TRI Hospitality Consulting (TRIHC) has said that hotel occupancy rates are up on September 2001 levels - but at the expense of room rates.

TRIHC's HotStats UK Chain Hotels Market Review September 2002, based on 392 hotels primarily in the three- and four-star sectors, says that the performance of hotels both in London and provincial hotels is encouraging. Occupancy rates rose to 83.1 per cent in London and 76 per cent in provincial hotels - almost on a par with 2000 levels.

Room rates are considerably down on last year, however and the report says this indicates how hard hoteliers are having to fight to get people into their hotels, admitting greater volumes of discounted business in order to maintain and then grow occupancy levels.

The future looks bright though - with July and August 2002 occupancy levels matching those of 2001 and September 2002 showing growth, TRIHC believes that with hotels now reaching realistic capacity they will be able to drive up room rates based on the increasing demand.

The review also says that the Meeting Industry Association and the International Congress and Convention Association have reported returning demand after losses of corporate conference and association business of 25 per cent and 11 per cent respectively after 11 September. It was unable, however, to say whether this is solely benefiting convention centres, or hotels as well.

TRIHC says the hotel industry now needs a period of stability in order to completely recover from the events of last year, but predicts conditions are right for 2003 to be a much stronger year than 2002.