Hotel recovery will not come before 2005, according to Hilton.
The forecast came as the group reported hotel profits rise 19% to £67.1 million in the half year to June 30.
This compared with £56.1 million achieved the dame period last year, a period which included the combined imapct of the Iraq conflict and SARS.
Global revenue per available room (revpar) was up 9.2% with occupancy up 5.6 percentage points. Revpar in London was up by 17.2%, with rates up 9.4%. Profit for UK and Ireland hotels was up by 23/8% to £42.2 million.
But group chief executive Davis Michels sounded a note of caution, saying that a full recovery in hotels business was not expected until next year.
He said: “It is encouraging to report that hotels across most of our portfolio are now experiencing improvements in both business and leisure traffic; although it will not be before 2005 that rate reacts accordingly.
“Whilst some parts of our hotel estate are enjoying sustained revpar growth, albeit from a low base, booking patterns remain late making forecasting difficult, particularly in some parts of Europe.
“As we have said before, we do not anticipate a full hotel recovery before 2005.”
Report by Phil Davies
