The anticipated recovery in the London hotel market failed to materialise in 2002, say consultants PKF.
The London Trends 2003 survey, published today, says that a recovery in the London hotel market was “disappointingly slow and patchy” in 2002, as hoteliers were forced to cut rates in a bid to claw back occupancy in the wake of the annus horribilis of 2001.
Average room rates fell by 5.9% to £102.26 in 2002, compared with £108.69 a year earlier and revenue per available room dropped by 4% to £75.88, compared with £79.02 in 2001.
Occupancy increased slightly, up by 1.5 percentage points to 74.2%.
The capital’s hotels also saw the proportion of US guests falling again in 2002. It dropped from 24.7% in 2001 to 23.2% last year.
The proportion of UK guests increased: they accounted for 38.2% of rooms occupied in 2002, compared with 35.9% a year earlier.
Melvin Gold, managing director for hotel consultancy services at PKF, said: “The London hotel market took quite a battering during 2001, so even the small rise in occupancy is really just a slight improvement on a very bad year. We had hoped to see a much better recovery during 2002.”
He added that the imminent war in Iraq could cause more problems, but pointed out that some hoteliers had expressed the hope that a short successful conflict could “clear the air” and let the tourist trade flow back to more normal levels again later in the year.