Scottish hotels report highest occupancy and revenue despite drop in numbers
9 Nov 09
Scotland’s hotels had the highest occupancy and rooms yield (the industry measure of revenue) in the UK outside London during September despite pressure on rooms yield, according to the latest survey by accountants and business advisers PKF.
During September, Scottish hotels recorded a 79.8 per cent occupancy rate (down 0.6 per cent from 80.3 per cent in 2008) whilst rooms yield fell 5.3 per cent to £63.21 from £66.78. In Wales occupancy was static at 78.1 per cent; in England it was down 3.5 per cent and in the regions as a whole, it was down 3.1 per cent. Rooms yield in Wales fell by 5.3 per cent; was down 11.6 per cent in England and dropped 10.8 per cent for regional UK.
Edinburgh’s hotels recorded 87.6 per cent occupancy (down 0.7 per cent from 88.3 per cent last September) and overall, rooms yield was down 7.6 per cent to £79.76. This compares with a fall of 3.3 per cent in occupancy in Aberdeen, but an increase of 9.6 per cent in rooms yield. Glasgow occupancy fell 3.1 per cent and rooms yield was down 7.8 per cent.
Alastair Rae, a partner in the Real Estate and Hospitality sector at PKF, said: “Scotland’s hotel sector appears to be holding up well despite continuing falls in both occupancy and rooms yield. The rest of the UK is experiencing lower occupancy numbers and considerably lower rooms yield, with the Scottish rate more than £10 per room higher than the regional UK average and almost £17 higher than the rate in Wales.”
“The fall in rooms yield is indicative of a need to maintain occupancy at the expense of room rate in order to maximise revenue raising opportunities. With just a fall of 0.6 per cent in occupancy it would appear that Scotland’s hoteliers are doing well to maintain a reasonable flow of customers through their doors.”
Rae added: “In Edinburgh despite the drop in occupancy and rooms yield, the city still has the highest figures for both outside London. The sector in the capital is doing well to still have almost 90 per cent occupancy in September and a rooms yield of nearly £80, when other British tourist destinations such as York are down to as low as £55.”
“The jump in rooms yield in Aberdeen is welcome and perhaps indicates that the steady rise in oil prices over the year is bringing back some of the corporate business which has been lacking in the city over the last 12 months or so. Certainly the annual Offshore Europe conference in early September will have helped, but it is unlikely to have been the sole reason that rooms yield rose during the month.”
Rae said: “Unfortunately, whilst Glasgow still has reasonably high occupancy at 80.7 per cent, rooms yield fell by 7.8 per cent. For the year to date, Glasgow’s rooms yield has fallen further than the Scottish average fall of 5.9 per cent and is more than both Aberdeen and Edinburgh (down 5.5 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively for the year to date). This is likely to be caused by falling corporate and conference custom due to a cutback in business expenditure which will take some time to recover.”
PKF’s hotel trends surveys have been published since the early 1970s and feature a broad range of hotels in the 3-4 star categories.