London Top-end Hotels Show Most Robust Performance Post July Bombings | Deloitte reports

London’s top-end hotels (over £200 per night) out-performed all other priced segments of the London hotel market last month, with revenue per available room (RevPar) up by 6% in September compared with 2004 figures, according to the HotelBenchmark Survey by Deloitte.

Commenting on the Survey, Marvin Rust, Managing Partner of Hospitality at Deloitte, said: “September’s results show that the international traveller has not been deterred from visiting London by the events in July.”

“All sectors of the London hotel industry showed increases in room rates, with the exception of hotels in the £160-200 bracket, which showed negligible rate growth. However, this bracket saw higher occupancy growth than other segments of the market, suggesting that hoteliers are employing different strategies in response to the July bombings.”

“Airport hotels continue to show strong room rate growth, with Gatwick recording a £9 increase in room rates last month to £76, increasing RevPAR by 12%, compared to September 2004.”

“Domestic travel remains strong in the regions outside London with 4% RevPAR growth in September. There is, as yet, no discernable shift in occupancy levels in the regions resulting from the drop in UK consumer confidence that has affected the retail sector,” adds Rust.

The HotelBenchmark™ Survey contains the largest independent source of hotel performance data outside of North America and tracks the performance of over 6,500 hotels and 1.2 million rooms every month. Monthly surveys are produced on the following areas:

• Four regional rate and occupancy surveys covering Asia-Pacific, Europe, Central & South America and the Middle East & Africa.
• Eleven country/sub region rate and occupancy surveys for Australia, Benelux, China, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Nordic Countries, Qatar, Southern Africa, Spain and UK.
• Two city rate and occupancy surveys for London and Paris.
• Monthly profitability surveys on Germany and London.
• On an annual basis we produce profitability surveys tracking performance across all regions of the world.
• Daily HotelBenchmark™ tracks rate and occupancy everyday for a number markets across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. Coverage is building rapidly since launch in early 2005.

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