Hotel occupancy levels in the UK and Ireland are currently among the highest in Europe, according to new figures by benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights firm STR.
Both destinations have achieved occupancy indexes of at least 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, with the UK performing particularly well with running 28-day occupancy to April 11 at 87 per cent compared to the same period in 2019.
Poland had also been recording high occupancy levels of up to 84.5 per cent until recently, although analysis shows that this figure was distorted by the hosting of refugees during the early days of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Robin Rossmann, STR’s managing director, said that Europe’s occupancy recovery had “accelerated in recent months to 70 per cent of pre-pandemic comparables”.
“In general, leisure-dependent markets have been furthest ahead in the timeline, but there are encouraging signs recently of life returning to gateway cities that are more reliant on corporate demand,” he added.
In further encouraging news, Rossman said that occupancy-on-the-books data showed that “many of the major markets should recover to 90-100 per cent of 2019 levels by mid-May”.
Whitbread – operator of the Premier Inn brand – recently said that it was experiencing “strong current trading momentum”, but warned of risks and uncertainties including any future Covid-19 variants and recent inflationary pressure which had been heightened by recent geopolitical conflicts.
