The Chelsea Flower show and the mayor's £3.8m Totally London campaign provided a boost to feeble London hotel results in May, but occupancy figures were still the second-worst on record.
Continued poor economic conditions, combined with reliance on the fragile transatlantic market, meant that London hotels suffered a fifth consecutive month of deteriorating revenues per available room (revpar). Average occupancy fell by 9.2% to 67.3%, room rates dropped by 7% to £92.45 and revpar fell by 15.6% to £62.20, according to hotel consultant PKF.
In the regions, hotels managed to hold their own, with occupancy levels the same as last year at 70.8%, despite the two May bank holidays. Room rates were down by 2.6% and revpar fell by 2.7%.
According to figures from hotel consultant Deloitte and Touche, the hardest hit segments were townhouse and boutique hotels, which experienced a revpar decline of 20.5%.
Melvin Gold, managing director of hotel services at PKF, said: "Although the figures aren't as bad as April's, and some colour returned to the cheeks of London hoteliers during the Chelsea Flower Show, it's still very tough."