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Published:
26/11/2009
Green shoots as London hotel occupancy rises
The London hotel market recorded occupancy levels of 85.1 per cent in October, a year-on-year increase of 1.5 percentage points, according to the latest HotStats survey by TRI Hospitality Consulting. The increase in occupancy, coupled with a year-on-year decrease in average room rate of less than five per cent, helped reduce the margin of decline in revenue per available room (revpar) to its lowest level since July 2008, at 3.2 per cent.
Jonathan Langston, managing director, TRI Hospitality Consulting, said: “Although we are dealing with softer comparables in the fourth quarter of 2008, the continued improvements in headline performance in London are encouraging.”
In the provinces, room occupancy dropped from 75.7 per cent in September 2009, to 73.6 per cent in October. However, average October room rates in the provinces experienced the smallest
margin of decline (7.6 per cent) since the beginning of the year to £69.29, from £74.95 in 2008. The rate gap may be primarily attributed to the continued decline in the number of high-yielding business travellers to the UK, with the latest International Passenger Survey showing that of the eight per cent fewer visitors to the UK, inbound business travel was down by 23 per cent in the nine months to September 2009.
The appetite for domestic autumnal short breaks has helped provincial occupancy levels in October in Bath (+6.5 per cent), Brighton (+4.1 per cent) and Plymouth (+5.8 per cent).
This is helping the provincial hotel market to reduce year-on-year gross operating profit per available room decline, from -14.3 per cent in September 2009 to -10.5 per cent in October.
“UK hoteliers have sacrificed room rate whilst successfully managing volume and costs and as a result, provincial GOP PAR declines are the lowest they have been since September 2008,” added Langston.