Chain hotels enjoy a robust first quarter

Chain hotels in the UK have seen robust first-quarter sales growth in 2007 although the provinces lagged behind the capital.

The latest TRI Hospitality Consulting HotStats figures for chain hotels showed rates in the capital were up 11.4% to £105.56, while regional rates grew just 3.8% to £71.09.

Occupancy throughout the UK was marginally ahead with London seeing a 0.4 percentage point rise to 77.9% compared with 0.6 percentage points elsewhere taking the UK average to 65.8%.

Jonathan Langston managing director at TRI said: "The challenge ahead for UK hoteliers is maintaining their current rate of sales growth during the year. We anticipate a slight slowdown in this growth but the increase should still be comfortably ahead of inflation."

In March London saw an increase in revenue per available room (revpar) of 10.3% while the provinces also saw revpar rise by 5.9%.

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By Emily Manson

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