There is a clutch of new and exciting hotels opening in the next 2 years in the lead up to the Olympics, as highlighted nicely in The Australian here.
As a lot of hotels are right slap bang in the middle of their business planning, our London Hotels will surely be taking this new supply into account. A 1000 new rooms will make a difference to bedroom business, especially in the 5* sector where most of this new supply is coming in.
But a good question to ask is this: will these hotels have meeting space? And how will it affect the market?
We have now been collecting occupancy data since June last year. The total to the end of July for all of our London Hotels is 42% in meters square and 38% in occupancy of meeting rooms. Any seriously big new supply could have quite a dramatic effect on this.
Out of all of these hotels mentioned in the article, The Savoy has the biggest meeting space, and the rumoured “a la carte” banqueting for 300 + people certainly has got some of our London hotels thinking about their current banquet offering.
But what of the other properties coming into the market? From some quick research, a interesting competitor to the Savoy will be the new Corinthia Hotel. As you will see from the site, this hotel will occupy a nice neat space by the River Thames, not too far from The Savoy. The meeting space in this hotel will not be a true competitor for the Savoy – the total area on plan is only 600 square metres at present, but it is an addition to the phalanx of luxury London hotels with meeting space.
The last big entrant to the market to make a big splash in the conference market was the Westminster Bridge Park Plaza: With over 1000 bedrooms, and 2000 square meters of meeting space, this really shook up the meetings and events market in the city. For the established big events hotels, it added a new competitor with the number of bedrooms to really capture those great big group bookings that can be so lucrative.
An exciting time in The London Market without a doubt.
No comments:
Post a Comment