Nearly 40% of UK hoteliers are less optimistic than they were three months ago, according to a new poll.
Figures in TRI Hospitality’s Hotstats Hotel Confidence Monitor are the most pessimistic for two years.
Only just under a third of those quizzed said they were more optimistic than they were three months ago.
Just 9.3% said they were very optimistic for the future compared with 23.3% who said they were pessimistic.
But TRI’s July Hotstats UK Chain Hotels Market Review found that occupancy during the month in London was at a record high of 92.4%.
A good majority of London hotel managers (81.3%) said they were expecting an increase or at least no change on business levels in Q3 2011 compared with the same period last year.
In the UK regions, 51.8% of managers expected improved trading in the third quarter compared with last year.
Most London managers (68.8%) were also expecting an increase in gross operating profit for Q3. Only 35.7% managers in the region expected their gross profits to rise in the quarter while 35.2% thought they would fall.
Mark Dickens, Hotstats’ managing director, said: “In the wake of record room occupancy levels in London in July, the majority of hoteliers in the capital remain confident of an increase across all headline performance measures over the next three months.
“In contrast, despite an increase in RevPAR, IBFC growth in the Provinces has been a challenge since the beginning of the year and the outlook of the general managers surveyed will almost certainly have been conditioned by the continuing gloomy economic background and to a lesser extent by the widespread rioting in August.”