UK Chain Hotels Market Review - December 2011

A difficult end to the year has not stopped hoteliers in London recording a second consecutive year of profitability growth, according to the latest HotStats survey of approximately 550 full-service hotels across the UK by TRI Hospitality Consulting.

The 4.7% increase in profit per room in the capital in 2011 was primarily due to a 6.1% increase in Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR), which was led by a 7.0% increase in the achieved average room rate for London hotels to £131.03 from £122.45 during the same period in 2010.

“Despite a challenging economic backdrop, London hotels have again outperformed expectations by showing profit growth in 2011. While the profit growth was more moderate than in 2010, it shows that hotels can buck the economic trends,” said Jonathan Langston, managing director of TRI Hospitality Consulting.

The 13.9% increase in profitability levels achieved in 2010 was always going to be a hard act to follow, but London hoteliers have managed to exceed expectations, primarily due to a strong period of operation during the second quarter of the year.

However, the annual increase for hotels in the capital was tainted by the 9.2% decline in profit per room in the city in December, which represented the third consecutive month of year-on-year profit decline for London hoteliers in 2011 and was the greatest monthly year-on-year drop in this measure for hotels in the capital since August 2009.

Furthermore, hotels in the capital have struggled to increase ancillary spends during 2011 with declines suffered in food and beverage (-5.5%) and meeting room hire revenue (-4.2%) per available room. As a result, Total Revenue per Available Room (TrevPAR) in the city increased by just 3.8% to £145.58 from £140.25 in 2010.

“Following a strong start to the year, London hotels limped to the finish line with a 4.6% decline in profitability recorded in the fourth quarter of 2011. And whilst industry commentators will continue to speculate about the forecasted performance for London hotels during 2012, it is increasingly evident that the loss of demand due to postponed and cancelled business and regular visitors to the city choosing an alternative destination, will be offset by the considerable demand created by major events in the capital throughout the year, including the Queen’s Jubilee, the Farnborough Air Show, and of course the Olympics,” said Langston.

Click here ( Adobe Acrobat PDF file) to download the complete article including graphs.

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

Reader Comments:

Be the first to leave a comment for this article