spending.
Implications for Investors
The findings could have implications for investment decisions within Ghana’s accommodation sector. The GSS recommends that investors and financial institutions consider demonstrated demand and utilisation when assessing accommodation investments, rather than focusing solely on the amount of available capacity.
The Service also says businesses should routinely monitor occupancy, Average Daily Rate, Revenue per Available Room, guest composition and length of stay to guide pricing, marketing, service delivery and market positioning.
The report stresses that greater focus on domestic tourism does not replace the importance of international visitors. Instead, the two markets play different roles, with domestic visitors providing substantial volume while foreign visitors in several accommodation categories record longer stays.
The GSS argues that encouraging visitors to extend their stays could increase demand for a wider range of services and spread tourism spending across local economies. Longer stays can generate additional demand for accommodation, food, transportation, entertainment and cultural experiences, creating opportunities beyond the initial hotel booking.
A Cautionary Baseline
The GSS cautioned that the findings cover only four months of a planned 12-month survey and should therefore be treated as an emerging baseline rather than evidence of a long-term trend. The survey results are planned to be released monthly, two weeks after each reference period.
The report concludes that the main issue for Ghana’s accommodation sector is how effectively existing capacity translates into sustained demand and revenue rather than simply needing more facilities. It recommends focusing on utilisation patterns, destination development, infrastructure improvements, events planning, marketing strategies, and accessibility when planning tourism investments.
Investment decisions should be based on demonstrated demand rather than just available capacity alone, the report says — a message that resonates through a market where the cheapest beds are the ones filling up, while a large proportion of rooms in other accommodation categories remain vacant.
