Profits momentum for UK Provinces and North West, but London declined again;

Although London profitability dropped for a third consecutive month in July, the UK Provinces continued to gain momentum with gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR) surging and North West hoteliers experienced a 22.2% growth in this metric, according to the latest HotStats.

North West hotels managed to increase average room rate (ARR) by 11.5% as well as occupancy (+3.1 percentage points to 80.8%) in July resulting in rooms' revenue per available room (RevPAR) climbing by 15.9%. With revenue per available room derived from food (+5.1%), beverage (+4.8%) and meeting room hire (+11.2) also climbing, total revenue per available room (TRevPAR) grew by 10.4%.

Despite overheads per available room going up by 6.2%, astute operating cost control coupled with payroll declining (-1.6 percentage points) led to the GOPPAR growth of 22.2% representing a gross profit conversion of 32.2%.

Tour de profit for York

The city which hosted in July the departure of the second Tour de France stage registered increases in TRevPAR and GOPPAR by 9.5% and 8.4% respectively, according to the latest HotStats.

Despite a 0.3 percentage point drop in occupancy, hoteliers in York experienced a double digit increase in RevPAR thanks to a 12.7% surge in ARR. Positive performances were recorded in non-rooms departments, in particular with meeting room hire per available room (+41.4%) leading to a TRevPAR surge of 9.5%.

Departmental operating profit per available room (DOPPAR) also rose by 8.2% thanks to efficient operating cost control and payroll going down by -0.3 percentage points. Despite overheads per available room increasing by 8.0%, GOPPAR hiked by 8.4% for the 10th consecutive month.

Swindon on the up-and-up
 
Hoteliers in Swindon experienced year-on-year growth across all key performance indicators with TRevPAR and GOPPAR increasing by 14.7% and 38.9% respectively, according to the latest HotStats.

A combined surge in occupancy (+5.2 percentage points) and in ARR (+12.0%) contributed to a RevPAR growth of 19.0%. With 44.9% of the demand in July derived from the corporate sector, this segment rate surged by 9.1%. However the highest rate increase (+16.4%) was generated by from the residential conference segment which accounted for 8.8% of the total demand.  Positive results were also registered in ancillary departments and TRevPAR rose by 14.7%.

With DOPPAR rising by 18.2%, hoteliers also managed to reduce payroll and overheads per available room by 4.4 percentage points and by 3.6% respectively.  As a result GOPPAR increased by a stunning 38.9%, further fuelling calendar year to date and the rolling 12 months to July performances.