Regional hotels outperform London venues for fifth consecutive month

By Peter Ruddick

23-Apr-2013 - Last updated on 24-Apr-2013 at 13:02 GMT

Related tags: Hotel

Looking beyond the capital: A new set of figures has suggested regional hotels outperformed their London counterparts for a fifth successive month

Hotels in the regions enjoyed a 6.8 per cent rise in revenue per available room (RevPAR) last month driven by a rise in room rates, beating the performance of London venues for the fifth month in a row.

According to new data released by business advisory and accountancy firm BDO, which merged with PKF in March, there was a 4.5 per cent year-on-year drop in room rates in London last month.

Occupancy also improved in hotels outside London although those inside the capital also reported a small growth in occupancy - it was not enough, however, to improve RevPAR which fell in London and rose elsewhere.

Robert Barnard, partner at BDO LLP, said the figures were more of a positive news story for the provinces rather than a negative one for the capital's hoteliers. "This is the fifth consecutive month in which regional hotels have outperformed their London counterparts, which is the opposite of what we have seen for much of the past few years.

"The recent performance of regional operators is all the more impressive when you consider that these hotels tend to rely on the corporate meeting, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) market, which remains in the doldrums at the moment. The lack of any significant new developments is helping regional operators to keep downward pricing pressure at bay, with beneficial consequences on the sector’s top line."