Food and beverage (F&B) sales helped boost revenues at MWB Group Holdings' boutique hotels Malmaison and Hotel du Vin (HdV) last year as room rates dropped by an average of 10 per cent.
Despite occupancy remaining stable at 79 per cent across both hotel groups, room rates were hit as the company had to adapt to the 'challenging' economic conditions. Malmaison, more reliant on the corporate market, saw rates drop 12 per cent from £112 to £99 across its 12 hotels while HdV's rates fell less sharply from £120 to £111 at its 15 hotels.
Food and beverage sales
It was sales in the group's restaurants that helped push total revenue up £3m to £111m for the year ending 31 December 2009. Overall, F&B revenue accounted for almost half of the group's annual revenue for that period, up 13 per cent to £28m at HdV and 10 per cent to £20.7m at Malmaison.
"Increasingly the group is maximising its position as a great restaurant business with rooms, as food and beverage is now generating annual revenue of almost £50m," said Malmaison and HdV Group chief executive Robert Cook.
Cook said a group wide promotion of two courses and a bottle of wine for £29 during the first half of 2009 had been popular, bringing in an extra 22,000 covers in all restaurants.
2010 outlook
MWB, which is selling two of its hotels - the Edinburgh Malmaison and St Andrews HdV - said it had recovered well from the effects of bad weather at the start of January and is 'confident' it will meet the first quarter's budget, although remains uncertain about .
Cook said: "We anticipate the first part of the year, in the run-up to the General Election, to deliver results comparable to last year but post-election the future is less certain. "We believe our corporate market is set to grow again although the leisure market could come under pressure in the third quarter as the impact of proposed government changes in fiscal policy begin to bite."