• 4.9 million worldwide corporate hotel room nights booked in 2017, an increase of 8.4%
• Amongst the Top 10 UK cities Blackpool saw the biggest growth in UK overnight business travel with 55% more room nights in 2017 v 2016
• New York continued to be the highest volume worldwide city with nearly 94,000 room nights in 2017

Advantage Travel Partnership, the UK’s largest independent travel agent consortium, has published its 2017 Hotel Market Report.  The report analyses corporate hotel bookings made between January – December 2017 by Advantage’s travel management company (TMC) members, utilising the Advantage corporate hotel programme of more than 30,000 hotels worldwide.

Despite economic uncertainty in some markets corporates are still travelling, with hotel occupancy at record levels in many cities. The Advantage report highlights that the number of room nights booked has increased 8.4%, versus 2016.  This increase is backed up with a 6.8% rise in the number of bookings, with an average stay of 1.92 nights, which is a longer stay period compared to the same period in 2016.  The increased hotel bookings by Advantage TMCs indicates that the SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) corporate accounts, in which Advantage TMCs specialise, are performing strongly.

The report also provides a detailed breakdown on which cities and locations saw increased growth in corporate hotel room nights, bookings and the average daily rate (ADR) on a worldwide and UK only basis. 

Globally, Advantage’s Top 100 Cities Worldwide (excluding UK) saw an increase of 9% in room nights booked year on year. 

New York continued to be the highest volume worldwide city with nearly 94,000 room nights booked at an average cost of US$380 per night. There were some surprising growth areas with Aguascalientres (Mexico) seeing an 86% increase, followed by Austin (US), Cape Town and Christchurch (New Zealand), all with a 30% increase, year on year. 

Advantage’s ‘Top 250 UK Cities’ enjoyed an overall increase of 9.5% in room nights booked despite the country’s economic uncertainty following the Brexit vote. Significant growth came from cities in the northern region of the UK, with London continuing to hit the top spot with a 10% increase (year on year) with an additional 33,000 room nights booked.  The city of Blackpool saw the most growth with 55% more booked room nights, versus 2016. Overall, member TMCs booked 4.9 million room nights worldwide for clients in 2017.

Top Ten UK Cities – Room Night Percentage Increase (year on year) for Jan-Dec 2017

1. Blackpool - 55%
2. Peterborough - 48%
3. Preston - 35%
4. Bradford - 33%
5. Oxford - 25%
6. Sheffield - 24%
7. Cambridge - 22%
8. Edinburgh - 21%
9. Doncaster – 21%       
10. Coventry - 20%

Neil Armorgie, Global Product Director at Advantage, commented: “The business travel hotel sector for independent TMCs continues to grow.  An increase through all four quarters of 2017 puts our overall hotel business up by nearly 385,000 room nights versus 2016.  Despite skepticism and uncertainty in some economies, the business world is travelling and hotel occupancy is at record levels in many destinations.”

He added: “For British based businesses, uncertainty surrounding Brexit and the slowing of GDP growth make it a challenging time for all.  It is therefore heartening to see the growth in business trips to our smaller populated cities in the north.” 

The report is representative of hotel bookings made across all the major international and independent hotel groups including: Apex Hotels, Radisson Hotel Group, Choice Hotels, Citadines, Clayton Hotels, The Doyle Collection, GLH, Hallmark Hotels, Hilton, HotelRez, Hyatt, IHG, Jurys Inn, Macdonald Hotels, Maldron Hotels, Melia Hotels International, Millennium Hotels & Resorts, The Montcalm Hotels, NH Hotels, Park Plaza, Rotana, Small Luxury Hotels, Thwaites, TravelClick, Travelodge, Village Hotels, Worldhotels and Wyndham. 

The Advantage Hotels Quarterly Market Report 2017 can be downloaded and read in full here.