Hotels across the country had a sluggish start to the year, according to preliminary hotel figures for January released today by PKF Hotel Consultancy Services.
Rooms yield in London fell by 5.6% to £76.31, compared with £80.87 in January 2012, as a 5.8% decline in occupancy from 72.0% to 67.8% more than offset a 0.2% rise in room rate from £112.27 to £112.49.
In the regions, rooms yield declined by 0.1% to £29.96, compared with £29.99 a year ago. This was the result of as a 1.7% drop in occupancy from 57.1% to 56.2%, which just outweighed a 1.7% increase in room rate from £52.44 to £53.33.
Robert Barnard, partner for Hotel Consultancy Services at PKF, commented:
“This is not the start to the year that the hotel industry was hoping for. The poor weather that much of the country experienced in January appears to have hit occupancy, and there’s very little that operators can do in the circumstances.
“The timing of the New Year bank holiday didn’t help either, and effectively meant that the corporate market didn’t restart until the second week of January.
“January is traditionally a quiet month so these results are unlikely to be make or break for hoteliers. However, with the economy likely to remain fragile for the foreseeable future, the industry needs all the help it can get at the moment.”
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