Budget hotels: what crisis?

Business in UK budget hotels has improved since 11 September, according to Richard Edwards, operations director for Premier Lodge.

Speaking at the Hotel Report Special Crisis Seminar at the Victoria Park Plaza hotel in London, Edwards said the terrorist attacks had had "absolutely no impact whatsoever" on the budget market.

"In fact there's some argument to say that it's got slightly better," he said.

The domestic nature of business hotels meant they were not reliant on US guests, Edwards said, adding that while North Atlantic flights were down by 31%, passenger numbers at airports that handle the internal flights of budget airlines such as Easyjet were up.

This would lead to more budget hotel customers, Edwards believed.

Home-grown crises such as foot-and-mouth, train crashes and floods affected his market more, Edwards said, but even then problems travelling around the country often made people stay overnight in a hotel rather than tackle a difficult journey home.

"Whatever life throws at us, we're in a pretty robust state," he said.