For the first time in nine months, the year-on-year drop in revenue per available room (revpar) at UK hotels was not as great as it was the previous month, according to research by consultant TRI Hospitality.
The statistics show that, in May, hotels in both London and the provinces achieved a greater revpar than they did in April.
Occupancy across London's hotels in May was 68.6%, a fall of seven percentage points on May 2002. Room rate dropped by 11% to £77.50 and revpar fell by 19.2% to £53.15. In the provinces, occupancy was up by 0.4 percentage points to 71.6%, with room rate down by 2.7% to £62.57 and revpar down by 2.2% to £44.82.
The report said that although there were indications of a recovery, the improvement was too late to turn 2003 into a growth year.