De Vere hit by conference slump

The De Vere hotel group is suffering the consequences of fewer conference bookings, it said in a trading statement last week.

As much as 30% of the group's turnover comes from conference business but, in the past four months to 29 January, total turnover edged up by just 6.8% and demand for its midweek conference business has weakened since the New Year.

"People just don't want to make a decision or commit at the moment," said chief executive Paul Dermody. "We're still getting bookings, but it's the very large conferences that are holding back."

Like-for-like sales at the De Vere-branded hotels increased by 0.3% in the first four months of the financial year, with revenue per available room (revpar) also up by 0.3%. Average room rate increased by 2.5%, while occupancy fell by 1.5 percentage points.

At the group's Village hotels, like-for-like sales rose by 6.2%, compared with the same period in 2002. Room rate increased by 2.3% and occupancy was up by 0.8 percentage points, leading to a revpar increase of 3.3%.

Four new Village hotels are in the pipeline. Work has started on one at Maidstone in Kent and is due to be completed in early 2004. Three sites are awaiting planning permission, one of them in Bournemouth in Dorset, and the other two in Birmingham.