Bass reports strong first quarter trading

Bass Hotels & Resorts had an "excellent" start to its current financial year, the group's chairman Sir Ian Prosser said today in a trading update.

Its Inter-Continental hotels saw revenue per available room (revpar) increase by 10.1% in Europe and 5.2% in North America between October and December.

Across the whole Inter-Continental chain, revpar grew by 9.7% during the period.

In North America, Holiday Inn's revpar was up by 4.4% and Crowne Plaza's by 3.2%. Revpar at Holiday Inn Express grew by 7.1%.

Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza also showed strong growth in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Revpar in this region was up by 6.2% for Holiday Inn and 2.8% for Crowne Plaza.

In its "core estate" of pubs and restaurants, Bass reported food sales up by 9.8% and drinks sales by 4.1%.

The pubs it bought from Allied Domecq in October were trading in line with targets and being integrated successfully into the group's existing pub business, Bass said.