Staycations boost region’s hotels

THE region’s hotel sector appears to have benefited from ‘staycations’ as July proved to be an excellent month for Blackpool in particular.

Despite the bad weather, research from PKF Hotel Consultancy Services, shows the seaside town was the biggest winner in the region during the month.

Blackpool’s hotels enjoyed a remarkable 35.1% increase on room rates compared to July 2011. Despite a marginal dip in occupancy of 1.2%, hotels there reported an overall 33.5% increase in rooms yield to £57.58. PKF said the main reason for the surge in rates was the Open Golf Championships held in nearby Lytham in mid July.

There was year-on-year growth in Chester, which also performed very strongly. Room occupancy rose 3.5% to 76.3, room rates surged 9.3% leading to a 13.2% increase in yields to £48.20.

The region’s big cities did not fare so well, with both Manchester and Liverpool seeing occupancy fall compared to 2011, with decreases of 1.4% and 11.1% respectively.

However a 7.3% increase in room rates enabled Manchester’s hotels to report a 5.8% improvement in room yield to £57.25. Liverpool’s smaller improvement in room rates of 2.9% unfortunately meant they were the only city to record an overall decrease in rooms yield, down 8.5% to £42.46.

PKF partner Mark Sykes said: “It is great to see such positive results across the whole of the region, despite the awful weather we’ve had.  Blackpool, in particular, has reported an impressive set of figures at a time when many would expect seaside towns to struggle.

“The results suggest that the popularity of ‘staycations’ shows little sign of waning as household budgets remain squeezed for yet another summer.

“It is a shame to see the fall in the Liverpool statistics, but hopefully this will prove to be a one off and this will see improvement in the months ahead. The region’s cities have performed strongly on the whole, showing they are continuing to hold their own during the economic turbulence.”