Best January For London Hotels Since The Millennium

January is traditionally one of the quieter months for the hotel industry but preliminary figures reveal that the room occupancy level rose 5.2% to 68.4% and London hotel guests had to pay an average of £100 for their room (up 4.5% on last year's rate of £95.71). These buoyant figures pushed average daily rooms yield up 9.9% from £62.26 in January 2005 to £68.40.

The nationality mix was very similar to 2005 with domestic visitors accounting for just over a third (34.6) of the total, Europeans for 22.8%, and visitors from the USA for 18.1%.

Regional hotels also enjoyed a positive start to the year with room rate up a modest 1.3% to £64.10, occupancy up 2.3% to 58.3%, and rooms yield up 3.6% to £37.36.

Robert Barnard, partner for hotel consultancy services at PKF, said: "It is very encouraging that, in contrast to other economic indicators such as woeful retail sales, falling consumer confidence and rising unemployment figures, the hotel sector has had a really solid start to 2006. January is usually a quiet month for the capital after the Christmas rush and the New Year sales but it would appear that the strength of business tourism that powered London's recovery in the autumn is continuing to sustain hotel performance. Hopefully, Visit London's upbeat forecast for growth in overseas visitor numbers during 2006 will be accurate and London hotels can look forward to a good year.

"Hotels outside London have also started the year with year-on-year growth in all three performance indicators which, barring a significant slowdown in the UK economy in 2006, should be sustained by local programmes of cultural, sporting and business events."

Preliminary data for January 2006

Rooms department	2006	2005	% change
UK Regional hotels (574)
Average daily room rate per occupied room	£64.10	£63.30	1.3
Average daily occupancy	58.3%	56.9%	2.3
Average daily rooms yield per available room	£37.36	£36.05	3.6
Approximate number of rooms per day	72,300	71,750
London hotels (176)
Average daily room rate per occupied room	£100.00	£95.71	4.5
Average daily room occupancy	68.4%	65.0%	5.2
Average daily rooms yield per available room	£68.40	£62.26	9.9
Approximate number of rooms per day	38,300	37,900