UK capital tops European figures
London's chain hotels were the only ones in Europe to see growth in occupancy over April, according to the latest HotStats survey by TRI Hospitality Consulting.
TRI's survey of ten European cities found that occupancy in the UK capital had risen 1.6% in April year-on-year.
"London's branded four and five star hotels were the clear front runners with an occupancy of 85.2%," TRI said.
London also came high up on the list for overall occupancy for the first four months of 2009 with 78.3%. Paris came in second with 70.6% followed by Hamburg with 66.3%.
Hamburg was the only city to see growth in occupancy over the four months of 2009 to April, up 1.1% year-on-year.
Room sales in Amsterdam were boosted in April with revenue per available room (revPAR) up 27.3% to €121.87. The Dutch capital came top of the list ahead of London with €120.31 and Paris with €118.14.
TRI's managing director Jonathan Langston said: "There are tentative signs that volume is returning to Amsterdam hotels and the imminent scrapping of the Dutch airport tax will be further welcome news for local tourism businesses."
The Dutch airport tax is to be scrapped in July, a year after it was first introduced. Airlines using Amsterdam Schiphol, the Netherland's main airport, blamed the tax for falling passenger volumes.
TRI said widespread declines in corporate demand for rooms had "exacerbated" falls in average room rates in Europe.
Figures from PKF Hotel Consultancy Services out today (May 28) revealed that occupancy in London exceeded that of the UK's other major cities.
Birmingham and Leeds, the UK's second and third largest cities, suffered 20% and 24% drops in occupancy in April year-on-year, respectively.
Occupancy in London was up 0.9% to 82.5% in April year-on-year, but room rate fell 10.6% to £123.85.
PKF partner Robert Barnard said hoteliers had made "extensive use of leisure discounting deals to attract visitors into the capital over Easter."
"While the buoyant occupancy figures for London are indicative of the capital's resilience to virtually every kind of economic, political, biological and climatic turbulence, hoteliers are clearly sacrificing margin in order to fill their beds," he added.
www.trihc.com www.pkf.co.uk