London remains destination of choice despite the downturn :: 22/10/2009 :: Airport Parking News
London hotels post better average room occupancy than overall UK counts
← Previous Article | ↑ Articles This Month ↑ | Next Article →
London remains destination of choice despite the downturn
Thursday, 22nd October 2009
Over the last year millions of people around the world have been forced to tighten their budgets and cut back on little luxuries. One of the groups hit the hardest by this has been the hotel industry as people opt to take their holidays close to home or forfeit breaks altogether in order to save money.
However, while hotels in cities all over England have been battling to stay in the black, it seems that London is still receiving more than its share of visitors. In fact, hotel occupancy in London is far higher than anywhere else in the UK.
Hotels all over the UK and the rest of Europe have been forced to dramatically reduce their room rates in order to temp customers. According to recent figures UK hotels faced a drop in saw revenue per available room of 10.9% this year, while occupancy plummeted by 4% to 70.5%.
However, the situation is much better in London as revenue per available room dropped by just 7.4%, while occupancy was down by a miniscule 0.2% to 80.4%.
In a recent interview Marvin Rust, hospitality managing partner at Deloitte, announced that: "To achieve over 80% occupancy during one of the most severe economic downturns in history is very impressive, and the capital is proving to be one of the most resilient cities across the globe. Leisure demand on the weekends has been particularly strong."
One of the reasons for this is that a large number of London hotels have been working hard to promote themselves, establishing partnerships with other companies and offer tempting deals to customers.
← Manchester Airport discontinues X-ray scans on minors
→ New Gatwick airport owners promise improvements
↑ October 2009 news index
