City hotels make more money per room than rest of UK

Rooms “yield” in Edinburgh for the month of August was £108.53, the highest anywhere in the UK including London and almost double the rates for Aberdeen and Glasgow, business advisers PKF said.

The company said the Scottish capital is benefiting from the so-called staycation trend and this summer’s riots in England, which have appeared to put tourists off visiting London.

The figures are derived from the occupancy rate (the ratio of total occupied rooms to total available rooms) multiplied by average room rate (room revenue divided by the number of guest rooms occupied during the year).

Occupancy in Scottish hotels during August was also higher than in any other part of the UK.

Year-on-year occupancy levels in Scotland rose by 3.2% to 87.8% during August but were down 0.1% to 82.1% in London, up 3.5% to 74.6% in England as a whole and up 2.5% to 79% in Wales.

Occupancy in Edinburgh and Glasgow was the respective third and fourth highest of any city at 91.8% and 91.1%, behind York and Plymouth.

Occupancy in Aberdeen was 80%.

Alastair Rae, a partner in PKF’s real estate and hospitality sector, said: “London hotel occupancy suffered in the wake of the riots.

“These figures show that Scotland really did benefit from the staycation trend with remarkable levels of occupancy and rooms yield. It is clear that Edinburgh had an excellent month and was the top performer in terms of occupancy during August.

“London hotel occupancy suffered in the wake of the riots.

He added that there were “signs that the sector is returning to pre-recession form” but stressed a need for caution as recent weeks have seen a downward trend in the economy.

He said: “There is still some way to go before the market has stabilised and returned to pre-recessionary days but it is clear that the summer has been very good for the sector.”