London hotels do better than the rest of the UK

According to figures released this week by business advisory firm, Deloitte, London hotel occupancy is doing better than hotels in the rest of the country. The amount of revenue that was gained per room available fell by almost 11 per cent for 2009 until the end of September. The occupancy rate also fell by four per cent to a low of 70.5 per cent. This is all despite the fact that room rates dropped an average of 7.2 per cent to £85 per night. London came out on top again though with just a small decline of 0.2 per cent to stay above 80 per cent for room occupancy.

The hospitality managing partner, Marvin Rust, at Deloitte said that they find it impressive that hotel occupancy in these hard financial times can still reach more than 80 per cent. Glasgow also fares well with hotels there only managing a drop of 1.4 per cent on the revenue versus room availability. Gatwick and Heathrow airports have been some of the hardest hit when it has come to hotel stays. Figures show a 22 per cent drop in revenue against room availability means that travellers at the airport are either foregoing that night in a hotel or looking elsewhere for cheaper options away from the airport.

Passenger traffic at Heathrow and Gatwick has been in steady decline since the start of the year, which has had a knock-on affect at the hotel surrounding the airports. As well as this tourism to the UK has dropped off but Mr Rust believes that domestic tourism is helping to cut the decline in hotel occupancy.