Energy and labour costs put pressure on hotels

Rising energy prices and labour costs continue to pose the major headaches for hotel operators, according to experts at the International Hotel Investment Forum in Berlin this week.

Speaking at the conference's opening session on Tuesday (7 March), Robert Barnard, partner at consultants PKF, said that oil price rises would affect profitability.

"A lot of costs are going up and oil prices are a key factor," he said.

Barnard also stressed that labour shortages continued to upset staffing costs.

On a more positive note, Joni Smith, associate director at consultants CBRE, said hotel values should continue to rise.

See next week's Caterer for a full report on IHIF.