29 April 2008

Early Easter blamed for UK hotels slowdown

Many UK hotels suffered drops in both occupancy and room rate in March, blamed on an early Easter and poor spring weather.

Monthly figures released by PKF Hotel Consultancy Services show that London was one of the only cities in the survey that saw a small increase in room rate, rising 0.6% from Ã&#pound;124.13 to Ã&#pound;124.87.

By contrast, occupancy dropped 2.2%, explained by an Ã¢â¬Åâœinevitable dropÃ¢â¬~ in business travellers to the capital over the Easter weekend and the associated school holidays which were staggered over a number of weeks.

Last year the capital had 81.3% occupancy in March, this year it was 79.6%. Overall, rooms yield fell 1.6% from Ã&#pound;100.99 in 2007 to Ã&#pound;99.35 this year, according to PKF.

Average figures for the regions show a small drop in room rate Ã¢â¬' just 0.4% down on the same period last year Ã¢â¬' but a larger drop in occupancy.

This is most likely explained by a drop in commercial visitors over the Easter period Ã¢â¬' occupancy was down 5.2% on 2007 from 71.3% to 67.6% this year. Rooms yield was down 5.6% to Ã&#pound;49.29.

Birmingham and Edinburgh both achieved strong 3.4% increases in room rate in March, but occupancy figures slid.

In Birmingham, occupancy dropped 12.4% from 76.7% in 2007 to 67.3% in 2008, resulting in a 9.4% decline in rooms yield. Edinburgh had a 4.5% drop in occupancy and an overall 1.4% decline in rooms yield.

Liverpool managed a slight increase in room rate from Ã&#pound;72.64 last year to Ã&#pound;72.86 this year and only a small dip, 1.6%, in occupancy.

PKF hotel consultancy services partner Robert Barnard said: "The slowdown in the March figures is most likely explained by the early Easter holiday.

"In March 2007 there would have been a good deal more business travellers to UK cities, whereas this year more people will have been taking a break from work and business travel to spend time with their families.

"I would expect to see the exact contrast in April with more business travellers in 2008 compared to 2007 boosting hotel occupancy. However, some school Easter holidays did spill over into April and this will have some effect.

"Finally, the weather always plays its part and for March it had a negative effect. We now wait to see how it plays out in April."

by Phil Davies