UK Sees Big Hotel Price Drops
Helen YoungNew reports are now showing just how fierce the battle for hotel customers is getting in the UK. These reports go on to show that UK hotels are seeing average room rates fall back down to 2005 levels as hotels try their best to get more customers to choose them over the competition. Although low budget hotels were winning the battle, higher end hotels are now dropping down to meet the prices needed to win over consumers as well.
The report, which was released by PricewaterhouseCoopers, went on to forecast that the average room rate, also known as ARP, will fall by 8.1 percent to just £77.69 a night for 2009. This is down from £84.53, which was seen last year. This is actually the biggest drop since 2002 when hotels saw a decrease of almost 6 percent.
PricewaterhouseCoopers UK hospitality and leisure leader Robert Miburn said that domestic and overseas leisure tourism has been a big help to UK hotels. It’s not enough, however, to fill the absence of corporate travel. He went onto show that overseas visits were down by 9 percent. The average room rate fell by 8.1 percent, which is a big drop for the hotel industry.
The report did show that some websites and booking companies have reported an increase in sales and bookings. This is the first increase in bookings in a long time for many of these companies. Although recovery is still a long ways off for the companies, these stats could show that the big decline in consumer numbers has finally came to a halt.
/images/rssicon.jpg "Subscribe to RSS feed")
Subscribe for free and recieve the latest Self-Catering-Breaks news and stories
Filed under Business & Finance, Hotel Chains, UK News