London hotels saw revenue per available room (revpar) soar by 14.6% in the month of April 2008, according to preliminary figures from business advisor PKF.
Some of the improvement stemmed from the fact that Easter (which depresses commercial travel) fell in April in 2007 but in March this year.
Hotels in the capital achieved significant rises in both occupancy and room rate, which rose by 3.3 percentage points and 10% respectively.
Robust growth was also reported from the regions, which also saw significant rises in occupancy, room rate and revpar (of 5.6 percentage points, 4.8% and 13.2%) thanks to the return of commercial travellers.
Leeds and Birmingham did exceptionally well to boost revpar by 28.4% and 27.6% on the back of room rate hikes and increases in occupancy of 19.5% in Leeds and 17% in Birmingham.
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Liverpool, this year’s European Capital of Culture, increased revpar by 19.1%.
“The robust figures for April are not a surprise, “ said Robert Barnard, partner for hotel consultancy services at PKF. “With the Easter holiday falling in March this year, it was inevitable that the figures would be slower last month with the exact contrast this month.
“Some of this year’s Easter school holidays did spill over into April however and therefore the strength of the figures this month is heartening.”
The figures are compiled monthly by PKF.
| APRIL 2008 (preliminary figures) | LONDON (172) | 2008 | 2007 | Movement | | Occupancy | 82.3% | 79.0% | +3.3 points | | Average room rate | £135.94 | £123.55 | +10% | | Revpar | £111.91 | £97.67 | +14.6 % |
| REGIONS (546) | 2008 | 2007 | Movement | | Occupancy | 74.7% | 69.1% | +5.6 points | | Average room rate | £74.56 | £71.16 | +4.8% | | Revpar | £55.67 | £49.18 | +13.2% | |
| MARCH 2008 | LONDON (196) | 2008 | 2007 | Movement | | Occupancy | 79.5% | 81.2% | -1.7 points | | Average room rate | £123.20 | £122.64 | +0.5% | | Revpar | £97.91 | £99.67 | -1.8% |
| REGIONS (642) | 2008 | 2007 | Movement | | Occupancy | 67.3% | 71.1% | -3.8 points | | Average room rate | £71.88 | £72.20 | -0.4% | | Revpar | £48.35 | £51.35 | -5.8% | |
| FEBRUARY 2008 | LONDON | 2008 | 2007 | Movement | | Occupancy | 78.4% | 77.6% | +0.8 points | | Average room rate | £128.98 | £122.08 | +5.7% | | Revpar | £101.06 | £94.77 | +6.6% |
| REGIONS | 2008 | 2007 | Movement | | Occupancy | 69% | 69.4% | -0.4 points | | Average room rate | £72.54 | £70.50 | +2.9% | | Revpar | £50.02 | £48.96 | +2.2% | |
| JANUARY 2008 | LONDON | 2008 | 2007 | Movement | | Occupancy | 71% | 71.9% | -0.9 points | | Average room rate | £124.23 | £118.21 | +5.1% | | Revpar | £88.15 | £85.07 | +3.6% |
| REGIONS | 2008 | 2007 | Movement | | Occupancy | 59.6% | 60.4% | -0.8 points | | Average room rate | £71.41 | £68.69 | +4% | | Revpar | £42.58 | £41.50 | +2.6% | |
| DECEMBER 2007 | LONDON | 2007 | 2006 | Movement | | Occupancy | 73.5% | 73.4% | +0.1 points | | Average room rate | £127.47 | £119.79 | +6.4% | | Revpar | £93.74 | £87.99 | +6.5% |
| REGIONS | 2007 | 2006 | Movement | | Occupancy | 63.2% | 63.2% | 0 points | | Average room rate | £70.33 | £68.13 | +3.2% | | Revpar | £44.43 | £43.06 | +3.2% | |
NOVEMBER 2007
| LONDON | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 85.4% | 86.5% | -1.1 points |
| Average room rate | £143.45 | £13.36 | +6.8% |
| Revpar | £122.53 | £116.28 | +5.4% |
| REGIONS | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 74.3% | 75.3% | -1 point |
| Average room rate | £74.56 | £72 | +3.6% |
| Revpar | £55.42 | £54.28 | +2.1% |
OCTOBER 2007
| LONDON | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 87% | 82.8% | +4.2 points |
| Average room rate | £131.81 | £120.45 | +9.4% |
| Revpar | £114.65 | £99.84 | +14.8% |
| REGIONS | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 77.8% | 77.4% | +0.4 points |
| Average room rate | £74.66 | £71.19 | +4.9% |
| Revpar | £58.05 | £55.13 | +5.3% |
SEPTEMBER 2007
| LONDON | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 86.8% | 87% | -0.2 points |
| Average room rate | £136.58 | £126.92 | +7.6% |
| Revpar | £118.48 | £110.47 | +7.3% |
| REGIONS | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 79.1% | 80.5% | -1.4 points |
| Average room rate | £75.76 | £72.58 | +4.4% |
| Revpar | £59.91 | £58.43 | +2.5% |
AUGUST 2007
| LONDON | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 84.1% | 83.1% | +1 point |
| Average room rate | £116.59 | £106.76 | +9.2% |
| Revpar | £98.01 | £88.76 | +10.4% |
| REGIONS | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 74.2% | 75.3% | -1.1 points |
| Average room rate | £69.34 | £66.71 | 3.9% |
| Revpar | £51.45 | £50.28 | +2.3% |
JULY 2007
| LONDON | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 86.9% | 88.4% | - 1.5 points |
| Average room rate | £130.06 | £127.39 | +2.1% |
| Revpar | £113.08 | £112.72 | +0.3% |
| REGIONS | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 78% | 77.4% | + 0.6 points |
| Average room rate | £72.13 | £70.03 | +3% |
| Revpar | £56.27 | £54.25 | +3.7% |
JUNE 2007
| LONDON | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 87.8% | 86.6% | +1.2 points |
| Average room rate | £136.32 | £123.96 | +10% |
| Revpar | £119.74 | £107.36 | +11.5% |
| REGIONS | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 77.3% | 75.9% | +1.4 points |
| Average room rate | £73.93 | £70.80 | +4.4% |
| Revpar | £57.11 | £53.77 | +6.2% |
MAY 2007
| LONDON | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 80.9% | 82.4% | -1.5 points |
| Average room rate | £126.80 | £117.27 | +1.8% |
| Revpar | £102.54 | £96.69 | +6.1% |
| REGIONS | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 74.5% | 74.8% | -0.3 points |
| Average room rate | £72.36 | £70.19 | +3.1% |
| Revpar | £53.87 | £52.50 | +2.6% |
APRIL 2007
| LONDON | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 79.4% | 79.3% | +0.1 points |
| Average room rate | £118.94 | £104.05 | +14.3% |
| Revpar | £94.43 | £82.55 | +14.4% |
| REGIONS | 2007 | 2006 | Movement |
| Occupancy | 69.1% | 71.1% | -2 points |
| Average room rate | £70.17 | £67.74 | +3.6% |
| Revpar | £48.51 | £48.61 | -0.2% |
PKF's hotel survey spans a range of hotels across the country, although there are more chain-operated hotels than independents and more town and city hotels than country and rural properties. Most hotels fall into the three- to four-star brackets except in London, where they range from three to five stars.
DEFINITION OF TERMS
the ratio of total occupied rooms to total available rooms
Average room rate: rooms revenue divided by the total number of guest rooms occupied during the year
Revpar: room occupancy multiplied by the average achieved room rate
