London hotels saw revenue per available room (revpar) slide by 3.1% in the month of October 2008, according to preliminary figures from business advisors PKF.

Although the capital’s hotels managed to lift average room rate by 0.1%, the slowdown in business travel brought occupancy down by 2.7 percentage points.

Regional hotels saw all three performance figures fall during the month, with revpar down by 7.2%, room rates 1.5% lower than a year ago, and occupancy levels cut by 4.5 percentage points..

On the plus side, Leeds increased revpar by 0.6% to £59.36 while Liverpool’s status as European Capital of Culture for the year allowed to it boost revpar by 5.1% (to £69.61) on the back of a 1.2% growth in room rate to £82.93 and a 3.9% rise in occupancy to 83.9%.

“The continued global economic woes mean that the lack of growth experienced by many hoteliers in October were to be expected,” said Robert Barnard, partner for Hotel Consultancy Services at PKF.

“It is important to note that the falls overall were fairly moderate and the industry, while feeling the effects, is still holding its own.”

The figures are compiled monthly by PKF.

See also PKF Hotel Britain 2007 >>

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.

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