Poor weather to blame for hotel business slowdown

An early Easter holiday and poor spring weather resulted in a slowdown in business for hotels in March, according to a report by analyst firm PFK.

London saw a small increase in room rate rising 0.6% from £124.13 to £124.87 in March, although occupancy fell 2.2% year-on-year.

Revenue per available room (revpar) in London fell 1.6% from £100.99 in 2007 to £99.35.

The rest of the UK saw an average drop in room rate of 0.4%, but a more significant 3.7 percentage points fall in occupancy, which slipped to 67.6%.

Revenue per available room was down 5.6% to £49.29.

Robert Barnard, partner for Hotel Consultancy Services at PKF said the slowdown in figures was most likely down to the "early Easter holiday".

"In March 2007 there would have been a good deal more business travellers to UK cities, whereas this year more people will have been taking a break from work and business travel to spend time with their families."

Barnard added that he expected a pick-up in April with more business travellers boosting occupancy.

Revpar dips by 4% at London hotels >>

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By Gemma Sharkey

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