Investments pay off for resurgent Thistle

Thistle Hotels increased like-for-like turnover by 8% in 2000 compared with 1999, bringing total income to £324.4m.

A strong second half to the year offset a poor beginning to 2000. Occupancy was up by nine percentage points to 75.8%, while average room rate increased by 4.7% to £70.52.

Revenue per available room increased by 6% to £53.45.

The figures, released in a full-year trading update, do not include profits, which will be announced when the audited full-year figures are made public in March.

Thistle finance director Stephen Young said: "We are pleased with the second half of the year. The results have been improving since the second quarter, which we put down to our investment programme beginning to bear fruit."

In London, like-for-like turnover increased by 9.6% to £211m and, in the second half, revpar was 10.5% up on 1999.

Outside London like-for-like turnover was up by 5.2% to £113.4m but revpar decreased by 0.5% to £36.56.