Five-star hotels in London have increased their average room rates by nearly £5 since March last year, a new data collecting service has revealed.

But occupancy levels were slightly down on the previous year at 69.98% from 73.06%, taking revenue per available room (revpar) to £135.21, down 2.54% on March 2004.

James Chappell, managing director of The Bench was not overly concerned by the decrease, putting the reductions down to the fact that Easter, a notoriously bad period for London hotels, occurred in March this year compared with April in 2004.

Chappell added: “These figures show that the rates in the five-star market are recovering as those are the ones that can fluctuate the widest.”

London’s four-star market remained stable. March 2005’s average room rate was only slightly down from £91.79 in March 2004 to £90.48 this year but occupancy levels increased by 2.38% to 80.6%. This resulted in the comparative revpar for March 2005 being 72.93%, up 1.13% on the previous year.

By Emily Mason

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