Summer Events Boost London Hotels - Hoteliers In The Rest Of The UK Maintain Steady Growth | PKF Reports

Hotels in the capital experienced a very healthy July with significant growth in both room rate and occupancy, according to preliminary monthly figures released today by PKF Hotel Consultancy Services. Hotels across the rest of the country maintained steady growth.

In London, figures were buoyed by visitors travelling to the summer events hosted by the capital such as The Proms, the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and the summer opening of Buckingham Palace.

The Farnborough Airshow is likely to have had the largest impact however and, as a result, occupancy jumped 2.0% on the same period last year from 86.5% to 88.3%. Room rate increased even more sharply from £140.38 to £162.33 – a percentage increase of 15.6% – and overall rooms yield increased by a substantial 18.0%, from £121.45 to £143.26.

In the regions, occupancy was down slightly from 77.2% in 2007 to 75.9% this year, but room rate increased 2.4% from £75.18 to £77.00. Overall, this meant rooms yield was up 0.6% on 2007.

European Capital of Culture Liverpool continues to draw in the crowds and this month posted a massive 32.8% increase in rooms yield from £52.22 last year to £69.37 this year. This was a combination of a 12.6% jump in occupancy and an 18.0% increase in room rate.

Birmingham also had a strong month as the city hosted the 24th Birmingham International Jazz festival in July. This gave its hotels a rooms yield increase of 8.9%.

Robert Barnard, partner for Hotel Consultancy Services at PKF, commented, “Hotels in the capital had a fantastic July, benefiting from the various summer events and defying current UK economic conditions. As predicted last month, the Farnborough Airshow also played an important role.

“In the regions, overall figures remained steady, but Liverpool was again the city which stood out.

“In contrast, Edinburgh saw further drops across occupancy, room rate and rooms yield. However, these drops do need to be kept in context because last year was a particularly strong one for the city and this year’s occupancy figure of 82.2%, is still strong.”

Preliminary data for July 2008

1. PKF is a leading firm of accountants and business advisers with more than 1,800 partners and staff operating in 23 offices in the UK mainland firm, a wholly-owned financial planning company and associated offshore practices. The firm specialises in advising growing and entrepreneurial/owner-managed businesses, AIM and fully listed companies, and also has extensive experience in the public and not-for-profit sectors. Principal services include assurance and advisory; taxation; consultancy; corporate recovery and insolvency; corporate finance and forensic. The firm has particular expertise in advising sectors such as hotels and leisure; mining and resource; public sector; real estate and construction; professional practices; not-for-profit; and medical. The firm’s web site is www.pkf.co.uk.
2. PKF (UK) LLP is a member of PKF International which is an association of legally independent firms with more than 14,650 people operating in 119 countries around the world.
3. PKF has been providing hotel consultancy services since the early 1970s and, in that time, has undertaken thousands of assignments throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa and further a field. Services include: market evaluation and financial feasibility studies; operational and profit improvement reviews; asset management; business valuations; international property services; corporate strategy and planning; litigation support. PKF’s web site features regular articles from the firm’s hotel consultancy services experts on industry topics – the address is www.pkf.co.uk/hotelcons.
4. PKF’s hotel trends surveys feature a broad range of hotels across the country although mainly in the 3 – 4 star categories and featuring rather more chain operated hotels than those operated independently. While there are a fair number of hotels in country and rural areas, there is a predominance of hotels in towns and cities. In London, supply featured is mainly in the 3 –5 star categories.

Final data for June 2008

• Definition of the key terms used in the surveys table are given below
• Room occupancy: the ratio of total occupied rooms to total available rooms
• Average achieved room rate (AARR): rooms revenue divided by the total number of guest rooms occupied during the year.
• Rooms yield: room occupancy multiplied by the average achieved room rate (also known as RevPar).

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