Regional Hotels Outperform In February As London Slows

Regional hotels bucked recent trends in February and outperformed their London peers for the first time since August 2009, according to preliminary hotel figures released today by PKF Hotel Consultancy Services.

Rooms yield in London grew by just 0.3% to £101.94 from £101.57 in February 2011. Room rate rose by 2.8% from £131.73 to £135.39, but most of this was offset by a 2.5% drop in occupancy from 77.1% to 75.3%.

In the regions, a 1.0% rise in occupancy from 63.7% to 64.4% was reinforced by a 0.7% increase in room rate from £59.91 to £60.33, resulting in rooms yield growth of 1.7% to £38.86, compared with £38.22 twelve months ago.

Robert Barnard, partner for Hotel Consultancy Services at PKF, commented:

“These are a respectable set of results given the general malaise throughout the UK economy.

“The performance of regional hotels, in particular, provides a welcome boost after an especially challenging winter season. Rooms yield growth of 1.7% at a time when the all-important corporate market remains sluggish should be viewed as an encouraging sign. It suggests to me that hoteliers have a good understanding of the trading environment and are getting their revenue management just about right.

“I’m not unduly concerned by the slowdown at London hotels, which has been largely driven by a fall in occupancy. Fundamentals in the capital remain sound and I expect a return to healthier growth as we head into what should be a very busy summer season.”

Preliminary data for February 2012

Final data for January 2012

Definition of the key terms used in the surveys:

1. Room occupancy: the ratio of total occupied rooms to total available rooms
2. Average achieved room rate (AARR): rooms revenue divided by the total number of guest rooms occupied during the year.
3. Rooms yield: room occupancy multiplied by the average achieved room rate (also known as RevPar).

PKF (UK) LLP is a leading firm of accountants and business advisers with more than 1,400 partners and staff operating in over 29 offices in the UK mainland firm, incorporating 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

PKF (UK) LLP is a member firm of the PKF International Limited (PKFI) network of legally independent member firms. The PKFI member firms have around 2,200 partners and more than 21,000 staff in around 125 countries.

PKF (UK) LLP 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

PKF (UK) LLP’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.