London hotels avoided a feared post-Olympic slump in September as occupancy levels increased by 3.1 per cent on September 2011 levels.

The latest HotStats survey by TRI Hospitality Consulting found that despite a year-on-year decline of 3.2 per cent in average room rate (from £141.82 to £137.26), the increase in occupancy levels resulted in a 0.6 per cent increase in RevPAR for the month.

During the same period, Total Revenue per Available Room (TrevPAR) increased by 1.3 per cent, underpinned by a strong increase in non-rooms departmental revenue of approximately 19 per cent.

While the strong performance can in part be attributed to the success of the Paralympic games, London also witnessed a late increase in visitors as data reveals that the increase in occupancy levels was underpinned by a 22 per cent increase in leisure-related demand.

Jonathan Langston, managing director at HRI, said: "Despite the initial slump in headline performance figures during June and July, the strong start to the year, in addition to the performance in August and September, has almost guaranteed that year-on-year performance for London hotels in 2012 will be up on 2011, as profit levels have already increased by 6.6 per cent in the calendar year."