UK Hotel Managers Confident Despite Public Sector Cutbacks

Looking ahead, 33% of general managers who participated in the HotStats Hotel Confidence Monitor consider the most significant threat to hotel trading to be a double dip recession. In contrast, 26% of respondents believe that public sector cutbacks will be the single most important factor.

Regarding the potential impact of government cutbacks, 44% of hoteliers questioned estimated that no more than 5% of their total revenue is generated by the public sector. Only 18% of respondents believe that more than 15% of their total revenue is at risk from expenditure cuts.

Despite potential threats to trading, UK hotel general managers continue to remain confident. Looking towards the next three months, 72% of respondents are either optimistic or very optimistic about their hotel’s trading performance.

Confidence continues to increase throughout 2010, with hoteliers more optimistic about the coming three months. According to the latest HotStats Hotel Confidence Monitor, 48% of respondents are more optimistic this quarter compared to last.

“There may well be a negative impact of public sector cutbacks on hotel industry demand but let’s not overstate this, clearly confidence levels and performance expectations remain decidedly positive.” said Mark Dickens, managing director, HotStats.

Occupancy expectations for Q3 are extremely positive with 74% of general managers expecting an increase. This proportion of respondents has increased by 24 percentage points from 50% in Q1 2010. The trend is unquestionably positive and is reflected in the latest July HotStats UK Chain Hotels Market Review.

The latest HotStats Hotel Confidence Monitor shows that 57% of respondents predict growth in average room rate during Q3, up 16 percentage points since Q1 2010. As a result room yield (RevPAR) expectations have risen dramatically, with 70% of respondents predicting growth during the current quarter compared to Q3 2009.

Regarding this quarter’s sales and marketing expenditure, approximately 88% of respondents intend to increase or maintain their Q3 budget in comparison to 2009. Of the general managers who completed the HotStats Hotel Confidence Monitor survey, 78% expect to maintain staffing levels during Q3 2010 as compared to the previous year.

As a result of the positive performance outlook, 86% of respondents are either expecting to maintain or increase their gross operating profit (IBFC) during the current quarter.

The HotStats Hotel Confidence Monitor was conducted by email, via an online survey, between 9August and 13August 2010. A total of 111 UK chain hotel general managers responded to the survey. No single geographical region or hotel brand was disproportionately represented. Please refer to the following pages for a full summary of the results and contact details.

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TRI Hospitality Consulting provides a wide range of services to clients in the hotel sector. It has offices in London, Dubai and Madrid.

For more information contact:

Jonathan Langston, managing director 020 7892 2201

jonathan.langston@trihc.com

David Bailey, deputy managing director 020 7892 2202

david.bailey@trihc.com

Charles Scudamore, director 0207 892 2211

charles.scudamore@trihc.com

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