Omicron surge causes slump in London hotel occupancy

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

London’s hotels saw occupancies slump during December as the Omicron variant took hold in the UK ahead of the Christmas holiday period.

The UK capital’s hotels only recorded average occupancy of 53.4 per cent last month, which was the lowest rate since July 2021, according to data from an industry specialist.

London’s hotels had been seeing a period of recovery in the second half of 2021 with occupancy reaching 66.3 per cent in November the highest monthly level recorded since February 2020 before the start of the COVID-19 crisis and the first UK lockdown in March 2020.

Despite the decline in the number of rooms sold, London’s properties still recorded an increase in average daily rate to £153.63 in December 2021 – the highest monthly level for two years.

But the high number of empty rooms in the UK capital meant that revenue per available room (revpar) was only £82.08.

London’s hotel occupancy on New Year’s Eve was 53.2 per cent – an improvement on 31 December 2020 when it was a paltry 17.7 per cent, although well below the 91.7 per cent recorded on the same day in 2019.

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