Hotel rooms in London with average room rates over £160 are showing double-digit growth in revenue per available room (revPAR) for year-to-April 2006 according to the HotelBenchmark™ Survey by Deloitte.  This top end segment of the market recorded 7% growth in average room rate and a 12% increase in occupancy, leading to a whopping 20% growth in revPAR compared to the same period in 2005.

In contrast, hotels in London with average room rates under £80 are struggling to see any growth, recording just under 1% increase in revPAR for year-to-April 2006. Rate dropped by 2% and occupancy grew by 1% to 77% compared to the same period in 2005.

Marvin Rust, Hospitality Managing Partner at Deloitte says: “This polarisation in the London market is consistent with what is happening in the UK regions, but on a much more dramatic scale. Top end hotels are more vulnerable to greater fluctuation in both occupancy and room rates, however, the more modestly priced hotels are struggling to lift room rates in a market where price is arguably the predominant factor for customers.”

London recorded 8% revPAR growth on average across all segments, owing to a 5% increase in occupancy levels to 77% and a 3% increase in room rates to £107.

Airport hotels, which in 2005 were one of the strongest segments of the hotel market for revenue growth, have now levelled out, with Gatwick recording just a 2% increase in revPAR year-to-April 2006 and Heathrow performing only slightly better with 3% growth in revPAR.

“Business travel remained strong, reflected in the performance at the top end of the hotel market. Airport hotels’ slowed growth is consistent with UKinbound’s assessment that it was a relatively flat first quarter for in bound traffic figures and BAA also reporting weaker demand for domestic travel over the same period,” adds Rust.

Aberdeen continues to be the top performer in the regions over the period of year-to-April 2006, with 18.5% growth in revenue per available room – sustaining their high rate of 17.5% growth over the course of 2005. This is supported by business demand in the oil industry and the related growth of passenger numbers up 15.9% on 2005.

Ends

Notes to editor
The HotelBenchmark™  Survey classifies budget hotels as hotels with an average room rate under £80.

The HotelBenchmark Survey contains the largest independent source of hotel performance data outside of North America and tracks the performance of over 6,500 hotels and 1.2 million rooms every month. Monthly surveys are produced on the following areas:

• Four regional rate and occupancy surveys covering Asia-Pacific, Europe, Central & South America and the Middle East & Africa.
• 12 country/sub region rate and occupancy surveys for Australia, Benelux, China, Germany, Italy, India, New Zealand, Nordic Countries, Qatar, Southern Africa, Spain and UK.
• Two city rate and occupancy surveys for London and Paris.
• Monthly profitability surveys on Germany and London.
• On an annual basis we produce profitability surveys tracking performance across all regions of the world.
• Daily HotelBenchmark tracks rate and occupancy everyday for a number markets across the UK, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Coverage is building rapidly since launch in early 2005.

For further information or details on how to join the survey please call us on +44 (0) 20 7007 3974 or visit us at www.HotelBenchmark.com

About Deloitte
In this press release references to Deloitte are references to Deloitte & Touche LLP which is among the country’s leading professional services firms, providing audit, tax, consulting and corporate finance services. Known as an employer of choice for innovative human resources programmes, it is dedicated to helping its clients and people excel. Deloitte & Touche LLP is the United Kingdom member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (‘DTT’), a Swiss Verein whose member firms are separate and independent legal entities.  Neither DTT nor any of its member firms has any liability for each other’s omissions.  Services are provided by member firms or their subsidiaries and not by DTT. 

Deloitte & Touche LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. 

The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press.