Security alerts drive up occupancy at airport hotels

Chaos at UK airports during the recent security alerts has led to a huge rise in occupancy rates at airport hotels.

Hotels in the vicinity of Gatwick and Heathrow terminals have seen particularly steep rises as passengers seek last-minute short-term accommodation.

A review of hotel performance based on the HotelBenchmark survey by Deloitte shows that hotel occupancy in the Heathrow and Gatwick areas rose dramatically during the first five days of the alert.

Surinder Arora, owner of Arora hotels, said: "Occupancy at both airports did increase but we don't really want to be jumping up and down looking for business like we've had as a result of the past few days. Now things have calmed down and are getting back to normal.

At Heathrow occupancy jumped to 92.4% from 83.9% the week before the threat was uncovered, while at Gatwick rates rose to 84.6% from 79.4%.

Average room rates also rose significantly, up to £67.87 from £58.16 the previous week at Heathrow and up from £59.55 to £64.22 at Gatwick.

By Matthew Batham

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