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Regional hotels suffer drop in occupancy
Hotel occupancy rates are falling in the UK regions, according to the latest figures from PKF hotel consultancy services.
According to the figures for April, average daily room occupancy dropped across the board from 71.9% in 2006 to 69.5% in 2007.
At the same time, hoteliers continued to push up rates so that average room rates were up from £66.68 in 2006 to £69.02 in 2007.
These figures meant the rooms yield for the regions as a whole stayed on a par with 2006.
“In the regions, occupancy rates are consistently down on 2006. There are signs that higher interest rates and concerns over inflation are starting to bite as fewer people decide to take domestic breaks,” said Robert Barnard, partner for hotel consultancy services at PKF.
Meanwhile London hotels saw rates rise but occupancy stay the same in April, helping push average daily rooms yield up by a significant 14.7% from £82.42 in 2006 to £94.57 this year.
Average daily room rate rose from £103.77 in 2006 to £119.04 in 2007, but daily room occupancy remained unchanged at 79.4%.
As in March, Japanese visitors to London increased dramatically in the month – up 133.3% on April 2006 – and visitors from Europe were also up.
However, domestic, US and other groups of visitors evened the increases out, falling 10%, 10.1% and 0.9% respectively.
“The preliminary April figures for London suggest that the strength of the pound has begun to deter US visitors. However, visitor numbers traditionally fall around the Easter holiday period because of the drop in business visitors to the capital,” added Barnard.
By Bev Fearis
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Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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