April Thrill For UK Hotels Bodes Well For Summer | PKF Reports

April showered good news on the UK hotel industry with double digit increases in rooms yield across the board, according to the latest figures from PKF hotel consultancy services.

PKF’s report, published today, shows London hotel occupancy up 3.7% to 75.8% in April, compared to the same period last year. Average room rate was up 8.3% to £104.78, pushing rooms yield up 12.3% £79.40.

Hoteliers outside London also had reason to celebrate with occupancy in April this year up 4.0% to 71.9% compared to April 2004. Average room rate was up 6.2% to £65.20 and rooms yield increased by 10.4% to £46.89.

Robert Barnard, partner for hotel consultancy services at PKF, said: “These positive figures are extremely good news for the hotel industry, although Easter fell in April last year so the results are not strictly comparable. Occupancy is up more than 5% across the board, which has stimulated average rate growth, allowing for overall performance to improve. Double digit increases in rooms yield both in London and in the regions show a very promising foundation for the early summer season. We’ve been warned of a possible hot summer and these figures are certainly sizzling already!

Preliminary data for April 2005

• PKF is one of the UK's leading firm's of accountants and business advisors and specialises in advising the management of developing private and public businesses. The firm has more than 1,500 partners and staff operating in over 25 offices around the country. Principal services include assurance and advisory; consultancy; corporate finance; corporate recovery and insolvency; forensic; and taxation. The firm has particular expertise in advising sectors such as small and medium sized companies; charities; hotels and leisure; medical; professional partnerships; public sector; and technology. The firm’s web site is www.pkf.co.uk.
• PKF is a member of PKF International, which has more 12,800 people operating in over 100 countries around the world.
• 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 afield. 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’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 is 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 March 2005 | See below
• A PKF Hotline provides free advice to anyone facing financial difficulties. The hotline – 0845 1 22 00 44 – is manned Monday to Friday during office hours. Callers will be automatically directed to a local expert. All calls are charged at local rates.
• 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).

Final data for March 2005