RevPAR in Aberdeen was recorded at £49.18, a 37 per cent drop year-on-year and a 32 per cent drop from October 2013.
The average room rate in Aberdeen sunk 26 per cent, reaching a low of £74.94 compared to October 2014’s rate of £101.02. The city’s hotels sold 66 per cent of their rooms in October, signalling a year-on-year decrease of 15 per cent and marking the sector’s 11th consecutive month of negative occupancy growth.
Sean Morgan, managing director at LJ Research,said: “In Aberdeen, RevPAR tumbled unprecedentedly below £50 which very much is an indication of the ongoing troubles in the oil and gas sector and stubbornly low crude oil prices.”
Glasgow flexing its muscles
Glasgow demonstrated its fifth consecutive month of year-on-year hotel occupancy growth with strong levels of demand helping the city reach occupancy levels of 88 per cent, with the same figure being recorded in Edinburgh.
Scott Taylor, chief executive of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said that Glasgow’s high occupancy rate reinforces the city’s positon as Scotland’s fastest-growing tourist destination.
“Our average hotel occupancy for the financial year-to-date (April through October 2015) is running at 88.9%, which represents a 0.8% increase on the same period the previous year. However, the key take home here is that there has been an additional 725 hotel rooms available in the city per night, which equates to an additional 155,000 room nights, over the past seven months and shows that demand in Glasgow continues to grow in line with the city’s increasing supply of premium hotel rooms,” he said.
Relatively steady average room rate trends were reported in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Figures were highest in Edinburgh at £94.91 (compared to £94.98 last year) and lowest in Glasgow at £74.58 (compared to £75.18 last year). RevPAR in Glasgow increased by 20 per cent compared to the same period in 2013.
John Donnelly, chief executive, Marketing Edinburgh said: “Edinburgh has consistently maintained impressively high levels of demand for accommodation throughout October, as well as the rest of the year. That we are doing this while maintaining a strongly performing room rate, at a much higher level than any other Scottish city, is a testament to the quality accommodation on offer and ongoing demand from domestic and international visitors to experience all that the city has to offer.”