The London hotel industry saw a marked recovery during September, following a severe downturn in business in the aftermath of the July terrorist attacks, according to figures released by PKF hotel consultancy services.
PKF’s report for September shows that year on year occupancy in London was down a modest 3.7% to 79.6%, but average room rate was up 4.2% to £110.99, helping to keep rooms yield steady at £88.39, a 0.3% rise on the same month last year.

Outside London, occupancy was up 1.7% to 79.6% and average room rate rose 2% to £69.62. Rooms yield increased by 3.7% to £55.43, showing a healthy regional performance overall during September.

Robert Barnard, partner for hotel consultancy services at PKF, said: “The summer ended badly for London’s hoteliers with double digit drops in occupancy and rooms yield, but the autumn has kicked off with a much better story. London has once again proved its resilience and hotels in the capital have done the right thing by balancing room rates against occupancy to keep rooms yield steady. This provides a good base for moving forward profitably in the last months of the year.

“Regionally, the hotel market showed a healthy picture with positive, if modest, improvements in performance across the board. This bodes well for the run up to the Christmas period and proves that the problems that faced London were geographically contained.”
——-