London sees highest occupancy of the pandemic-era in April

London’s hotel industry reported its highest monthly occupancy level since February 2020 with occupancy at 72%.

According to data from STR, the average daily rate (ADR) spent on hotels across the capital was £151.42 last month, and revenue per available room (RevPAR) hit £108.98.

However, while occupancy increased month-on-month, it was down roughly 11% from the pre-pandemic comparable.

Additionally, the absolute ADR level was slightly lower than the previous month but up more than 6% from April 2019.

All in all, London’s daily occupancy stayed above 60% with the exception of Monday, 18 April which was at 50.2%. 

The highest occupancy level was reported on Tuesday, 26 April with 83.7%, and STR said there was an overall improvement in weekday levels pointing to a return of corporate demand.

Last week (2 May), STR revealed that the UK, Poland and Ireland are leading Europe’s hotel occupancy recovery as these three countries have achieved occupancy indexes that are 80% or higher of pre-pandemic levels. 

As of 11 April, the UK showed a running 28-day occupancy that was 87% of the comparable 2019 level, and the country’s index has consistently been above 80% since 23 February.

At the time, Robin Rossmann, STR managing director, said: “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. 

“Our occupancy-on-the-books data shows that many of the major markets should recover to 90-100% of 2019 levels by mid-May.”