Aberdeen hotel prices were the highest in the UK outside of London in January as the Granite City proved a hotspot despite cold winter weather, a report has found.
The rooms yield for Aberdeen hotels outstripped the UK average, growing 9.7% to £58.96 in January despite a 3.6% drop in occupancy levels on the same month a year ago, a report by accountants BDO found.
Demand for beds in the Granite City was still highest in the regional UK, although Glasgow enjoyed a 7.7% increase in occupancy to 63.8%. Despite having an almost similar level of demand to Aberdeen, Glasgow’s room yield was just £39.40, although this was a 15% increase.
Alastair Rae, a partner at BDO, said: “The first figures of 2014 clearly indicate that the hotel sector is continuing to experience growth. The star performer remains Aberdeen where revenue exceeded everywhere outside London in the UK by some considerable way.
“Given the market in Aberdeen is not seasonal the fact that this was January made no difference to the performance of the sector. This was enhanced by the SLSA 2014 and Offshore 2014 conferences.”
Chris McGuinness, chairman of the Aberdeen City and Shire Hotels’ Association maintained that the city’s increasingly expensive hotel rooms was due to its strong economy.
“The rates in Aberdeen reflect the buoyancy of the local economy, and the high demand, which continues to be very high despite several hundred more hotel bedrooms being introduced in the last two years.
“Despite this increase in hotel bedrooms, we have not seen any evidence of displacement, which again indicates the level of demand.”
Stephen Gow, “cluster” manager for Thistle Hotels in Scotland, which has three hotels in Aberdeen City and one in Inverness, said the continued growth in rates was also due to effective marketing which saw more leisure visitors taking rooms on the weekends when demand from industry falls.
He said: “All hoteliers in the Aberdeen City and Shire Hotels Association have been working with VisitAberdeen to market Aberdeen strongly as an affordable weekend leisure destination.
“This, coupled with high mid-week occupancy rates, has ensured that guest numbers and revenue have remained high.”
Revenues in Inverness, which is more affected by the winter low season, grew 3.7% to £24.29 despite a small 1.8% drop in demand on January 2013.
Mr Gow said: “Increases in the business sector in Inverness, particularly in Invergordon with rig maintenance, had a significant impact on levels of occupancy and rates.”