UK Hoteliers Take Advantage of Wimbledon Demand, Raise Rates

The long-awaited and delayed UEFA European Football Championship has stolen most of Europe’s attention over the past several weeks, but it’s not the only major sporting event staging a comeback.

While 2020 marked Wimbledon’s first cancellation since World War II — and its only peacetime cancellation since it first began in 1877 — England's premiere tennis tournament returned this year and allowed fans to attend. Despite the U.K.’s limited lockdown status, the tournament has served up strong performance for local hotels.

The London Surrounding South submarket is advantageously located only a short train ride from London proper, and offers city dwellers a taste of the countryside conveniently close to home. As such, submarket occupancy rose swiftly following the U.K.’s hotel industry reopening on May 17.

Occupancy has not significantly changed over the course of Wimbledon, due to capacity restrictions for the first two weeks of the tournament and the U.K.’s strict border-entry requirements, which require a 10-day quarantine for most international arrivals.

As a result, occupancy has remained around 60% on a total-room-inventory basis for the first few weeks of the tournament. Although with capacity limits lifted for the last week of the tournament, match days from the quarterfinal stage through the finals may see a boost in demand.

While Wimbledon may not have significantly impacted hotel occupancy, average daily rates soared over the first two weeks of play.

Wimbledon started on June 21. ADR increased by 13 pounds sterling ($18.05) between the week ending June 20 and the week ending July 4. The 69.69 pounds sterling rate represented the highest weekly ADR for the London Surrounding South submarket since November 2019, adding an optimistic twist to the submarket’s flat occupancy figures.

Although Wimbledon may be primarily limited to domestic spectators, the tournament’s popularity, alongside the area’s countryside charm, allowed submarket hoteliers to push rate to heights not seen since 2019 without sacrificing ADR, which is a good sign for the beleaguered U.K. hotel industry.

Interested in more? STR’s Hotel Data Conference is back, live and live-streamed this August, with an agenda of more than 50 data presentations and panels to explore hotel performance in a post-COVID-19 world.

Kelsey Fenerty is a research analyst at STR.

This article represents an interpretation of data collected by STR, CoStar's hospitality analytics firm. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.