Room rates down by 4.6% - PKF
The fall in demand at UK hotels continued in March, consultants PKF said.
Figures for the month, compared to the same period on 2008, showed a 4.6% drop in average room rates and an 8.6 drop in yield per available room.
In London, hotels suffered a 1.3% drop in occupancy compared with March 2008, a 1.7% drop in room rate room rate and rooms yield was down 3% from £92.54 last year to £89.80 in 2009.
In the first three months of 2009, rooms yield in London down 7.2% to £83.82.
In the UK regions, the year to date figure showed an 11.9% drop in rooms yield since January - a combination of a 6.6% drop to 61.6% in occupancy and a 6.0% drop in room rate from £77.14 to £72.75.
Robert Barnard, partner for Hotel Consultancy Services at PKF, said: "A true picture of how hoteliers fared in March is difficult to glean due to the fact that Easter fell in a different months between 2008 and 2009.
"The Easter break affects city hotels because there is always less business travel over the holiday period and as a result, many business conferences are deliberately postponed and this affects occupancy numbers.
"With the Easter break falling in March last year, the figures for the same month this year will inevitably be stronger.
"Most hoteliers did experience falls however and these could have been worse if it were not for the change in the Easter dates, therefore the global economic crisis has clearly taken hold of the hospitality sector."
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