Hotel lettings slump after attacks

THE SCALE of the crisis facing hoteliers was revealed by figures showing that occupancy rates fell by more than 17% in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks on the US.

London hotel lettings had been falling since the start of the year due to the US downturn and foot-and-mouth disease, according to a survey from business adviser Pannell Kerr Forster (PKF).

After 11 September they went into freefall as the number of rooms occupied by Americans nearly halved. Those taken by Japanese visitors fell by two-fifths.

The drop in demand had a devastating effect on yield, which fell by 22.7%. This month's losses are likely to be even worse, according to PKF's head of hotel consultancy services, Melvin Gold, because they reflect a full month's trading and because of heavy discounting. September and October are traditionally the strongest months of the year for London hotels.

By contrast, regional hotel performance, less sensitive to US tourism, was 'relatively encouraging' with a 1.7% drop in occupancy and a 1.5% increase in room rate.

There are an estimated 100,000 hotel rooms in London and between 1995 and the end of last year more than 12,000 new or reopened rooms came on to the market.