Bass blames weaker UK market for hotel trade blip

BASS hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa did not do as well between July and September as they did in the first six months of this year.

In a trading statement covering the first 48 weeks of 1999, the hotel and brewing company said this was because of a weaker market in the UK.

The group reported that its Inter-Continental hotel group continued to perform well, with revenue per available room (revpar) growth of 4.6% across the chain.

In North America, this increased by 5%, and in Europe it was 6.7%.

In North America, Bass said its Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza hotels also continued to outperform the market by what it described as "a significant margin", with growth in revpar of 5.4% and 5.2% respectively.

For the Holiday Inn Express brand, this figure was 7.4%.

In Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where Bass has 454 hotels, revpar growth was lower at 1.4% for Holiday Inn and 4.3% for Crowne Plaza.

Chairman Ian Prosser commented: "I am pleased to report that we are continuing to see a good level of performance across all our businesses, with trading in line with expectations."

Bass has 2,109 mid-scale hotels in the Americas, with 301,475 bedrooms, compared with 2,032 hotels and 300,237 bedrooms a year ago.

In Bass pubs, total sales for the same 48-week period were up 5.4% on last year, with drink sales up 2.4% and food sales 9.6% ahead.