UK hotel performance on an upward path

UK hotel operators have reason to be optimistic with a "clear trend" in improved hotel performance emerging, according to new analysis of figures from STR Global by Deloitte.

The consultancy said that whilst revenue per available room (revpar) remained negative in the first five months of 2009, the rate of decline appears to be slowing.

In some parts of the hotel sector, especially leisure - where strong weekend demand has driven up occupancy and revenue - performance is ahead of last year's.

There is also a trend of improving performance in the weekday corporate business market in London, the report revealed.

Marvin Rust, hospitality managing partner at Deloitte, said: "The UK tourism industry continues to be challenged by the recession, with some companies announcing record losses and year-to-April revpar down 11.1%.

"However, our analysis shows that both weekend leisure demand in London and the regions and corporate weekday demand in London over the past five months has shown an upward trend, signalling that the worst may be over for hoteliers."

Deloitte said weekend leisure demand was driving the recovery with much stronger demand than the corporate weekday market.

Although weekend leisure demand fell overall in the first five months of the year in the UK by 3.8% to £54, some cities actually saw increases in weekend leisure demand. Revpar was up in Glasgow (4.3% to £46), Edinburgh (3.4% to £64) and London (0.3% to £86).

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By Chris Druce

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