Room rates may have risen heavily again in London last year but meetings rates in the capital were a different story, according to the hotel and meetings booking agency BSI. Its Corporate Benchmark Report, covering the first six months of 2011 and shared exclusively with Buying Business Travel, shows 24-hour delegate rates increased only 2.6 per cent, while day rates actually fell 4.1 per cent.
The weak performance did not prevent London from being the most expensive city in the UK for meetings, with an average 24-hour rate of £194 and day rate of £55. Next most expensive of the 24 destinations covered in the report was Reading, at £177 and £47 respectively. The city with the cheapest 24-hour rates was Portsmouth (£110), while Sheffield was the lowest for day rates (£29). Across the UK, the average 24-hour rate fell from £161 to £156, while the day rate stayed unchanged at £41.
BSI expects demand for meetings at external venues to fall in 2012, owing to a combination of economic cautiousness and a shift towards virtual meetings and internal meeting space.
The company urges meetings buyers to manage external and internal meeting space in a more integrated fashion. The report also reveals how much different industry sectors spend on meetings. Professional and legal services businesses are the most lavish, with an average 24-hour rate of £183 and daily rate of £62. The tightest spenders for 24-hour rates are utilities companies (£117), while for day rates the retail sector is the most frugal (£33).