Firmdale records rooms rate that's double London's average

Boutique hotel operator Firmdale Holdings achieved an average room rate of £300 last year - more than double the figure for other London hotels.

The company's annual accounts, due to be filed later this month, will show that Firmdale's turnover increased by 28.5% in the year to 31 January 2011, to £69.4m. Net gain was £20.8m, up from an £8.2m loss the previous year.

Trading at all six Firmdale's properties in London, which include the Haymarket, Soho, Covent Garden, Charlotte Street, Knightsbridge and Number Sixteen hotels, improved during 2010, with the average room rate rising 6% to £300 and average occupancy increasing 3.1% to 89%.

In 2010, London's average room rate was £123.32 and occupancy was 82.1%, according to TRI Hospitality Consulting.

Malcolm Soden, Firmdale's finance director, said: "Firmdale figures have continued to impress and this is maintained through a number of factors which we take very seriously, including maintaining guest loyalty - we have a very a high percentage of repeat business, broadly 50% plus - the level of personal service offered in each hotel, and overall attention to detail in creating a first-class product."

As well as its six London hotels, Firmdale also owns and operates the Crosby Street hotel in New York.

Future plans include the reopening at the end of the year of the Dorset Square hotel, the first hotel in the group which Firmdale has recently bought back after falling into administration. The company is also developing a new flagship 90-bedroom hotel with 120-seat cinema at Ham Yard in Soho, due to open in 2013, and a second hotel in New York.

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By Janet Harmer

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