London hotels and conference venues are enjoying a Brexit boom as a lower pound attracts more events and meetings business.
The majority (52 per cent) of hotels, conference venues and booking agencies said that Brexit was having “a noticeable impact” on their business with 7 per cent saying it had been having a “major effect”, according to a survey by the HBAA (Hotel Booking Agents Association).
While there were mixed results across the UK as a whole, venues in London said they were enjoying an increase in enquiries during the last few months.
Diane Waldron, director of sales and marketing for, the QEII Centre in London, said: “We have seen an increase in enquiries from international clients as London has become a more affordable destination for their events.”
Other venues have also reported more bookings from Europe and the US due to the lower value of the pound.
This surge in interest in the UK capital has also been reflected in new figures from hotel data firm STR, which showed that average daily rates (ADRs) in London hit a new record for the first quarter of the year at £133.38 – up by 6.2 per cent on the same period in 2016.
London hotels also enjoyed an 11.3 per cent rise in revpar to £101.50 during the first three months of the year. Occupancy also improved markedly – rising by 4.8 percentage points year-on-year to 76.1 per cent.
James Parsons, head of business development for STR, said: “After the struggles of early 2016, we’ve seen consistent performance growth in London.
“What remains to be seen is how the market will react to an influx of new supply set to come online in the near future. London is clearly the development hotspot of Europe, with more than 13,000 rooms in the pipeline.”
Outside London, average hotel revpar in the rest of the UK also increased by 3.8 per cent to £44.70 during the first quarter of 2017.