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UK hotels end year on high note
UK hoteliers enjoyed a strong end to the year with properties in London and the regions performing well.
Hotel consultancy service PKF revealed that year on year figures for December show the average room rate in the capital was up almost 2% to £102.40.
While occupancy was slightly down, by 0.4% to 68.9%, rooms yield was up 1.5% to £70.52.
For the year as a whole, room rates were up 3.4% to £104.57 and yields grew 1.8% despite a fall in occupancy of 1.5%.
PKF partner Robert Barnard said: “If there were ever any doubts about the innate strength and resilience of the UK hotels market, these figures will dispel them.
“In spite of a dreadful two months for London hoteliers after July 7, the city’s boundless appeal for business and tourism reasserted itself by October, and the December figures clearly demonstrate that London is back on top of the tree.”
Regional hotels also has a strong December with room rates up 2.6% to £65.13, occupancy up 0.9% to 61.5% and yields up 3.5% to just over £40.
Full year performance was also encouraging with rates up 3.1% to £67, occupancy growing 0.4% to 71.4% and yield climbing 3.6% to almost £48.
Barnard said part of the regional improvement was driven by specific events in individual cities.
“The increasing dependence of each location on local events to drive occupancy was sharply highlighted,” he said.
“The soaring fortunes of cities packed with activity programmes such as Liverpool and Aberdeen contrasted strongly with locations such as Nottingham and Solihull and Birmingham Airport where room yield fell in 2005.”
Report by Steve Jones
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