Blackpool hotels enjoy staycation boost

Despite enduring the wettest summer for a century, hotels in Blackpool reported a promising increase on room rates during July.

A study by PKF Hotel Consultancy Services found that the town’s hotels now command an average of £70.14 per room – up from £51.91 twelve months earlier.

Though there was a marginal dip in occupancy of 1.2 per cent, this was still enough of an increase for the yield of each room to register as 33.5 per cent higher than in July 2011.

Coastal resorts fared the best throughout the country, pointing to the positive effect of Britons holidaying within these shores rather than jetting off abroad. Blackpool’s hotels will also have benefitted from the hosting of the Golf Open Championship nearby.

Meanwhile, cities fared less well. Manchester saw an improvement in a room’s worth of around 5 per cent, but occupancy in Liverpool fell by 11 per cent meaning the yield of its hotel rooms fell despite price increases.

Mark Sykes, Partner at PKF, commented: “It is great to see such positive results despite the awful weather we’ve had.

“Blackpool, in particular, has reported an impressive set of figures at a time when many would expect seaside towns to struggle. The results suggest that the popularity of ‘staycations’ shows little sign of waning as household budgets remain squeezed for yet another summer.”