Yorkshire hotels outperform regional rivals

YORKSHIRE hotels have seen solid growth and those in Leeds, York and Sheffield are outperforming their counterparts in many other cities across the UK, but Airbnb and its peer-to-peer rivals could affect the sector further in future.

Occupancy rates have slowed across the board, but in the three Yorkshire cities have seen the largest increases in average daily room rates.

York hotels saw an increase of 6.4% in the first six months of the year, to £81.93 – well above the UK average of 3.3%.

Leeds saw a rise in room rates of 5.8% and Sheffield saw a rise of 4.9%, taking rates to almost £10 higher than the average for the UK regions as a whole, £67.

London however faced occupancy decline this year, and average rooms rates decline 1.1%. Aberdeen and Newcastle also fared poorly, with occupancy and room rates down.

In terms of the UK regions as whole, PwC’s forecast for 77% occupancy rates this year and in 2017 would be the highest on record.

Liz Hall, head of hospitality & leisure research at PwC, said that “uncertainty is dangerous” following the loss of confidence around the Brexit decision this year.

She said: “Hoteliers will need to make up for this by attracting more leisure travellers. But, a slow absorption of new rooms in London and some regional cities may put pressure on trading. Add to this mix brisk growth in serviced apartments and Airbnb listings and it’s a case of weaker demand chasing more rooms.

“However, falling Sterling may bring some short term benefits to leisure tourism to London and international destinations such as Edinburgh. It may also result in more staycations across the United Kingdom.”

According to forecast data from AM:PM, there will be around 625,000 rooms open across the UK by the end of 2016 with a further 18,000 rooms forecast to be added in 2017, but the impact of P2P accommodation platforms like Airbnb could put serious pressure on their bottom line.

Ms Hall said: “Peer-to-peer accommodation is now one of the most established sharing economy sectors – we estimate that nearly £3bn of commerce was generated across these platforms in the UK alone in 2015 and this could rise to nearly £30bn by 2025.
“More disruption is expected and in London, key P2P name, Airbnb, recorded a 54% growth this year.”