Average room rate climbs at London hotels
London hotels continued to perform strongly in October while properties in the other major regions also saw further growth, latest figures have revealed.
The average room rate in the capital rose to £125.79, 10.7% higher than last October's figure of £113.67, according to consultancy PKF.
Daily room occupancy was also up 7.6% on 2005 resulting in an overall increase in room yield of 19.1% to £104.51.
Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester were not far behind London, seeing an overall yield increase of 5.9% to £56.73. Both occupancy and average room rate were higher compared to the levels seen last October.
Liverpool had the highest growth in yield, up 7.7% against the same period last year, driven solely by higher average room rate as occupancy fell by 4.2%.
Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester also showed healthy growth rates in either room rate or occupancy driving rooms yield increases of 1.6%, 4.2% and 3.4%, respectively.
Robert Barnard, hotel consultancy services partner at PKF, said: "This month's figures are encouraging and we are confident that in 2006 the UK hotel market will see the best performance in a decade.
"Occupancy in London hotels has reached a level not seen since 1997 whilst average room rate is at record levels. Meanwhile we expect regional hotels to continue delivering steady growth rates."
By Daniel Thomas
Tri Hotstats monthly hotel figures
London hotels boost revpar by nearly 9%