Occupancy did not see an increase across the UK for the first time in six weeks, for the week ending 16 August, according to STR.
Regional areas continued to show higher performance levels across the country, leading to comments that London hotels had “a long road to recovery in front of them”.
Thomas Emanuel, director, STR, said: “The heatwave certainly feels like a long time ago as the rain lashes down, so the question is whether there has been an impact on performance across holiday destinations enjoying the summer of the staycation.”
Emanuel said that the occupancy pattern remained consistent with weekend occupancy peaks and weekday troughs, but that this was the first week with no week-on-week increase in occupancy since hotels reopened. Declines in ADR were 0.5% stronger than last week, at 29%. Revpar declines remained static, between 57% and 54% during the week.
He said: “The pattern across all classes of hotels is weekly troughs and weekend peaks. The lower the class of hotels the higher the occupancy. Luxury hotels are seeing occupancy in the mid-30s, compared to midscale and economy hotels, operating in the low 50s.
“Across the south coast as well as Blackpool, York and Inverness, occupancy levels are all about 70%. Compare that to London and Manchester, all below 30% - Manchester’s occupancy has fallen since the local lockdown was introduced.
“The lack of corporate, MICE or international demand has meant that our largest cities will continue to lag. London is the standout market which is suffering. Many submarkets still have significant amounts of the supply closed, more across central London. It is worth noting that there is a difference in occupancy between suburbia and central London - the suburbs in the east of London saw reporting occupancy of 52%, compared to 10% in Marylebone and Mayfair. The lack of key demand drivers is ever-more evident.
“As we approach the end of the school summer holidays it will be interesting to see if demand continues for leisure market, or whether the start of September brings demand into the city centres.”
Carine Bonnejean, managing director, hotels, Christie & Co, said: “As expected staycations are fuelling demand for coastal and rural locations and this is correlated to the buyer appetite we are seeing for those assets. But as the summer period ends and with travel restrictions intensifying once again, London hotels have a long road to recovery in front of them.”
Last week saw further detail on the luxury hotel planned as a joint venture between the team behind the Beaverbrook hotel in the Surrey Hills and Cadogan Estates, due to open in Chelsea next year.
Hugh Seaborn, CEO, Cadogan, which manages 93 acres of Chelsea and Kensington property, said: “We are delighted to be working in partnership with Beaverbrook, having selected them to operate this exciting hospitality opportunity on Sloane Street.
“We are working closely with Beaverbrook to create a timeless, English luxury hotel and restaurant in the heart of Chelsea to further expand the hotel, food and drink offering in the area, all of which contribute to the rich tapestry of uses that make this such a compelling destination.”
Joel Cadbury, co-founder, Beaverbrook, added: “We are very proud of what we have created with Beaverbrook and we are incredibly excited about the next stage of our adventure. The brands that we partner with are aspirational and industry leading and this partnership encapsulates that philosophy.”
Cadogan’s partnership with Beaverbrook will be its fourth hotel collaboration alongside Belmond Cadogan Hotel, the first Hôtel Costes outside of Paris and 11 Cadogan Gardens.
Insight: Anyone who has ventured into central London over the past few months can confirm that they have had the place to themselves, with just the sound of tube announcements echoing out of tube stations warning riders to wear masks.
The Eat Out To Help Out scheme has encouraged some activity on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but this will close at the end of August - with operators reporting that non-discounted days remained quiet.
Something other than a discount scheme will be needed to fill central London and that will be a return of office folk and a return of business and international travel. This is more complicated than just telling people to go to work. In France the latest recurrence of the virus has been linked not to the frenzy of paddle boarding off the sunny beach, but to office workers. In the absence of a vaccine a more rigorous system of testing and tracing will have to compensate to keep people safe and some countries are more ahead there than others.