HotStats UK Chain Hotels Market Review – February 2014

With the UK hotel market posting a consecutive second month of strong growth, hoteliers in the East of the country experienced year-on-year increases across all key performance indicators and recorded the highest growth in gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR) of 48.3% in February, according to the latest data from HotStats.

A combined surge in occupancy of 5.7 percentage points and growth in average room rate (ARR) of 3.1% resulted in an increase in revenue per available room (RevPAR) of an impressive 12.7% to £43.42. With non-rooms revenues also jumping, total revenue per available room (TRevPAR) rose by 11.0% to £76.31, representing the fourth consecutive month of year-on-year growth for this metric.

This increase in revenue performance was further enhanced by effective payroll management and efficient operating cost control with departmental operating profit per available room (DOPPAR) climbing by 16.6% to £39.22. Although overheads per available room rose by 2.6%, profit conversion went up from 14.9% to 20.0% delivering this impressive GOPPAR growth.

Edinburgh hotel market continues to shine

In February, hoteliers in Edinburgh registered a 12^th consecutive month of year-on-year improvement in both TRevPAR and GOPPAR of 10.5% and 22.6% respectively, underlining the strength of this market, according to the latest data from HotStats.

RevPAR increased by 9.4% driven by a 4 percentage point increase in occupancy to 66.8% and an uplift in ARR of 2.8% to £80.99. With meeting room hire revenue per available room remaining flat, additional revenue per available room deriving from food (+15.5%) and beverage (+21.0%) helped to boost TRevPAR by 10.5% to £91.02.

Astute payroll and operating cost control combined with travel agent commission per room let decreasing by 2.4% to £6.62 resulted in DOPPAR increasing by 12.1% to £43.96. As a result, GOPPAR leapt up by 22.6% to £16.19.

Oxford hotels posted strong results

Hotels in Oxford achieved positive year-on-year changes in all key performance indicators in February with TRevPAR and GOPPAR increasing by 12.3% and 20.3% respectively, according to the latest data from HotStats.

Significant growth was recorded in both occupancy (+5.3 percentage points) and ARR (+4.6%) leading to a 12.4% jump in RevPAR, further supported by similar improvements in ancillary departments and most notably from food revenue per available room (+22.2%), TRevPAR grew by 12.3% to £106.38.

Despite increases in food cost of sales (+4.2 percentage points) and F&B payroll (+1.4 percentage points) reducing F&B profit conversion to 20.9% from 25.9%, an increase in rooms departmental profit conversion (+3.0 percentage points to 71.1%) helped drive a 12.4% DOPPAR increase to £58.98. With total payroll decreasing by 0.6 percentage points, GOPPAR rose by 20.3% to £33.08.