May is bumper month for UK hoteliers
UK hotels had their best May since the Millennium, according to the latest figures from PKF hotel consultancy services.
Even though it was the wettest May since 1979, hotel rates, occupancy and yield were significantly up in London and across the regions.
In London, average rooms yield reached £92.98, a 15.2% increase on the 2005 figure of £80.70.
This was fuelled by a 7.1% increase in room rate to £112.98 and room occupancy growth of 7.5% to 82.3%.
The London guest nationality mix showed a 21.4% increase in the number of visitors from outside the traditional domestic, European, US and Japanese markets.
‘Other country’ visitors now account for 19.3% of the total – up from 15.9% in 2005.
Regional hotels also performaned well, with room rates up 1.7% to £70.10 and occupancy up 4.2% to 74.9%, generating a 6.0% uplift in rooms yield to £52.48.
Robert Barnard, partner for hotel consultancy services at PKF, said: “Our April prediction that the strong growth trends of the first quarter would resume in May was totally vindicated by the best set of figures that we have seen since hotels’ golden year of the Millennium.
“May 2006 may have been the fifth wettest since 1914 but major events around the country such as the Chelsea Flower Show, the FA Cup Final in Cardiff and the Sri Lankan Test Series were sold out as visitors refused to be daunted by the weather.”
By Bev Fearis
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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