London hotels staved off the winter chill in February with a rosy 8.5% boost to revenue per available room (revpar), according to preliminary figures from PKF.
Following a record-breaking start to the year, the capital’s hotels increased February revpar to £82.23, up from £75.77 in the corresponding period of 2005.
The rise stemmed from growth in both occupancy (up 4.1 percentage points to 76.9%) and in average room rate, which increased by 2.8% year-on-year to £106.87 from £104.
“Despite it being the coldest February for 10 years, London hoteliers had a good month building on the cracking start to 2006,” said Robert Barnard, partner for hotel consultancy services at PKF.
“Rooms yield in the capital after just two months is now 9.2% up on last year.”
Although most visitors – nearly 62% - came from the UK and Europe, their numbers have declined since February 2005. The number of tourists from Japan and the USA, however, has grown by 9.1% and 5.3% respectively.
Regional hotels also fared well in February, boosting revpar by 3.2% to £46.97, up from £45.51.
Occupancy nudged forwards by 0.4 percentage points to 67.6%, while average room rate increased by 2.6% to £69.45 (up from £67.71 in February 2005).
Barnard believed this encouraging start “should sustain regional hotels until the traditional Easter holiday period and local Spring events programmes get underway”.
Click here to view the rolling PKF monthly hotel performance update.
By Angela Frewin
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