London hotels continue to enjoy profit growth
London hotels enjoyed a second month of profit growth this year during May, largely as a result of improved room revenue, according to the latest HotStats survey of 624 full-service hotels across the UK.
Profit and room revenues both increased by 2.6%, while total revenues per available room (trevpar) also rose 1.4%, thanks to an increase in revenue per available room (revpar) of £3.22 to £127.20. There were also year-on-year improvements for occupancy and average rooms rate, up by 1.2% and 1.1% respectively.
Revenue from beverage and leisure departments during May showed improvement, but meeting rooms recorded a year-on-year decrease.
Corporate business accounted for the largest share of revenue in May, as it has done for the past 12 months with a 27% segment share of revenue (28.2% across the year).
Outside of London, hotels recorded a 0.8% increase in gross operating profit per available room, with a 74.4% occupancy, an average room rate increase of 1% year-on- year and revpar up by 2.4%. Growth in food and leisure revenues of 1.3% and 4.8% respectively, added up to a rise in trevpar of 1.5%.
Business was particularly strong in Edinburgh, where hotels achieved 17% trevpar growth and a striking 40.4% surge in total gross operating profit. Meanwhile, trevpar in Glasgow decreased by 3.1%, driven by a fall both in average room rate and non-rooms revenues. Aberdeen saw an increase in revpar by 19.7%, thanks to significant increases in average room rate and 79.7% occupancy.
The 624 hotels surveyed each have an average of 177 bedrooms and operate primarily in the three and four-star sectors.
London hotels see the first month of profit increase for 2013 in April >>
