Edinburgh hotels at 93% occupancy, £125 a night

Edinburgh hotels enjoyed strong growth in occupancy and room price in June while Glasgow and Aberdeen had mixed fortunes, according to the latest monthly report from tourism market research firm LJ Research.

About 93.3% of hotel rooms in Edinburgh were occupied in June, and the average price of a room in the capital’s city centre was £125.69 — a 10.8% increase on June 2015.

That’s the highest June room rate recorded since the inception of the Edinburgh LJ Forecaster hotel study in 2005.

Edinburgh’s Revenue per Available Room (RevPAR) — a key performance metric for the sector — was up 13.8% on last year at £117.28.

Glasgow’s room occupancy in June of 85.9% was down 7.4% on June 2015.

The average room rate of £80.03 in Glasgow was down 0.7% on June last year.

Consequently, Glasgow’s June RevPAR fell by 8.3% compared to last year.

For the first six months of 2016 as a whole, Edinburgh saw a 1.6% reduction in occupancy — but achieved a rise in room rates of 7.2%.

During those same six months, Glasgow had falling occupancy of 2.8% but an increase of 1.8% in average room rate.

Over the six months as a whole, Glasgow hotels achieved higher occupancy than Edinburgh — 78% compared with 77%.

Aberdeen’s room occupancy was 70.8% in June — up 2.4% on June 2015.

However, Aberdeen’s average room rate in June was £67.42, down 21.9% to last year, and RevPAR was £47.71, down 20.0% as the downturn in oil and gas continues to take its toll of the city’s economy.

For the first six months of 2016, Aberdeen’s average occupancy was down 9.6% compared to 2015 and average room rates were 25% lower than a year ago.

Sean Morgan, managing director at LJ Research said: “June saw another month of contrasting fortunes for hoteliers in Scotland’s largest cities.

“The frontrunner this month was Edinburgh which recorded remarkable double digit room rate growth.

“Savvy revenue management by hotels and the impact of a diverse range of events helped to affect the strong performance.

“For the second consecutive month in Glasgow year-on-year reductions in both indicators — occupancy and, to a lesser extent, room rate — was recorded.

“RevPAR as a result fell again by over 5% compared to 2015.

“Whilst the last few months’ performance highlights challenges in the market, hotels in Glasgow continue to achieve notably higher RevPAR compared to two years ago — pre the Commonwealth Games.”