According to Hotstats July 2015 UK Chain Hotels review the UK provincial hotel market registered positive year-on-year movements across all key performance indicators for the month of July.

Hotels in the North East recorded a 3.3% increase in gross operating profit per available room (GOPPAR) according to the latest data from HotStats.

Hoteliers in the North East achieved a 1.4 percentage point increase in occupancy to 84.6%, though this came at the expense of a marginal decrease in average room rate (ARR) of 0.4% resulting collectively in a 1.3% uplift in revenue per available room (RevPAR) to £58.44.

Due to mixed performances in non-rooms revenues, total revenue per available room (TRevPAR) growth levels were softened to 0.4%.

Payroll decreased by 0.5 percentage points helping to deliver the 1.9% increase in departmental operating profit per available room (DOPPAR) to £57.40.

Despite a marginal increase in overheads per available room (+0.2%), GOPPAR increased by 3.3% to £30.88 compared to the same period last year.

Newcastle performs

Newcastle hoteliers recorded positive movements for the month of July, with TRevPAR and GOPPAR climbing by 3.4% and 9.1% respectively. Hotels in Newcastle experienced a rise in occupancy of 1.5 percentage points to 84.6%, along with an ARR growth of 2.1%. The two highest rate increases were attributed to the tours/ groups (+36.2% to £47.53) and conference (+9.6% to £78.31) segments.

Altogether, this led to a RevPAR growth of 3.9% to £57.32. TRevPAR increased by 3.4% to £96.06 most notably due to a 22.8% increase in meeting room hire revenue per available room for the month. DOPPAR also rose by 6.1% thanks to profitable operating cost control alongside a payroll decrease of 0.9 percentage points.

Profits drop in Oxford

Hotels in Oxford, on the contrary, experienced a challenging month of July with occupancy levels declining by 5.1 percentage points to 86.5%. The city posted negative movements across all KPIs aside from ARR. Even though there was a 1.9% uplift in ARR, RevPAR still dropped 3.8% to £105.32.

An overall decrease in non-rooms revenue per available room from food (-17.9%), beverage (- 16.9%) and meeting room hire (-24.2%) led to the TRevPAR level decline of 7.5% to £142.06. There was a slight increase in payroll costs (+0.3 percentage points) which added to the significant GOPPAR decline of 14.2% to £63.45, representing a gross operating profit conversion of 44.7% for the month of July.

Report available at:  HOTSTATS